the police was dispatched to ... the wrong house

Well it's a good thing you no longer run that "small central station"

Yup especially when the panel they are installing is their first

"Robert L Bass" wrote in news:fXNqi.392$BQ.203 @trnddc03:

Hang on here...

You are blaming this on an installer right off the bat.

The o.p. never said wheter he even had a dealer.

The central cannot verify where the signal came from.

Bottom line.. he has a poor central station, and possibly a poor dealer.

The mystery signal could have come from a "DIY'er" ar a pro, though like many others i would lean more towards a diyer. or a lick and stick tech. A pro would have tested the system and found the problem immediately. the signal was sent in the middle of the night, another indicator that it wasn't a pro. most of them work during the daylight.

Because I continue billing them until they let us deprogram or they disable the signals from coming in. IMO if we get a signal we should dispatch. This doesn't happen often, but it has happened.

| > I'll even dispatch if the people canceled and didn't let us deprogram it. | >

| > -- | >

| > Rob Giordano | > Microsoft MVP - FrontPage | | I don't quite understand that last part, why would you if they are no longer | your customer? I would think you could open up a different can of worms | legal-wize if something went wrong? | |

The alarm panel was installed and activated as part of a deal when I bought the house (new construction) a year ago. In exchange for signing a 3 year contract with Westminster security, they would install panel/sensors/detectors for free.

When I called the Central Station I learned that they are a separate company. The guys that actually did the physical installation are a third company. There is a bit of finger pointing at this stage.

As you pointed out, the main issue is: the CS does not crosscheck incoming alarms with the caller ID, leading to a situation where a mis-programmed panel in another house is generating an alarm that SEEMS to originate from my house. I am not sure if this crosscheck is a ?nice? thing that every CS ?worth its salt? should have, or a ?requirement?.

I received a letter from the Phoenix police department, they are logging one false alarm against me, and after two ?free? alarms I will be fined. The police also sent me a list of the obligations of the alarm company, but the detail of whether or not they should crosscheck the Caller ID is not in there, so I do not know if I really have any recourse for A) terminating the contract with the alarm company / central station (my preferred approach at this point) or at least B) get them to change my account # with no expense for me.

Hee...I just pulled out an alarm installed by those guys. What crap...they're a subsidary of Toll Brothers builders...for a high end builder they sure do crappy work. IMO any alarmco that runs cheap two conductor wire to doors/windows in a flat-top house should be shot. And seeing how they ran wiring while their homes are under construction I don't doubt you will continue to have problems.

There is no requirement to cross check CID, besides if the call was blocked it wouldn't show anyway.

Tell the alarm co. you expect them to pay for the false alarm charge, and if they refuse (they shouldn't it was their fault) then tell them your cancelling.

And they shouldn't charge to fix your account number problem either. In fact I'd push them for an entire free quarter of monitoring fees for your trouble.

But if they gave you the alarm free for a 3 year contract you're stuck with them for 2 more years...or you'll have to buy out the contract.

If you need help, lemme know I am in your area.

Crash

How are you coming up with blaming Leo's installing company as responsible for some other alarm company or whoever, programing THEIR system wrong? It's possible that they DID program one of their panels in their sequence of numbers wrong .... but not necessarily so.

On the other hand ....as a courtesy, his alarm company should reprogram his system, just to keep a happy customer.

True, but not in the way you might think. Running an online alarm dealership has distinct advantages. For one, I can work from my office in my Florida home or my second home in Brazil. For another, I can take vacations any time I like. This year I spent the month of February in Brazil. I'm going fishing in the Amazon this fall. After that I plan to take another

3-weeks off.

Best of all, I no longer have to fire people like you.

Correct. However, the signals didn't come from the OP's system. They originated from another alarm which was erroneously programmed with the same CS phone number and account number as his. Since the vast majority of installs are "professional" and most of the few remaining DIY jobs are non-monitored, the odds strongly favor the SNAFU being a professional one.

And possibly one that has multiple poor installers screwi9ng up multiple installations.

Lean all you like. Fall off your bike, too, if it pleases you. The odds are way against you.

Far more "lick 'n' stick" jobs are done by "professional" installers than *all* DIY jobs so the odds are if the job was bushed up it was done by a paid pro.

The problem is there are way too many morons who don't care a Whit about testing, QC or anything else out there carrying installer's licenses.

Which tells us precisely nothing.

You figure false alarms only happen while the paid techs are on site? Heh, heh, heh... :^)

Arrangements like that are fairly common. Unfortunately, because the installing dealer has no intention of maintaining a long-term relationship with the customer, he may be disinclined to pay attention to details. Their objective is to sell and install as many systems per week as possible.

It's not a legal requirement. Common sense and sound business practice dictate using it but there's no law (at least none I know of) that requires them to be smart.

Forward a copy of the police letter to the alarm company along with a letter stating that if they allow the situation to continue unabated you will be forced to seek an alternate provider. They may try to fall back on a clause in their contract which states that you can't refuse to stay and pay due to false alarms. Due to the high number of bushed-up installations, alarm companies routinely include such wording in their contracts. However, this is not a false aalrm coming from your system. It is something they messed up elsewhere which is almost certain to happen again since they haven't a clue where the signal originated. This is a serious enough failing to constitute a breach on their part.

Whatever you do, document every phone call and keep copies of all correspondence. Alarm companies can get pretty nasty when a customer tries to leave.

At the very least they should be willing to perform (B). It will only take them a few minutes and they should be able to do it by modem from their office without even visiting your site.

If they refuse, document that as well and take your business elsewhere.

Not true in all cases. There are some customers we would love to get rid of but can't. Unless the system was a leased system (which are very few in number over all) I can't remember a time we've held a cutomer to a contract they wanted out of. A PITA customer is not worth having.

You would never have the chance

A professional installer would have ensured the central was receiving signals and thereby verified the account number. The phantom signals are obviously being generated by a DIYer seeing as how they happened at night.

And most false alarms are generated by end users, and not paid techs or even poorly installed systems. If the state alarm association will even let you sit in on one of their meetings, you'd probably benefit from some real statistics and not ones you "make up" to serve your "mantra".

You're not *most* alarm companies.

Thankfully.

They may or may not be at fault, but if they want to keep Leo they need to take care of this right away and at no charge to him.

"Roland More" wrote in news:46ad51a1$0$4655$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com:

AMEN to that!

No matter what the contract says, it is ultimately up to the owner "ME" to let a customer walk. i sell alarms and offer monitoring. i don't do the discount deals. if you want to see some hold you to a contract look at the big players.

Please explain this to me.

If the central station has on file that account# 123456 is located at

123 1st Ave, and they have never been informed that the panel sending in signals with that account information has been moved, then why wouldn't they dispatch to that address?

And nine more folks showing up here looking for help.