I accidently deleted the topic we were discussing on month to month agreements. I noticed that even though you call them month to month, they are really just open ended. To me, month to month means that one can say, "I just need monitoring for this month while I am in town and then shut it down. I'll call you next year to activate it again for the month of August." I take it from your post that you sign a client with the intention of providing service for years but if the client sells the home, he has no further obligtion. That is what I refer to as open ended. The agreement actually has no expiration date. I personally wouldn't sign anything that didn't have an end. Do you have any minimum requirements or is that based on the install price and/or your gut feeling? With mine, after the initial term, with a 30 day notice they are free to go even though they are in a renewal period. It doesn't state that in my agreement though. Each one is decided on a case by case decission. There is always the dick head scenerio which puts them in the "pay off your agreement" pile. I have several apartment communities that I have exclusive agreements with. I sign the renter up for the length of their lease which is normally a year. I get first an last at the time of activation because when they skip, which they do, I have my last month. The equipment is there and I don't have any investment in the equipment. Some will call with only a few months left on the lease and I will sign them anyway. Inorder to protect my exclusive agreement, I don't want to play hardball when, depending on the property, there are anywhere from 200 to 400 potential clients that can't go anywhere else for monitoring. I don't want the management company to open it up. Although different apartments, I have averaged about 100 to 150 accounts on each of these properties for years. That is the closest I get to what might be considered month to month.
RHC: I guess there is a question of terminology here Bob. When I talk about month to month contracts, I mean fully open ended, to use your words. The intent here is to establish monitoring services with no clear cut end date in sight. It's available for as long as the customer needs it and cancellable with one month's notice. The intent is definately NOT to put it in one month and cancel the next. I make this very clear to people during the initial installation; I am not here to put a professional system in and have them cancel after one month, simply to get a quality installation which they can then ruin with no monitoring. Nor do I do "on one month; off the next" type of service. There is nothing stopping any client from doing that, but so far it has never happened. The intent of doing it open ended is to leave the customer in the driver's seat so to speak. If he moves or otherwise doesn't need the monitoring, then he can cancel ! If I let him down as his dealer, he's also free to leave ! Since all billing is by Pre-authorized Payment Plan, the only problem comes when someone calls up two days before they are leaving, and I have billed one month in advance, then I have the bother of writing a refund cheque.
I only deal in single residential customers (and about 20 or so early commercial customers). In an arrangement that you describe, one would have to be very careful if you didn't have some form of long term commitment from the renters (in fact, it might be very dangerous for you). My market niche is VERY narrow as I have said many times before, and wouldn't work for everyone, nor for every type of customer....Otherwise, my contracts are likely identical to yours, with the exception of that first term period before yours go month to month.
I have no sort of minimum commitment; if the client pays for his system fully up front, then monitoring is available this way, with service and warranty bundled in. And I ONLY charge full price for the system. They usually shop around some, but quickly discover this is the long term cheaper way to go (but short term definately not...). If they ask about signing a contract for a lower price up front, I refuse and redirect them to other quality dealers I know - period, no exceptions ! So once they decide to go with me, they likely feel they have to take the monitoring from me to be paid back for the full market value they paid already....:))
If I appear to be "anti-long term contract" in many of my posts it's because I am looking at things totally from the buying customer's perspective. It is never in a consumer's best interest to commit long term if he fully owns the system although I recognize that it certainly is from the alarmco's perspective. But bottom line, I give advice to people coming on the newsgroup recommending that they search out a company that gives them this freedom. In one sense, I don't care about the alarmco's here or anywhere (they are big boys and have had things slanted their way for ever). I want to see some pressure put on the industry to change their ways, although I don't for a minute think that will happen without a massive change in consumer attitudes (hell, if people are still stupid enough to buy into the "free system" approach in the way they do, it will be a bloody long time after that disappears before there will be any pressure to resist long term contracts......). But I can still try to help the individual....
There are quite a number of companies in our area, and on the internet, that monitor without long term commitments. I know of one regular on this newsgroup that does as well (although he will remain nameless to protect him against the wrath of some....). But if no one tells newcomers on this newsgroup there are companies who do sell this way, they will simply accept the status quo as it is !!! The market should always provide the maximum number of choices for the buying customer (even the stupid ones we all like to hate such as"free systems"....)
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