Alarm Monitoring Company. What alarm monitoring company you can trust?

[norco1]

When it comes to security, selecting the right alarm monitoring company is an important step to securing your property. Your input is important to all of us on this forum... Please share your experiences with us by choosing your alarm monitoring company.

When it is time to select an alarm monitoring company you can trust, get suggestions from your insurance company, from friends and neighbors, your local police department, or the Better Business Bureau. Once you have a list of about four or five companies, you can begin to determine what kind of alarm monitoring you need and select the company that can do the best job.

[JohnInFL]

Over 20+ years have used Kentronics, ADT, ACS, and Safetouch at home; same and possibly 1/2 dozen others at commercial sites.  The secret for us, is regular testing/tripping to ensure we get the promised callback and the elapsed time.  One warning and we "cancel for cause."  Unfortunately, most appear to get lazy over time.

  At commercial sites, staff is required to conduct monthly drill with a written log.  Business insurance companies discount our premiums by several times the monthly alarm monitoring cost.  For home, fire and extended coverage premium reduction is almost equal to the $25/month monitoring cost.  One Key to cost savings for us, is to provide insurance company/underwriter with written details of the system, and its monitoring, in their files.

  Great website!  Building new home so I'd like to see info on "security camera systems" integrated with the alarm systems you cover so very well.

John, the site newbie
Jax, FL

[mh]

I've used Alarm Relay for 2 years now.  They always call and call quickly!  I've never had a missed call, ever.  Plus I have pretty detailed response instructions that they follow to the letter.

[Marinedeath]

One thing that a customer should look at is the certifications and listings the central station has. My monitoring station has to be a member of the BBB, UL listed, a member of NFBAA and a member of the central station association.

To hold some of these qualifications they have to be inspected ever one to two years. Especially a UL Listed central station.

And it helps if it uses Enhanced verification.

[Humm]

One thing that a customer should look at is the certifications and listings the central station has. My monitoring station has to be a member of the BBB, UL listed, a member of NFBAA and a member of the central station association.

To hold some of these qualifications they have to be inspected ever one to two years. Especially a UL Listed central station.

And it helps if it uses Enhanced verification.

Now you did it -  YOU GOT MY FEATHERS UP....!!!

BBB - USLESS
UL LISTED - Semi Useless and way behind the times..!!!!!    Did I mention WAY OVER PRICED FOR WHAT THEY DO...!!!
NFBAA - What purpose does this serve, I have a menbership to the local animal society...!!!!!
CSA - I also have a membership in the local gym....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Good Old Boys Club)

Enhanced what.....?   The things that make you say HUMMMMM.......

Your panel tripppps....15 seconds to get to the Central Station, 40 seconds to place the call, 4 rings no answer dispatch, call call list.

Thats it. Take note of the times.  If it takes longer than 60 seconds to get a call, DUMP your central..!!

Internally, Most Central Station software runs on.....are you ready for this.......yep you guessed it..."DOS" with or without a windows overlay.  The best package out there runs great on 3.1 DOS and a 800MHZ machine.  So what do you think of that....?  Even at this speed the operators can't push buttons fast enough to keep up with the processing.  Anyway, a lot of the centrals are running better equipment because of the need of redundant servers that write to each other all the time for data back-up and all the frilly things they advertise.  Some even have back-ups to the back-ups (UL, did you hear that).

Try this one on for size........A central station has 250,000 accounts.  A storm rolls thru the US. or one of its coasts.  What is the chance of 10% of the alarms tripping durning the storm? (very good)!  How many operators are needed to answer the alarms?  What time frames are seen?

Gotta love this stufffff.


The central is the black art part of the total operation and really is the most least understood.

[trixie09]

Well, even though I don't have a company, I know something about the alarm monitoring company. Alarm systems use a variety of methods to detect unlawful entry. It can even be configured to only activate certain triggers, such as motion detectors, when the occupants are away, while continuing to keep external doors and windows active.

[justinblue111]

Hi all
I am from Dublin. I have almost 4.2 years of relationship with my security providing company. according to me choosing a service provider is not an easy task but the points that really needs to be focused on are the public review for the company and the past records. one more thing you must have is trust form both the side i.e. company and you. beside these other general thing should be checked like the technology they will be providing, equipment and all.

[MichaelHarris259]

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