avoiding being "locked out"

powercat · 2005-08-21T10:01:26+00:00

Greetings I know a commercial alarm system installer who moonlights onresidential set-ups. Basically I do the unpleasant part (running thewiring) and he does the programming and is paid appropriately for thattask. What he does not do is sell alarm monitoring to avoid a conflictwith his "real" employer.This all sounds very fair to me. He does say "pick an alarm monitoringcompany that won't "lock out" your panel and prevent you from switchinglater".In short how do you know if a company is engaged in that practice(obviously I can ask). This sounds very shady to me especially if Iown the equipment.Thanks for any comments.

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Mark Leuck 21 years ago

Slight difference between you doing service for someone else and a homeowner plugging away at the keypad not fully knowing what the account number, format and receiver number really does. Also say a tech has a chip on his shoulder because he's taking over a system from a company he used to work for.

I've seen the results of both over the years, also with many companies only certain panels can go to certain phone numbers, for example with Westingouse we had all WS5010's on 2 phone numbers, these panels used 10-digit account numbers using SIA format, putting a standard PC5010 on that line sending

4-digit SIA gums up the works and MIGHT get someone else dispatched on. Same with Honeywell's current V15P/20P using 10-digit Contact ID which the company I work for currently uses..

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R.H.Campbell 21 years ago

Makes sense. Thanks. Come to think of it, a couple of my customers have been dispatched upon because of misprogrammed panels by other companies.

I was thinking more about sabotage, but a homeowner, or as it turns out in my case, a careless installer, can definately do some damage

RHC

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Crash Gordon 21 years ago

Precisely what Mark said...I had an employee who worked for me for a long time, that I had to let go...he took it personally and was sending rogue signals on alarm panels creating false alarm dispatches. Took me a while to figure out what was happening and I ended up having to change hundreds of account numbers and making the old accts dead accounts (so I can't even reuse them now).

Even just having the phone number of recievers can be a problem...even if you don't know the account numbers. All my reciever numbers are invisible via the phone co...but if an installer had them and wanted to create havoc he/she could.

Now, none of my guys know anything as I change access after system is tested into cs. - including the cs phone number gets switched.

Trust no one.

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Mark Leuck 21 years ago

We've gone to removing the ability to see the phone number in our panels, ends up preventing a lot of problems

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R.H.Campbell 21 years ago

How on earth do you do that ? If you don't want to post publicly, can you just send me a private email...

RHC

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Crash Gordon 21 years ago

Well, yah it would be really nasty if your son did that to you...but it's something you should keep in mind if you end up hiring techs that are not family. Believe me I would have trust this guy with my life before this had happened to me.

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R.H.Campbell 21 years ago

I see where you're coming from, but I could never go that far.....:))

Trust no one.

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R.H.Campbell 21 years ago

Yeah, those kind of negative life experiences tend to make you somewhat jaundiced and distrustful of people. It pays to remember that for every craphead out there, there are a thousand kind and decent souls.

I don't go into any business venture with my eyes closed. As I phase out, my son is looking at hiring another tech to assist in our booming business. One thing I've strongly suggested he never do is make any hired parties privy to anything like installer codes or account information. He installs, we then program, train and do the rest. Just makes good sense in case something unforeseen happens (as I gather you found out the hard way....)

I was actually helping out another chap to start his company up, even doing some installs for him early on. He later broke up with his wife who ran away with his technician, who subsequently dialed in to all his panels and sabotaged them seriously. But with some help together, we got all twenty accounts back on line. AND, this time, he programmed in callback properly to prevent this happening again.....

Live and learn I guess...

RHC

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