KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE You can read all of our articles on our website. Having trouble getting our emails? Change your spam controls and whitelist ken@kirschenbaumesq.com ********************** Comment on your responsibility for power and communication outage / nightmare customer August 7 2023 ********************** Comment on your responsibility for power and communication outage from July 21, 2023 *********************** Ken Pretty sure Verizon doesn’t give people new phones when their old ones age out (without a new and increased contract) Matthew Wain *********************** Ken How can you make the consumer responsible for a device that they can’t obtain on their own such as a cellular communicator, much less swap it themselves? Yes you can make the argument that they must maintain an IP circuit, just like a phone line (aka POTS). But when a technology sunsets is it reasonable to build into a contract that the consumer must purchase a like device, in the future at an unknown date and for an unknown cost? Maybe the most effective way to approach this is to set up a trust account and add a separate charge for transmitter technology updates and fund it like $1.00 a month per transmitter in the field paid for by the customer each month as long as they are a client. Bart A. Didden, President U.S.A. Central Station Alarm Corp. Port Chester, NY Milford, CT St. Paul, MN Pasco, WA 877-872-1266 **************************** Comment on getting rid of nightmare customer from article on July 20, 2023 *************************** Ken Here is a method we used successfully to get rid of problem customers. Some contracts give the alarm company the right to not only raise rates up to a certain point (whether it be a certain percentage, or based on increased costs, CPI, etc) but also to raise rates by ANY amount, provided the customer is given the right to cancel if he doesn't accept the increase. For example, if a customer is paying $1000 per year, raise him to $20,000 per year. I guarantee you will end up with either a cancelled customer or one that (with the enormous increase) you will gladly keep. Bob ******************* Response ******************* A provision permitting the alarm company to raise rates and allowing the customer the option to cancel if it disagreed with the increase fell out of favor long time ago [of course if you don’t change your contracts you may still have the old provisions]. The cancel option exercisable by the customer fell out of favor because alarm companies would raise rate and the customer would cancel. When the alarm company scrambled to withdraw the increase it was too late, the customer had already cancelled. That provision then changed to allow the alarm company to withdraw the increase if the customer objected, fixing the problem of the alarm company being caught with its pants down. The provision eventually evolved to where it is now, permitting a fixed annual increase which the customer must pay; it’s already agreed to in the Standard Form Agreement. This is just one example of a provision in the contracts that has been tweeted over the years; there have been hundreds and we constantly and continuously update the contracts to keep up with the times. ************************ STANDARD FORM AGREEMENTS: To order up to date Standard Form Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com *************************** CONCIERGE LAWYER SERVICE PROGRAM FOR THE ALARM INDUSTRY - You can check out the program and sign up here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/concierge or contact our Program Coordinator Stacy Spector, Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304. *********************** ALARM ARTICLES: You can always read our Articles on our website at www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-articles updated daily ************************* THE ALARM EXCHANGE - the alarm industries leading classified and business exchange - updated daily. https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-exchange ************************* Wondering how much your alarm company is worth? Click here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/what-is-my-alarm-company-worth ****************************** Getting on our email list / Articles archived: Many of you are forwarding these emails to friends or asking that others be added to the list. Sign up for our daily newsletter here: Sign Up. ************************** 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
