KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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Comment on charging for retrieving data / Comment on Vivint being sued
June 21,  2021
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Comment on charging for retrieving data from article on June 12, 2021
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Ken,
    A comment or two in response to AC’s comments about who to charge for transferring data to a thumb drive.  As I’m sure most companies on here would attest, even if you train the client properly to copy data from their recorder to a thumb drive, they forget.  Selling them video monitoring is a good idea.  
    We often go to customer premises to help them with copy data over at no charge for the police and other times we do charge depending on the circumstances.  
    Should we be doing it for free?  Maybe, not but it makes for good relations with the police and a referral from the police is gold.
 Regards,
 Kevin Buckland, General Manager
True Steel Security
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Response
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    You should keep your options open, and that means using the Standard Form Agreements which gives you the option to charge your subscriber for the a site visit to provide access to the NVR or DVR, retrieve data and put on thumb drive for police or other purposes.  The same contractual provisions will ensure that you can be compensated in the event you are required to testify in pre-trial proceedings or at a trial.  I see reported criminal cases all the time where a burglar alarm is involved in identifying a criminal and assisting in the apprehension and conviction.  I don’t bother reporting those cases here because they are so common, so if you haven’t been asked to prepare evidence and subpoenaed to testify don’t be surprised if your number is called.
    All alarm systems are for subscribers; they are installed because subscribers need them [fire] or want them.  If a subscriber wants cameras to record the street activity then don’t be surprised if the cameras record an accident or criminal activity that some lawyers want to secure and use.  Your testimony may very well be required to authenticate the data.  Spend a few hours hanging around a courthouse and you’ll be sorry that your contract doesn’t make it clear that your subscriber has to pay you.
    You should be able to remote access the data and avoid a site visit.  Just be sure your techs aren’t remote accessing for the wrong reasons.
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Comment on Vivint being sued
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Ken,
    In my opinion, Vivint deserves everything it gets in the form of lawsuits. 
They entered this business as Apex, using a work ethic that bordered on criminal. I think I remember that it was shown that they encouraged their salespeople to lie to prospective customers and trained them how to steal alarm accounts from other alarm companies. They sent out hundreds, maybe thousands of door knockers every year for years. They supposedly did this for quite a few years before the response of alarm companies and the end user victims started to bring it to the forefront. By that time they had amassed thousands and thousands of recurring accounts - - - apparently enough to put them in the big time. Then as their reputation began to wane, they changed their name. Now, of course, they are lauded as an upstanding corporation and I think they are probably the second largest alarm company in the US. 
    Now we see other companies entering various trades and businesses using the same or similar tactics. I'm not in favor of frivolous lawsuits but -  - - - what goes around comes around.  That’s my opinion and I welcome anyone else to provide their recollection of events.
Gene
Reliable alarm
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Response
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    Gene, one of these days you have to really tell us what you think and get to the point.  I think your recollection is accurate; Vivint built its business, to a considerable extent, with door knockers and created a huge account base.  It’s a major alarm company now; probably too big with a target on its back to ignore licensing and consumer laws.
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com