So Bill Jones moves into a house with a fully functioning alarm system and decides he wants monitoring. Bill calls ABC alarm and tells them he will agree to a month to month contract because long term is not in his best interest. ABC charges $20.00 per month. Let me see if I understand this. ABC should send a technician out to this man's house, reprogram his system, test his system, do paperwork, send signals, instruct him on it's use, and then pay someone in admin to put the account online for a guarantee of $20 gross to assume this liability? After all Bill could move next month and your way he has no ties to the company, or maybe next month Bill finds a company willing to do it for $8.95 per month. You honestly think this makes sense, or are you just stirring the pot again trying to get a rise out of the business owners who post here and showcase yourself as a hero to the consumer? Your posts do nothing more than give the customers who believe them some false sense that there are alarm dealers out there who do this sort of thing daily. Then when the customer calls alarm companies who don't subscribe to your "How to lose money in 1 Easy Step" philosophy they think the company employee is trying to rip them off when they mention a contract. Maybe in your world all businesses are run in a Pollyanna fashion but here on this planet it's not taboo for a company to earn a profit. You're intelligent enough to know that your business model is a recipe for disaster. Maybe you can handle it but most of us don't work out of our garages. We have overhead. You offer very good advice to customers wondering how to better secure their home, but your advice on contracts regarding system takeovers is poppycock.
Not to interrupt your line of discussion with the previous poster, but it occurs to me that there is some middle ground here and I'd like to bring it up so that I can better understand things from various POVs. You point out that there would be some upfront work to getting the existing system up and running. The costs of such could be paid separately (in the same way that the costs of a new system could be paid separately) or those costs could be built into a service contract of some minimum term. Does it really matter to you which approach is taken? If so and if you have the time, could you explain why? Thanks.
Hmmm....is "everywhere man" really foul mouthed Jim in disquise. I'll assume NOT, and respond properly assuming you are indeed someone else, who doesn't honestly happen to agree with me, because I wouldn't want to insult anyone other than him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First off, customers in my experience don't up and give you their business one month and leave you the next to save a dollar or two. I don't know about the environment you work in, but the very mobile high tech clientele I serve usually stick around for three or more years, with a large percentage on line with me for 10 or more years. You can call it "stirring the pot"'; however, you might be very surprised how many companies there are that don't lock into long term contracts (a couple of the regulars on this newsgroup don't either, but choose not to say so publicly, and I certainly won't say who). They take the same view I do that the customer's ongoing freedom of choice is more important to their continued loyalty than some arbitrary term committment. My (and I assume their) customers stay because they want to, not because they have to. And referrals business is continuous from customers of the larger firms who have had some pretty brutal experiences with some of the ways they handle term contracts. And frankly, the argument about business equity being the "be all and end all" of this business is just not so. Sure it adds some extra measure of value, but if the rest of your company isn't in order, you can forget about that when the buyer does his "due diligence". I happen to be close friends with someone who works for a big alarm firm, and who is in charge of buying up small companies, and I am able to actually see what this means. Not nearly as much as you would think ! So don't count on that to the exclusion of other things.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to pick up the clients who have had their belly full of the Borg and their ilk, and would rather get a quality monitoring service and warranty package without signing their life away. Different strokes for different folks !!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOW...if "everywhere man" is actually our very own foulmouthed Jim, but in disguise, I only have one thing to say to you. Fuck off somewhere asshole and die ! Or better yet, go flog shit for ADT. You deserve each other !!
RHC: And why would the client ever do that. In my 12 years in the business, that has NEVER happened ! The customer has called because he wants you to put him on line and be his dealer. I can't think of a single reason why any customer would up and decide to go elsewhere after a month's service (except perhaps if he hadn't done any price research and your monthly rate was WAY far out of line.) There is a measure of basic two way business trust here, and it seems to me you are assuming the worst here. I can't see any client wasting his time and ours only to leave after a month or so. Now if you made a pass at the guy's wife, or kicked his dog, I could understand it....:))
RHC: What on earth would ever make you terminate his agreement after one month. Lets be real here, no one drops clients just like that in the real world ! (what are you smoking ?...:)) The only reason I've ever dropped any clients is for non payment after six months or a year of not paying, and they would go long term contract or not. Alarm contracts only limit the client's movements, never ours. If we should decide to drop the customer, there are no encumberances on us. ONLY on the customer !!
RHC: A one year term is not onerous although it's still unnecessary. But I can see how some might feel they need it to recoup any upfront signing costs. Long term is three to five years and that is way out of line on takeovers in my opinion.
RHC: Absolutely !! There long term contracts pay for "lower than they should be" front end system costs. That's just marketing ! And I've never argued the validity of that (except in the phoney "free system" arena). I just don't market that way in my company. After the few bad experiences I've had trying to get some of my early leased equipment back, I can't imagine how difficult and expensive it would be to force a client to pay up if he really didn't want to. So I recoup ALL my real sunk costs up front leaving nothing hanging out long term !! If the client leaves suddenly after six months, so be it ! I'm not behind the eight ball financially at all ! Besides, he probably lost his job and had to sell, so I certainly wouldn't won't to be looking to make his live any unhappier than it is !! The one time that actually happened, I carried the client for a year until he got another job so as not to ruin his alarm system, and he paid me in full. You can call it "pollyanna"; I call it one other way of caring for the client !!
RHC: Glad I don't have your clientele. Tell me where you live and I'll be sure to never open up a business there.....:))
RHC: Yup ! Although I know from conversations with you, you and I agree on far more than we disagree on. And for a young fellow, you are just about as crusty as any of the old dealers I know...can't imagine what you'll be like when you're my age..GAWD !!!
RHC: Actually there are lots Tom ! But definately small guys with low overheads. In my case, it honestly doesn't pay to make more money because the government taxes the shit out of everything you make. I did a spreadsheet once and if I charged $5 a month more for monitoring (up to $20 where it really should be), I'd make $55K more a year and the government would get about $35K of that. Screw them ! I'd rather give it back to my clientele through reduced prices. I hate the government so badly, that it really has warped my judgment over the years. I've never forgiven them for what they've done to our gun laws, and how that shafted me many years ago. From where I stand, the only thing government does for small business is tax the hell out of them, throw additional bureaucratic roadblocks in front of them all in the name of assisting them, and generally acting as a disincentive to making any money.
But back to the point of discussion, I've been doing a lot of travelling in the States lately, and everywhere I go, I try to meet alarm dealers locally and get the "lay of the land" from them (just got back from Alaska). There is an amazing difference in this business from place to place. I think we all have to be careful in making assumptions about business practices prevalent in other areas. This business caters to many communities of interest, and they differ markedly from one to the other. Within reason, what works for one company may be quite different in other areas.
RHC: No, in my case, I really did leave for many months when I felt I had nothing left to offer anyone coming in looking for information. Frankly, it was always the same questions and the same answers, and it got a bit boring. Then Sympatico dropped the news group from their server, and I couldn't get on at all for awhile until I discovered how to get on with google. However, I decided to come back (would you believe 'cause I missed all you crusty SOB's), but now only on the same terms and in the same manner that people use to deal with me. Enough of this "Mr. Polite" stuff !! And you !....you make like a hard case on the outside, but frankly, from private e mails we've had, I know you are a damn good dealer that cares a lot for the quality of your installs, and your customers, so don't lay that phoney hard cased shit on me ...:)) We'll just have to agree to disagree on some things.
Jim and I disagree on business practices, same as you and I, but he chooses to take it down to levels that are childish insults. I haven't the time or inclination to bother with foul mouthed people like that in real life, so why bother here !! My death wish is a poorly worded figure of speech, not to be taken literally (unless you happen to be ADT ...:)) I guess I was totally flabbergasted that anyone could say that and actually mean it when we heard that RLB was sick ! Maybe a bit of that poor taste rubbed off on me for a moment.....
Well, according to you I've had 9 in 9 years. Still kicking.
How did that conversation with Kelby go? Oh wait- you wouldn't do that because that's what you despise RLB for? Are you trying to get me fired Tom? Was your intention to threaten, harass, or intimidate? Was it tortuous interference? Or were you just f****ng with me?
Yeah ! That's why I'm moving to Florida for a couple of months....gotta pick up all this new business "larnin" you know.....gotta find out how it's done down your way....
Nope. After changing a dozen times or so, Jiminex stopped switching aliases. Now he thinks he's anonymous so he just blabbers away, but he's not "everywhere man" (in fact, he's nowhere).
Listen f*ck mouth. If there's any judging to do, they ought to take a look at what that fat dying prick as done to people all his life and then make a decision as to whether he deservse to live or not.
And as far as you go ...... You're a stupid cocksucking asshole is what you are. You don't even have the common sense run a f****ng roller skate, much less a business. You're idea of runnning a business is to give it away on a platter. You're company isn't worth the smell of the shit you talk. There's not a f****ng business man here who would do what you do to ruin his business. You've got the f****ng audacity to think that by not building equity in your business and giving away free service for life, that that's a good business model. Of all the stupid asshole f****ng garbage I've ever heard, you've won the prize. Come on now, why don't you tell us again about how many accounts your going to let your business grow to? Why don't you tell us again that service isn't becoming a burden because of your insane give it all away for free policy? Why don't you tell us all about how much your company is worth in your imaginary world of make believe? Why don't you tell us about the thousands of companys that think that what you do is a sensible business plan? What's that you say? Eh? Can't hear ya ......... did you say ..... a few? Did you say that the vast majority of companys use term contracts to build equity in their companys? That the smallest as well as the largest companys in the world are rated by the guarenteed recuring revenew they earn? That banks give loans to alarm companies based on the value of the contracts that they have? That any sensible buyer of an alarm company looking at your company with no guaranteed income and the liability of lifetime service wouln't even look twice at it compared to a company who did? Wake up asshole. your idea is idiocy and stupidity all rolled up in your hollow f****ng head.
What you do to your company is entirely up to you. Nobody said that your stupidity wouldn't get you customers. After all ....what end user would be stupid enough to let some idiot like you get away. You give it all away for nothing, why wouldn't you get customers?
Your comments about term contracts, every time an end user come here looking for information is not at all necessary and is completely contrary to what 99.9% of installing companies policies are. And you know it. You've got this f****ng need to propagate your stupidity as if it were a viable business plan. You're attempt to mislead end users into thinking they're going to find anyone runing an alarm company, who is as stupid as you is wrong. You know Goddamned well that the chances of any end user, finding a company that would be as stupid as you are, is just about impossible. But nooooooo, you've got to get your shot in there every f****ng time.
I figured in the past..... ya know, maybe I oughta just forget about the asshole. But every f****ng .... time someone comes here ..... you've got to break everyones balls with your ignorance. And then YOU've got the nerve to be pissed at me, because I call you for what you are. Just like old dead man Bass. You think that everything that YOU do is ok but as soon as someone calls your for what you are ...... you get all whiney and nasty sounding. Fuck off cum licker. If you don't like what I do, go some f****ng place else. You don't run this group and don't have any say to what anyone does here.
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