Problem with ADT Security Company

Yup ! It's always the same guys time over time, and I figured some time ago, they simply weren't worth the aggravation. And they were always small, corner pizza parlours or some such thing iffy enterprise. So a year ago, I finally had enough, and I sent them all a registered letter telling them I was terminating their service in one month, and to find another dealer. Surprisingly, only one of them called to complain; they KNEW why I was doing it, and figured if I was fool enough to put up with their poor pay habits, then they'd continue along until I got fed up. I did it and sleep a lot better (plus it was 15 less customers I had to actively bill each half year). Since then, I've refined my business plan to not take on any kind of business venture unless I have the guys home system prior to him starting the business.

When I went back sometime later to the guys I'd disconnected, almost all of them had signed up with a disreputable dealer here in town we all call "Jimmy the sleaze". I had to laugh...these guys really deserve each other...:)))

Unfortunately, the kind of people who run marginal operations are also the kind of people who don't deal with others straight up and honest. I feel like you do; if they explain the nature of the problem, I've carried people who lose their jobs for periods as long as a year. Unfortunately again, a lot of them end up losing their homes and have to sell, so I'm out that period of lost revenue. But really, so what !

Crash, I like your style !!

RHC

Thanks.

I don't cut people off willy-nilly, but I figure if I'm here to answer their silly phone questions at 3am on New Year's Eve the freekin least they can do is pay me on time...I mean suppose I made them wait for 90 days if they needed service! Hey maybe that's the answer!...your service response is directly proportional to your payment history! yeah that's the ticket!

2nd | > deliquent quarter. What irks me the most is that if they would only call | > and | > let me know what's up I'd work with them, it's when I'm ignored I feel | > dissed and get really pissed. I only have 3 scheduled for nastiness on the | > 30th...not too bad. It's usually the same few accounts too. | >

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| > | > It's a different story if they owe me 3 quarters of monitoring and | > want | > | > to | > | > cancel though! | > | | > | | > | | >

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Yah..I dunno. I use the billing cycle to send out a Newletter to keep in touch with them...so dunno abt EFT...Ive thought about it though. Personally I had a bad experience with EFT from a client side so dunno just dunno.

2nd | > deliquent quarter. What irks me the most is that if they would only call | > and | > let me know what's up I'd work with them, it's when I'm ignored I feel | > dissed and get really pissed. I only have 3 scheduled for nastiness on the | > 30th...not too bad. It's usually the same few accounts too. | >

| >

| > | > It's a different story if they owe me 3 quarters of monitoring and | > want | > | > to | > | > cancel though! | > | | > | | > | | >

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| |

To RHC and Russ: How can you tell which transfer is which on your bank statement? Are they coded somehow? Say you have 100 of them coming in ...how do you know which is which customer's payment? js

Crash,

You might want to put your new customers on a monthly "Electronic Funds Transfer", it's a great way to collect without sending out a bill that gets ignored for weeks or months..........Regards, Russ

I don't want to lose clients either; however, I figure if they don't pay up, I'm far from cutting them off "willy nilly". And since I get most of my money up front, the RMR (although nice), is not crucial to my business survival.

Yeah, I can see that working.....they call me up and ask..."why is my keypad beeping?"....and I answer..."cause you haven't paid me for six months, and after 30 more days, the panel self destructs"......:)))

RHC

I don't make it beep. I just make it so the keypad displays: Call for Service (only some of my panels can do this)...I wish it had a bigger display, I'd make it say: Pay Up You Deadbeat...that'd get their attention :-)

| > I don't cut people off willy-nilly, but I figure if I'm here to answer | > their | > silly phone questions at 3am on New Year's Eve the freekin least they can | > do | > is pay me on time...I mean suppose I made them wait for 90 days if they | > needed service! Hey maybe that's the answer!...your service response is | > directly proportional to your payment history! yeah that's the ticket! | |

I track my by Customer #.........

Lets try again....... I track mine by customer # on a virtual terminal that's provided by the vendor I use for EFT's............

In all seriousness, that's what I do. The guy who doesn't pay me for long periods doesn't get his alarm serviced if he has a false alarm. If he calls to ask why (and they don't), well, I've been really busy.

The other thing you can do is send them a rate increase letter, jacking up their rates by 15% or so. (Only they're the only one whose rates get increased.) They get to pay deadbeat rates until they cancel, and if they do, so what? Buyers of alarm accounts don't pay for deadbeat accounts anyway.

- badenov

Uh, no. You're not knocking anyone off anything, dad. (Hint: this is USENET) js

Nomen Nescio wrote:

I'm asking if anyone "here" does what Robbie claims is so rampant in this business? If someone owes money, sure, depending on how much, I might go through the legality of persuing someone. But, in all these years, I've never deemed it important enough to do. My guess is that this small gathering of people in this newsgroup is of the same mind and that there's not ONE person here who does what he IMPLIES that EVERYONE does. Are there some in the industry who do it? Sure, there are nasty people in every business. Is it the norm, as Bobby boy continuously paints his picture of the industry? Nah. Just like SFB, Robbie likes to promote his own agenda and justify his inane business practices by telling every end user, who comes here, that any contract over one month is of no value. It's of no value to him, and that's fine. But to constantly advise end users that term contracts are a ripoff, is summarily and purposely taking business away from some other company, who's business plan, actually INCLUDES the economys and equity of offering contracts for a year or more. So WHAT, that Bobby doesn't want to earn equity in his company. And SO WHAT, he want's to give away free service. And SO WHAT, that he gives his monitoring service away cheaper than his compitition. That's CERTAINLY ***HIS*** business. But to suggest that EVERY company who doesn't do that is ripping off their clients it stupid. And then, in ADDITION to enticeing end users into not accepting term contracts, he berates companies who UNDERSELL their compitition, and yet HE'S as gulity of doing that as anybody! At least the others are underselling by making a long term investment by financing the upfront costs. HE does it by sacraficing the equity of his company and has the NERVE to suggest that THAT's the way to run a company. And the NERVE to continuously tell endusers that his way is the right thing to support. He's doing the very same thing to end users as FAT ASS does. Not directly, but he berates the industry and installation companies who have a much better and more accepted business plan than he does.

Someone can have a plan. Someone can run their business the way they choose, but to constantly stand on a soap box at every opportunity, suggesting that what everyone else does is wrong, then someone is gonna knock you off that box. Apparently no one else is willing to do it. I am.

Aah...come on now...don't spoil his fun.....:))

RHC

RHC has found a business model that suits his needs, and thats all well and good, but for him to suggest that everyone who runs their business differently by using term contracts or charging a different price for their services is somehow ripping off the consumer gets a little tiring, but the reality is that nothing anyone says or does in this group has any effect on my business and probably has no effect on anyone elses business either. To answer your question, no, I don't lock out customers from their own equipment (other than while they are being monitored), I don't hold them to residential monitoring only contracts and I don't know personally of anyone who does. In a business environment most of my contracts are for leased systems and if the dollar amount is high enough and there is a realistic chance of recovering money owed to me I will persue it, although so far I have judgements but no money.

Doug L

Well if it isn't the ole cockmeister back again for some more fun.

Why don't you swallow what you've got in you mouth and go gargle.

You building up that dick sucking business out there in the land of fruits and nuts?

Got anything else you'd like to say, you cute lil ole cocksucker you?

Doug, I will certainly answer your comments because I know they are not said in the same tone as Jim's.

I think there may be some misconception here. People feel that I am against long term contract business in general. That just is simply not the case.That is the industry business model. If I come across as indicating that, and even if it is in a "tiring" way, then perhaps it's for me to clearly state once again my objections. I think the long term contract option is often misused when the client has finished paying for his system and there remains no valid consumer oriented reason to repeat the contract. Same goes for takeovers ! I tend to look at things more from the customer viewpoint rather than the industry viewpoint. Plus the lockout code is in the same league, and in spite of what some on the ng may say are valid reasons for using it (and there are some), if they saw the tremendous number of locked boards that come my way, and the stories people tell me about the abuse, they might be more aware of how much this feature is actually misused in real life. When I object to something, I try to clearly explain EXACTLY what that is; however, more often than not, it is misread and misinterpreted to mean more in a general way than I mean (so what else is new....)

Charging for service and warranty is simply a business decision that either is or is not part of your business model. If you don't charge for service and warranty work, you better have that firmly built in to your business plan, and know upfront how much this costs you, or you will be in trouble. In my case, I did the costing exercise using an expensive modelling software program that was used within the telco I worked for, and so far, it has worked out almost to the dollar. In fact, I'm ahead of the game...

So if I come across in a strident manner, well...it's because of my particular experience in this business. But nothing I say or do will make much difference in the grand scheme of our industry. However, that is the purpose of a ng - to exchange differing views, to assist with technical questions etc. Comments made, or viewpoints exchanged either stand on their merit or don't ! So, I'll try to envision more how MY comments will be taken at the receiving end; however, I won't stop expressing my viewpoint on industry matters that I think are both good and bad. Those who object can say so (hopefully with solid reasoning and not with stupid and hateful comments) and the reader can make his own judgments.....

That's just the way a ng works !!

RHC

I already know who my accounts are going to, when/if the time comes. I've guaranteed that the remainder of all contracts will be completed by every client that I turn over to the buyer. If not, I'll buy it back.

Maybe I should get on a soap box and everytime someone comes here for information, I should tell them to make sure that their account isn't going to be sold and if it is to make sure that their installation company will buy the account back and support it forever.

The point is that as proported by some, this IS a place where ideas and information can be exchanged, but it's not a place for people who have an agenda. A never ending, interminable, and INFINITE AGENDA! .....

We've heard this ridiculous business plan of Bobbies for YEARS now. JEEEEEZE, enough already! So, it works for him. It does NOT work for the entire rest of the industry. Shut UP already! Stop trying to convince the rest of the world that alarm companies are ripping off their clients, simply because they've had the good and common sense to set up an equity program for their future. If this equity plan were not in place for this trade the price of alarm systems would skyrocket out of reach of many end users. The trade would be put back 25 years. Who would buy any account that didn't have some guarantee that they'd get some of their investment back? If it works for him, that's fine, but to constantly "WARN" end users that alarm companies who ask for term contracts are doing something wrong, falls right into the same category as what SFB does regarding ridiculing installers and posting dealer information so that he can sell to DIY'ers.

That the best you can do? You can't think of anything of substance to say, so you do the eight-year-old h*mo thing? Ahhhahahahaha What a putz. js

>

I use contracts, just like most everyone else here. And someday, I intend to sell those contracts and make a nice pile of money. But there does seem to be a little hypocrisy going on here, and I'm as guilty as the next alarm dealer.

We've all been saying, "We're nice guys, we won't actually sue someone who breaks their contract, aren't we decent, ethical people?" But, we're perfectly willing to sell those contracts to someone who will enforce those contracts because he paid good money for them. Our hands don't exactly appear clean: we're letting someone else do the dirty work, but we're getting paid for it.

- badenov