Who will be coming into your home to install and service your system? Remember, installation and service personnel are guests in your home with access to the entire premises.
You want to make certain the service people and installers are licensed and register with the state as an alarm agent and have been "lice scanned" with criminal back-ground check.
Will the company give you the service you expect? While it is easy to talk about service, it is often more difficult to deliver it.
Look carefully at the name of the company and find out if they are an authorized dealer of a national company or perform installations to immediately turn around and sell your account to an acquisition firm or central stations.
Will the company be around when you need them? There are also the big national companies where you will be known only by your account number.
In between are companies that have a community commitment and a local presence.
Will you receive thorough instruction on operating the system? While most home security systems are easy to use, you deserve to be completely educated in order to take full advantage of the system.
Ask for full instructional information.
If you are not satisfied with the explanation, you may want to consider talking to other security firms.
Understanding how to use your security system properly key to proper home security.
The alarm company should also have comprehensive videos and instruction on how to use your alarm system available 24 hours day 7 days a week.
Will the company sell your monitoring to someone else? It can and does happen every day.
You think the company that installed your system is handling the monitoring and you discover that your account has been sold to an unknown "monitoring center.
" You have no way to investigate the quality and dependability of the service.
You want to make sure your security company has a continuing interest in the protection of your home and family.
Does the company offer total home protection? As you learn more about the home security industry, you will discover that there are differences in companies.
Some are small while others are large; some are totally sales driven while others are customer committed.
There is another important distinction.
There are a few security companies that respond to your individual lifestyle.
Look for one with this total home approach.
The monthly monitoring you pay should give you total home protection.
Does the security system have redundant or back-up monitoring capabilities? This is very important question and should be answered with a simple yes or no! A reliable security system must have redundant backup system for communicating or use a service that can't be easily circumvented like a standard telephone line.
If your local police department penalizes you for false alarms, what is their policy and fee schedule? First let's define a false alarm? A false alarm is defined as, "any activation or transmission of any alarm signal causing a police response where an emergency situation does not exist.
If your system is activated and the Police Department was able to determine that it was not a "false alarm", there is usually no charge.
In most cities Alarm Users are allowed a maximum of 3 false alarms in a 365 day period.
There will be a charge for any additional false alarms during this time, and the fees are usually on a progressively sliding scale.
You want to make certain the service people and installers are licensed and register with the state as an alarm agent and have been "lice scanned" with criminal back-ground check.
Will the company give you the service you expect? While it is easy to talk about service, it is often more difficult to deliver it.
Look carefully at the name of the company and find out if they are an authorized dealer of a national company or perform installations to immediately turn around and sell your account to an acquisition firm or central stations.
Will the company be around when you need them? There are also the big national companies where you will be known only by your account number.
In between are companies that have a community commitment and a local presence.
Will you receive thorough instruction on operating the system? While most home security systems are easy to use, you deserve to be completely educated in order to take full advantage of the system.
Ask for full instructional information.
If you are not satisfied with the explanation, you may want to consider talking to other security firms.
Understanding how to use your security system properly key to proper home security.
The alarm company should also have comprehensive videos and instruction on how to use your alarm system available 24 hours day 7 days a week.
Will the company sell your monitoring to someone else? It can and does happen every day.
You think the company that installed your system is handling the monitoring and you discover that your account has been sold to an unknown "monitoring center.
" You have no way to investigate the quality and dependability of the service.
You want to make sure your security company has a continuing interest in the protection of your home and family.
Does the company offer total home protection? As you learn more about the home security industry, you will discover that there are differences in companies.
Some are small while others are large; some are totally sales driven while others are customer committed.
There is another important distinction.
There are a few security companies that respond to your individual lifestyle.
Look for one with this total home approach.
The monthly monitoring you pay should give you total home protection.
Does the security system have redundant or back-up monitoring capabilities? This is very important question and should be answered with a simple yes or no! A reliable security system must have redundant backup system for communicating or use a service that can't be easily circumvented like a standard telephone line.
If your local police department penalizes you for false alarms, what is their policy and fee schedule? First let's define a false alarm? A false alarm is defined as, "any activation or transmission of any alarm signal causing a police response where an emergency situation does not exist.
If your system is activated and the Police Department was able to determine that it was not a "false alarm", there is usually no charge.
In most cities Alarm Users are allowed a maximum of 3 false alarms in a 365 day period.
There will be a charge for any additional false alarms during this time, and the fees are usually on a progressively sliding scale.
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