I was thinking about this the other day and am wondering? How does a contract central station answer their phones? Do they use the name of the alarm company or their own name? Also when they contact keyholders for an alarm how do they announce themselves?
James
Our Operators answer "Security Control this is ...". Some will answer with the Dealers name but we found we had to explain too often that we were really the Monitoring Center and they would have to call their Alarm Company for service. The customer is usually already pretty impressed that we know who they are before we even answer the phone (automatic caller id search against our accounts and call lists presents the operator with a list of accounts the caller may be calling from/for when they pickup the phone, boy that saves a LOT of time). We won't use automated attendants, a live operator always answers, and we don't charge the dealer $5.00 for talking to their customer directly, people like that :)
When dispatch>I was thinking about this the other day and am wondering? How does a
Mine uses the term Alarm Central Station.
Hello this is Alarm Central Station.
Hello, this is Alarm Central Station calling, may I have your code word please?
Hello, I'm calling from Mr & Mrs Smiths Alarm Central Station monitoring company and we received an alarm signal ......
Hi
How are ya
House the kids?
That kind of thing
Can you hold please
Doug L
Heh...
I can see it now: "Due to high call volume (and Carnaval in Rio), please email us."
Yo, dis is dispatch...wazzup dood..yo wazzya passwerd?
| > James | | | Hi | | How are ya | | House the kids? | | That kind of thing | | |
No that's what the pd dispatch says.
| > James | >
| | |
Wow! I wasn't aware that there even were central stations that charge dealers per call. Which CS does that?
It depends on the central station. I ran a small central station alarm company for many years. In addition to our own accounts I also monitored for a few smaller dealers. I wrote software to display the name and account information in screen when calls came in. We would answer the phone with the name of the installing alarm company if Caller ID was received and if it was a known caller. Otherwise we would answer as "Northeastern Security".
Most of the time the CS is making the calls rather than receiving them. When they call a protected premises or a key holder most identify them selves using the installing company's name.
We have hear a Lot of horror stories about COPS Monitoring charging the dealer just because the Customer didn't use the Automated System for one thing or another. Or, get this, they will charge the dealer $5.00 to update the name or address of an account for the dealer over the phone (misspelled name? better update it yourself online because if the Operator has to do it you will get charged.)
I've not personally experienced this, but we've heard the same stories from many dealers that are leaving COPS because the are getting nickle-and-dimed for every little thing. Especially since the dealer can't control when the customer might call in to the C/S and, heaven-forbid, need to talk to a live person for anything other then cancelling an alarm.
COPS recently purchased ACM here in Arizona. We've been getting a lot of new dealers because of problems with line moves and bad customer service (dealers can't get any straight answers from COPS or ACM regarding the move, many haven't even heard about the move and are getting fail-to-communicates from multiple systems on a daily basis now). Boy have we heard it all. It's amazing COPS is as big as they are with such poor technical and customer support for their dealers. Any, why ACM would sell to someone with such a bad reputation is beyond me. They never even Asked Us. We get dealers moving over on a regular basis now, they are just fed-up with the problems. ACM was bad enough (so they say), but COPS taking on ACM is exponentially worse (so they say). We don't advertise or do any sort of marketing, we just let them come over as they see fit and they wonder why they waited so long. We've had dealers say how nice it is not having constant calls from the C/S for one thing or another (undefined signals, incomplete information, etc.) because we take care of things for them (our supervisors actually Understand the way things work and can handle most any problem without bothering the dealer).
I'm not try>>we don't charge the dealer $5.00 for talking to
Read their dealer agreement...there's a scary one.
Maria is a big muckity muck there you know - ran into her at ADI last summer.
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| >Wow! I wasn't aware that there even were central stations that | >charge dealers per call. Which CS does that? | >
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| >Regards, | >Robert L Bass | >
| >Bass Burglar Alarms | >The Online DIY Store | >
| >-- | >
| >Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large | >groups. | >
| >
Don't you just love it when outfits like that drive their customers to you? I get a lot of customers from installing dealers as well as other online DIY stores. Today I spoke with a gentleman whose alarm company charged him $150 in materials to replace a smoke detector that was still under the manufacturer's warranty. I won't identify the person but he has posted here.
When the gentleman objected to being dishonestly charged for replacement of an in-warranty item his alarm company sent the matter to collection. Dealers like that make my job so much easier. It's unfortunate that they also give the industry a black eye with their crooked behavior.
So Bob sold ACM eh?
| >Maria is a big muckity muck there you know - ran into her at ADI last | >summer. | >
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| >| >Wow! I wasn't aware that there even were central stations that | >| >charge dealers per call. Which CS does that? | >| >
| >| >-- | >| >
| >| >Regards, | >| >Robert L Bass | >| >
| >| >Bass Burglar Alarms | >| >The Online DIY Store | >| >
| >| >-- | >| >
| >| >Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large | >| >groups. | >| >
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Well, the letter ACM sent to their dealers called it a "strategic partnership" but COPS is now calling it an "acquisition".
po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe
Crash Gord>So Bob sold ACM eh?
Hey, there's not too much that the rest of us can do about people like you and their crooked behavior. You just fade in with the rest of the unsavory and unethical bastards that ruin this industry.
talk about crooked driving business elsewhere.
How are you going to handle warrantys now that you have to back the product you sell yourself, since the distributors won't back your resales?
That is the gentleman's story or yours, which is probably less believable. How do you know what was wrong with the detector. The problem may have not been covered under warranty. More evidence that you just like to flap your lip and shows just how far removed you actually are from the industry. Fact is that the guy probably took a hammer to it because he couldn't make it stop sounding. Bad or not, if he took a hammer to it, all bets are off. You can't truefully say you know what the circumstance was.
Yah...that is what usually happens to dead beats
Your clients are usually the ones that are to cheap to pay anyway or can't get past the credit check run by the alarm company. You can have them.
I don't think a multi-billion dollar industry is to concerned there Robert if someone gets sent to collections.
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