Can anyone recommend a security monitoring company?

[Matt Meiser]

Can anyone recommend a monitoring company to monitor my security system? Apparently the dealer I was using went out of business without paying the 1 year of monitoring I paid for back in August to the monitoring company, so they are going to discontinue monitoring in a few days according to the letter I got YESTERDAY. Nothing like giving people time. I've got a call into them to see if I can continue by paying them directly, but I think they are pretty much a wholesale type operation, i.e. they monitor under contract from security dealers. I also have a call into one of the local companies, but I suspect they are going to try to sell me all kinds of stuff I don't need or want and get me on a 2 year contract.

[Joe Pelonio]

I used Protection One for years when I had a leased commercial space. It was $34/month and they used the equipment I already had. Never had a break in after I got it (one the day before) but it did catch an employee closing up early.

[Eddie Watkins]

Matt, I use a local company that didn't require a contract to start monitoring. THey charge $20/ month. I guess I do runn the risk of them going out of business but so far I have been with them over 10 years.

Eddie

[Joe Chritz]

Call you local central dispatch and ask them if there are any local companies they use.

A good portion of the alarms I go to are from agencies that are not local and have monitoring centers all over the country. What you want is short response time from trigger to call. It isn't easy determine how quickly a company can do that.

My standard answer applies for alarms. If you want to save your stuff then get an audible. If you want to save your stuff and catch the person who is doing it, get a silent alarm.

Problem is even with an audible alarm the perps often can get in, grab what they want and out before a unit is even sent on the way. Depends on what kind of business/house and what kind of stuff is at risk.

Joe

[Matt Meiser]

Problem is even with an audible alarm the perps often can get in, grab what they want and out before a unit is even sent on the way.

That just happened at a TV/Appliance place down here. The sherriff's department arrived within 3 minutes of the alarm. But the guys were gone with something like $10K worth of TVs.

[Jim Becker]

Check with the folks at SmartHome. They have a very attractively priced monitoring service.

[Joe Chritz]

That just happened at a TV/Appliance place down here. The sherriff's department arrived within 3 minutes of the alarm. But the guys were gone with something like $10K worth of TVs.

Isn't that like 3 TV's anymore?

Good quality video surveillance is something that is worth having. Especially when they aren't obvious. When the suspects come in and avoid the cameras it gives you a place to start looking. If they don't then you have pictures to use.

Joe

ETA: 3 minutes is a lightning response for any area covered by a Sheriff Dept. Must have gotten lucky and had a two man car close by.

[Matt Meiser]

Thanks all. I used the yellow pages (remember that old paper book the phone company gives you every year? :D) and found ads for the big companies like ADT and some regional companies that are similar. I contacted on of them but they wouldn't quote prices without scheduling an appointment to come out. But I also found one ad for a local company and gave them a call. It is going to cost us $25/mo but he uses a large national monitoring company that checks out and he checks out good with the BBB and is licensed and insured. He's stopping by this afternoon to reprogram the reporting stuff and get us set up so we should be set to go.

I also contacted our credit union and was really suprised to learn that they are able to do a chargeback, apparently even if this company is completely gone. She had me email a couple documents to her and asked me for a little more information after reading them, but doesn't see an issue--so we'll 7/12 of what we paid credited back. I'm really glad we paid by credit card!

Joe, in addition to the interior sirens in the house and shop, I have an outside siren which points right at the neighbor's bedroom window (the siren was there before their house) so it tends to draw attention. There's also an outside strobe light and signs and decals. If someone really wants my stuff, they'll get it, but I figure I'm doing everything I can to make it risky and hopefully they'll move on to the next house. Since it is relatively isolated in this part of the county, there are occasional incidents when someone is away.

On a related question, does anyone have any reputable online sources for Honeywell components? I had used this now out-of-business company and another. I wasn't at all happy with the other. I've been thinking about adding some home automation stuff to the system but now I need to find a new source first. The local guy may or may not be willing to sell parts to me--I haven't talked to him about it, but plan to while he is here today.

[Dave Lehnert]

For whats it worth. I had protection one. I had picked up the service after the company I had went out. Well the alarm stopped working and they could not fix it. Tried to sell me another system. I said no so they said if I did not get a new system I had to pay the rest of the contract. Why would we sign a contract when we owned the alarm and had been with them for years. All they would say on the phone. You owe us the money. I called the national office one weekend to complain and the lady on the phone started talking in a low voice about getting things in writing and how they will try to ???? She was talking low like she did not want others around her to hear her. Kinda odd I thought. So on my day off I went to the main office with check book in hand and said Show me the signed contract and I will write a check. Well they were in the back for a long time. Guess what? Could not find it. They said you do not owe use anything.
At times I would trip the alarm and wait for a call but would not get a call back. When I called they would say something like. Yes we received it and was about ready to call. So one time I did not set the alarm off and called. Guess what? “yes sir we received your alarm” ??????????????

Check with your local phone company. They do alarm mentoring for like $10 a month but for some reason don’t advertise it much. Make scene they have 411 operators so why not.

Also if you can get a alarm guy to just program your cell phone in to call you. Why not ,just call the police yourself?

I think it’s funny how they show on TV advertisements for alarm company’s. A guy in uniform answering the phone. Like he is going to chase down the guy himself.

[M Toupin]

ETA: 3 minutes is a lightning response for any area covered by a Sheriff Dept. Must have gotten lucky and had a two man car close by.

That's for sure. Alarm companies are notoriously slow in calling law enforcement too. We often see notification times up to a hour or more. Residential alarm companies also generally call the residence first to verify it's not a false alarm. If the person answering the phone can't give the proper pass code then law enforcement is called. The reason being the huge number of false alarms set off by home owners coming in or going out the front door.

In a urban area I'd recommend a audible and save the money on monitoring. Thieves don't like noise, though they don't normally stick around long anyway. Noise just gets them out of there faster. All you gain with monitoring is finding out quicker that your stuff is gone and a false "feel good" feeling. That's the dirty little secret the alarm companies won't tell you.

The best security system you can have is free, the a nosey little old lady next door, they don't miss a thing:D

Mike

[Gordon Harner]

I suggest that you check with your insurance agent. In addition to a reduction in your premium your agent or insurance carrier probably has preferred alarm companies. There are standards used by insurance carriers to evaluate alarm companies and the central stations ( the center that monitors the system and calls emergency services) I also believe that UL has a rating standard.