Monitoring
Your Present Monitoring Agreement
A brief Industry History:
There are currently over 20,000,000 alarm monitoring customers in the U.S. For
the last twenty years the industry has been structured such that the
"monitoring" revenue subsidizes the non-monitoring operations of the Alarm
Company. This was a necessary part of maintaining a more predictable cash flow for the
Alarm Company. With the entry of large investment companies into the alarm industry
monitoring rates were increased dramatically to subsidize installation of new alarm
systems. There is nothing wrong with this practice and it served to expand the markets of
the alarm industry dramatically.
At the same time that the large companies were
increasing the size of the industry the smaller companies were struggling to compete with
the lower installation prices from subsidized systems. The number of companies shrank from
15,000 to 5,000. Now all the small companies are much more reliant on the increased
'monitoring' rates to subsidize their falling sales.
Affordable Monitoring Service is
combining the low "real" cost of monitoring with the service experience of our
national dealer network to dramatically reduce your cost of alarm services.
If you are currently monitored and you want to reduce
your costs it is important to look carefully at your present monitoring agreement. As
indicated above, the monitoring agreements at their high rates are very important to these
companies and they are not about to do anything voluntarily to assist you in leaving them
as a monitored customer.
Look for the following information in your monitoring
agreement:
1. Term of agreement: What is the expiration date of the agreement?
2. Notification for termination: How much notice is required before
the end of the agreement in order for the agreement to not automatically renew? Does the
contract provide for cancelling the service?
3. Penalty for termination: If you cancel your service before the
end of the contract period is there a penalty? What is it?
4. Ownership of equipment: Who owns the equipment? Will the Alarm
Company remove the equipment? If the monitoring agreement doesn't stipulate who owns the
equipment you own it.
If you can't find a copy of your alarm agreement write
to the Alarm Company and give them a thirty day notice of your wish to cancel their
service. State in the letter that you will consider the cancellation accepted without
penalty if you receive no written response before the end of the thirty days.
Send your letter return receipt requested so that you have proof they
received your correspondence. Document all correspondence and actions you take. Ask them
to put any explanations or clarifications in writing. If your contract requires that you
need to do more, have your monitoring company send a copy of your contract with an
explanation of the requirements. Always write your letters in such a manner that if they
fail to respond they are agreeing with your position. Also make sure that you always give
them a deadline date for a response.
If your contract does not have an early termination
clause then let Affordable Monitoring Service know the dates and we will
contact you in advance of the date to insure that you do not forget to terminate the
contract as required by the terms. Please include the manufacturer and model number of
your alarm system and we will make sure that you know how to ask the Alarm Company for any
lockout codes or other information that might prevent you from implementing a change in
your monitoring service provider.
There is nothing to be gained by alienating your
present alarm company, but as the customer you certainly have the right to question them
and receive information that is pertinent to your alarm service and agreement. |
