Alarm Monitoring Companies & What You Need To Know Prior To Obtaining Their Products & Or Services!If this is your first time obtaining the products & or services of a monitoring company it is important for you to gain some insight into how these companies operate. Having a clear understanding of the various issues & problems people are having in their dealings with these companies will go a long way in making sure you & your family are able to avoid them. If you have not chosen an alarm company you will discover some essential & important information outlined below that can assist you in finding the monitoring company that will be most suitable for your security needs. Any business that interacts directly with consumers will almost certainly find itself having to deal with a variety of customer complaints relating to the products & or services they provide. Having a few disgruntled customers now & then is perfectly normal for any company that deals directly with the public no matter how customer oriented the business may be. Some Companies that interact with consumers on an ongoing basis will have a higher than normal percentage of dissatisfied customers due to the particular nature of certain businesses. Unfortunately there is no other business that I am aware of that receives anywhere near the number of complaints that the alarm monitoring companies do. There are a number of issues that you need to be aware of when it comes to obtaining products & or services from a monitoring company. Numerous people have had a host of different problems with various alarm monitoring companies over the years. In addition to these issues causing unnecessary grief for a lot of good people, a lot of false & misleading information has hurt many individuals financially as well. I have personally reviewed a few hundred complaints individuals have posted online about the problems they have experienced with the alarm companies monitoring their systems. It is obvious from the online complaints I reviewed plus a great deal of other research I have done that the biggest portion of grievances people are having stem from door to door sales of alarm products & services.
These door to door sales occur mostly in early spring to late fall & sales are performed almost exclusively by independent dealers. An independent dealer is a separate company that mainly installs these all in one alarm systems in people’s homes in exchange for customers entering into a monitoring agreement. Many independent alarm companies are authorized dealers of national alarm monitoring companies. These independent dealer companies vary in size as some companies operate with several or more employees while others consist of a work force of several hundred or more. National alarm monitoring companies have various types of dealer programs for these independent alarm companies. Authorized dealer programs are basically a commission or performance based program where the alarm monitoring companies pay their dealers a set amount of money for every new account they are able to obtain. The door to door sales people are compensated in the same manner so the more customers (new accounts) they are able to obtain each day the bigger their weekly paycheck will be. A comprehensive search on the web will likely show you several hundred or more complaints about various problems & issues people have had with many of the alarm monitoring companies. Unfortunately this would be in my opinion a small sample of the numerous complaints that have been made. When many individuals are subjected to the same type of injustice, I believe it would be safe to say only a small portion of them will actually go through the process of posting the details of what had happened online.
A large number of people have complained to the Attorney General’s office in their state about many of these alarm companies & the unscrupulous actions of their door to door sales people. In several states, the Attorney General’s office has charged a number of alarm companies with violating various consumer sales laws. These include false and misleading representations, unfair and deceptive sales practices and refusing to honor customer’s requests to cancel. In addition to obtaining new accounts, these unscrupulous sales people deceived existing customers from other alarm monitoring companies in order to steal their accounts. In researching information for this page I obtained copies of court documents that shows Monitronics Security (3rd largest monitoring company in the U,S.) filed lawsuits a few years ago against several alarm companies for stealing customer accounts in 9 or more U.S. States. According to court documents one of the methods used was informing Monitronics customers that Monitronics was going out of business & they were there to update the alarm equipment as they were taking over the accounts. Many people did not realize they had been scammed until months later when Monitronics Security launched an investigation to find out why they were losing so many monitoring customers. With such widespread corruption taking place you may want to err on the side of caution & not obtain the security products & or services you need from the door to door sales people that may be operating in your area.
Other reasons why you should not obtain the products & or services you may need from door to door sales people include: · The monitoring agreements will be for a minimum of 3 to 5 years as all agreements that come from door to door sales will be with one of the larger national alarm monitoring companies. (You really should consider a monitoring agreement that is no longer than 1 year). · The large majority of the national alarm monitoring companies have automatic renewal clauses in their agreements that are for 1 to 3 years. (You should ensure a monitoring contract you enter into does not have this clause in it). · Almost all of the alarm equipment that the door to door sales people install in people’s homes are these all in one wireless alarm systems that have the keypad, sounding device & control panel housed in the one unit. (Please visit my wireless security system web page for a comprehensive understanding on why these systems should never be used to protect anyone’s home & family).
This basically means that the monitoring agreement will be automatically renewed at the end of the contract unless the monitoring company receives a notice to the contrary. It is spelled out in the monitoring agreement when you need to send notice that you do not want your agreement renewed. In most agreements it is usually 30 days before the end of your agreement. The automatic renewal in most agreements is usually for one year but there are some with a renewal period as long as 3 years. There are four reasons why people ended up having their monitoring contracts automatically renewed: • They did not fully read their agreement which made them totally unaware of the automatic renewal clause. • They did not provide notice in the time frame that was outlined in the agreement. • They were told that the agreement was cancelled by a company employee & discovered much later that it was actually renewed. • They were told that the agreement was canceled by a monitoring company employee in a telephone conversation but discovered much later that it wasn’t. Depending on the agreement the penalty for breaking the monitoring contract early is usually anywhere from 75 to 100 percent of what is left owing on the agreement. To ensure your agreement is not automatically renewed you will need to thoroughly review your contract (including the small print) to know when you need to provide notice. It is very important that you provide notice in writing that you do not want your agreement automatically renewed & it is imperative that you send your written notice to the monitoring company by registered mail. This will ensure the monitoring company does not inform you that your notice was not received or wasn’t received within the time frame that is outlined in the agreement. If you are presently looking for a monitoring company you really should choose one that does not have an automatic renewal clause in their agreements. If a company wants to retain you as a long term customer then let them earn your business by making you a satisfied customer instead of hoping you will miss a 30 day window for not have your agreement automatically renewed.
Most of the larger alarm monitoring companies use proprietary alarm systems which is perfectly fine if their customers are basically leasing their systems while the company provides them with their 24/7 monitoring service. The problem with purchasing a proprietary alarm system is the large majority of them are not compatible with industry standard equipment. This makes it impossible for other alarm monitoring companies to monitor the system as it can not communicate with their alarm monitoring receivers. Purchasing a proprietary alarm system that is also proprietorially owned means you will have to purchase replaceable or upgradeable parts from the same vendor. With only one source to purchase from, the price markup on the components & devices will likely be quite high. So even if you were considering monitoring your own system, fixing or upgrading the system may be very expensive as no one else has alarm equipment that will work or interface with it.
With many of the complaints the monitoring companies seemed to be totally disinterested in what a sales person may have told someone or led them to believe. They basically kept reminding people what is outlined in the monitoring agreement they signed. The alarm monitoring companies have fine-tuned these monitoring agreements to work in their favor & it appears that they are going to hold everyone to their agreement with no exceptions.
Thoroughly reviewing the monitoring agreement is the only way to ensure you don’t have any surprises at a later date that can cause you some problems. About 15% of the online complaints that I had reviewed were not the fault of the alarm monitoring companies. These problems could have been avoided if people had thoroughly reviewed their agreements. In reviewing the agreement you will want to pay close attention to any clauses in the agreement that may conflict with anything the monitoring company or their sales people had told you or led you to believe. If you were told or led to believe something that totally conflicts with what is stated in your monitoring agreement you will want to seriously question it as in all likelihood you have been lied to or deceived in some way. All areas throughout Canada & the United States have what is referred to as a “cooling off period” which is basically a specific period of time in which a consumer can reconsider the decision they made. You will discover in most areas the cooling off period is for 3 days. This period of time entitles you to cancel the monitoring agreement you signed for any reason without receiving any penalty for doing so. Although the cooling off period in most areas is for 3 days it may be different for your specific province or state so it is important for you to confirm what the time period is for your area. In the United States you should be able to find out what the cooling off period is in your area by contacting a local office of the Federal Trade Commission. In Canada you can do the same by contacting Consumer Affairs Canada. These government departments can also inform you about what procedure you need to follow in case you do choose to exercise your rights & cancel the agreement. The nice thing about the cooling off period is it will allow you to thoroughly review the agreement in the quietness of your home. If you discover something in the agreement that you feel you are unable or unwilling to live with, you will obviously want to cancel the agreement before the cooling off period is up. If you choose not to cancel the agreement you need to be ready to live with it, because the monitoring company will do everything they need to under the law to ensure it is fully complied with. Important Information On What You Need To Know For Finding The Most Appropriate & Cost Effective Alarm Monitoring Company That Can Accommodate The Various Needs Of You & Your Family! Home Security Alarm Monitoring
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