Alarm Company incompetence

[kspmiller]

Texas:

Christmas morning 2008 our laundromat was robbed. They cut the phone lines and broke through the walls from the next door business. By cutting the phone lines it disabled our internet (which we use to monitor our security cameras from home) and cuts off the connection to the alarm company. But we got the wireless backup system in case of this situation. The alarm company was never informed of the robbery, an employee informed us and when we contacted the alarm company, they said they never received an alarm going off. We also found out they merged with another alarm company and that the wireless system was now coverted from Analog to Digital back in April 2008. Do we have a possible case against them. We have since switched alarm companies.

[Some Random Guy]

I would send the alarm company a letter asking them to reimburse you for the cost of the wireless backup service from April 2008 to January 2008 and for the value of the stolen property.

Assuming they don't immediately send you a check (like that would ever happen), I would negotiate with the alarm company and settle for the backup service cost.

This is based on your contention that they disabled the backup during the analog to digital switchover and failed to tell you that the service was no longer being provided.

[Kiawah]

When you test your monitoring system every quarter, when did you notice that the wireless functionality was not working?

Or perhaps a similar question, when was the last time that you tested it, and it worked?

[kspmiller]

Well the last time we were robbed was in 2007 and at the time we didnt have a wireless back system for our alarm system. During that time the robbers had cut the phone lines as well and the alarm company told us we need to have a wireless backup system in case it happened again. They've failed to notify us that they had merge with another company and most importantly that the technology we had was now absolete. From the time we setup the wireless backup system (analog) to prior to their conversion we didnt have a robbery, so never really got to test it in live situation.

[Zigner]

By definition, the "test" would NOT be in a "live" situation.

[Kiawah]

What contracts do you have?

- I deal with a local alarm company who installed my system, who charge for any actions I have them do, and will fix any hardware thing that is wrong.
- I have a contract with the call center, who have a system that my system will call and report the problem, and they handle any calls to them calling the police dept if they can't verify the person cancelling the call has the right authority. For this monitoring, I pay a quarterly bill and have a contract.
- I have the responsibility to test the system, which I do usually quarterly, to make sure the sensors are working correctly tripping the alarm, and the system is calling in correctly and reporting the right error conditions.


So I'd review your contracts, if you have any, to see who has what responsibility.

[xylene]

I am QUITE certain that your alarm company contract either:

Makes no guarantee of protection from loss

Limits the protection from loss to a nominal amount, usually the cost of service or something close to it.

Provides a certified business coverage to a dollar amount. (This would be very expensive - like what a bank uses)

You MAY have a claim for the service. OR not. Consult your contract. I know that our alarm contract specifically limits claims for fee refunds due to service unavailability.