comment on regular testing
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Ken,
Regarding your comment about regular periodic testing and system communication supervision, we at Response Center USA believe that both are extremely important. Therefore, we do not charge for weekly or monthly SUPERVISED test signals. We also send our dealers a report showing that a panel failed to communicate on schedule. We encourage our dealers to program their panels to send a test signal, which does not cost them anything. If they want to charge the end user for this, they are free to do so.
If an alarm panel is struck by lightning or if the end user had removed a POTS line or converted it to VoIP, then the next time the panel tries to communicate, it will be unable to do so. This will generate a communication failure at the customer site. The customer should then contact the dealer for service. Since we also send our dealer a report showing a failure to communicate, the dealer can call the end user. This could be a revenue generator for the dealer. Furthermore, a history log is available from us. Our dealers can even use their smart phones to view this history, print it, or email it. This establishes the date and time of last communication.
The benefits from this are obvious, and we do not charge our dealers for this service. Nothing could be worse than an end user calling a dealer to report that they had a break in, but the police were not called.
Gary Dawkins, CEO
Response Center USA
www.@rc-usa.com
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comments on challenge to fire district
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Well, I see we are coming full circle. In the 80’s, at least in my area, the municipalities wanted out of the monitoring due to liability.
Thanks,
Bill Winkler
Spectrum Systems LLC
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Ken,
Thank you very much for publishing my comment on March 26, 2012. There has been an awful lot of misinformation
put out on this issue to serve private agendas. And most of it by the IESA, shame on them. The industry media has chosen to only publish
one side of the story despite being apprised of the other side. So much for impartial unbiased reporting.
It really is about public safety for the municipal fire officials involved, and they have used their stop watches on multiple occasions, which is why they feel so strongly in favor of doing their own monitoring of commercial fire accounts and they can sell it to the bureaucrats using the financial model.
I have been hearing the verified central station 20 minute delay stories from the fire service for a couple of decades now. The smaller the fire when the fire dept arrives, the less dangerous for the firefighters who also have families to provide for and protect.
Thanks again
Best regards,
Steve Sargent
KELTRON CORPORATION
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subcontractor gets stuck - Question
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Ken
I have a legal question:
We were sub-contracted (oral) by a company for whom we were supposed to design and install a CCTV system, purchase and deliver equipment. We designed the system and purchased and delivered equipment, (equipment was paid in full). One day, the guy called me for a meeting and informed me that due to a mistake on an invoice from him to the owner, they pulled the plug on him. he begged me to 'so-to-speak' relieve him of our agreement, to which I said I would on the condition that he cannot recover anything from the owner, but if he could recover money then I do want to get paid for my time and efforts up until now. Turns out, he ended up staying on the job and sub-contracted a different company to continue the installation. Now I want the money owed to me. We gave a price for all inclusive, but have not detailed what the design fee would be. Can we recover money (about $9000 worth) for design and time put in for preparing the job?
Anon
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Answer
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You have no written contract. You can commence an action but your version of events may not be what the contractor remembers.
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valuation of per call service contracts - Question
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Ken,
as so many others, I value your insight very much. I have all of my subscribers under sales contracts using yours. My question is how to value the accounts that are not being monitored for the purpose of a sale. Service contracts for all subscribers are in place with the per service call option being used. Just curious how potential buyers look at these types of accounts.
Regards,
JG
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Answer
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A service contract is necessary if you're going to be doing service, which almost all alarm companies do. The Service Contract will not only define your services but perhaps more importantly will provide various protective provisions what will hopefully insulate you from liability in the event your subscriber suffers a loss that the alarm or security system was designed to detect. The Standard Service Contract does have the option for recurring revenue or per call service relationship.
I believe only the recurring revenue option will add value to your company for equity purposes. RMR for Service Contracts will probably be valued less than RMR for monitoring or leasing, but will still add value to a sale. Whether a steady record of service revenue from per call service will bring any value to the table at time of sale will depend on many factors that would apply to the sale of many businesses, but certainly will not have the same value as service RMR. For more on what your alarm company may be worth, check out WhatsMyAlarmCompanyWorth.com.