Alarm monitoring cost and supply??

hick

Hi Folks, my monitoring contract is up for renewal
Got a bit of a land with the price. They said the cost of the 12 months is €150 which doesn't include "call out" which is €108, all ex vat
I asked why it needed a call out and I wasn't given a great answer.
Upshot they will give me a bundle of €250 total for monitoring and maintenance.
I asked why I couldn't just take the monitoring option at €150 and was told they have to come out and inspect the system and change codes etc. All a bit waffly to be honest.

2 question: typically what's the annual monitoring cost for an alarm? and how easy is it to switch provider? ie can I use my current system with another company.

Appreciate any feedback
hick

KoolKid

€250 is a very good deal for service maintenance & monitoring provided they are not limiting you to just the one call out.
We do a package for €300 which covers unlimited call outs. (Than includes VAT)
€150 for monitoring is around average. Take that a call out at between €70- €100 . And take it that you are going to have one service each year anyway. That means you are getting coverage for the year for between €50 & €80 .
You can have monitoring without service contract, but you will not have Garda response & you system will not comply to EN50131 if not serviced after a year.
This may also have implications for your insurance cover if you are claiming a discount for your alarm being up to standard &/or monitored.
Easy enough to change providers, what system have you?

fred funk }{

The regulations say that a monitored alarm must be serviced by a certified alarm installer. That means at least one service per year. Now, you can either pay for that one visit when it takes place or take out a service contract which will cover you for that visit and all other call outs through out the year if needed.

€108 Ex VAT for a call out is a bit steep and a strange price TBH.

2 question: typically what's the annual monitoring cost for an alarm? and how easy is it to switch provider? ie can I use my current system with another company.

€250 all in is a very good price. Depending on the age of an alarm, size of the premises and condition of the alarm we would roughly charge between €200 and €350 for a domestic.

It's easy to switch alarm company but to switch monitoring company it can cause a few problems. If it's an old system it might need to be upgraded and certified before another monitoring company takes it over and whatever monitoring company you choose you must have your alarm tied to an alarm company.

Hope that helped

altor

hick wrote: »

Hi Folks, my monitoring contract is up for renewal
Got a bit of a land with the price. They said the cost of the 12 months is €150 which doesn't include "call out" which is €108, all ex vat
I asked why it needed a call out and I wasn't given a great answer.
Upshot they will give me a bundle of €250 total for monitoring and maintenance.

That is about the price it is to have a maintenance contract plus monitoring on the alarm depending on how many visits you require but most alarms only ever need the one visit.

hick wrote: »

I asked why I couldn't just take the monitoring option at €150 and was told they have to come out and inspect the system and change codes etc. All a bit waffly to be honest.

You can do this but you wont have garda response on the alarm. If you dont have garda response you may as well not have the alarm monitored. He is talking waffle saying he has to change codes as he should be there to give the alarm a service. The reason you need this is to keep the alarm up to standards plus making sure you alarm system does what it is meant to do "protect your home"

hick wrote: »

2 question: typically what's the annual monitoring cost for an alarm? and how easy is it to switch provider? ie can I use my current system with another company.

Maintenance and monitoring is €200 - €250 per year.
Any PSA registered company can switch your alarm to a different monitoring station and provide you with a maintenance contract. Your alarm can still be used once it can give a verified alarm to the monitoring station.

hick

Gents

thanks very much for the feedback, I have a GardTec GTi wirefree system.
I have to say though I still feel €250 a year in the current climate is on the high side, €150 I could live with, in fairness not a lot happens, at least that's the hope at any rate.

altor

hick wrote: »

Gents

thanks very much for the feedback, I have a GardTec GTi wirefree system.
I have to say though I still feel €250 a year in the current climate is on the high side, €150 I could live with, in fairness not a lot happens, at least that's the hope at any rate.

I too have my alarm monitored but at lease if something was to happen when i needed the emergency services i am well covered, the cost would not be an issue if they are ever needed. It is just for added peace of mind

KoolKid

I look at it like this. In most cases your alarm goes off , the ARC rings you & you handle it yourself. Now suppose the day comes when you need to use a panic alarm ( hope if never does ) If the response you get saves you or you family, how much is all the years you paid for it worth. Say 10 years at €300, that €3000. A small price to pay.

altor

koolkid wrote: »

I look at it like this. In most cases your alarm goes off , the ARC rings you & you handle it yourself. Now suppose the day comes when you need to use a panic alarm ( hope if never does ) If the response you get saves you or you family, how much is all the years you paid for it worth. Say 10 years at €300, that €3000. A small price to pay.

Totally agree koolkid. I know most people think of monitoring as a extra bill but at the end of the day if you need a quick response a text or phone call off a self monitored alarm wont get you the same response.

hick

I don't begrudge you guys defending your charges but using that rational you could say, a €1000 a year is a small price to pay if something was to go wrong

Just giving some feedback as an individual and having spoken about it with friends and colleagues over the past few days, we all agree that the charge is steep in today's climate. While I appreciate it is a service and can't be given away it's also true to say that a lot of other sectors have improved their costs in the past year it seems speaking to folk that alarm monitoring has maintained the charges over the past while, I assume this will be followed with how low costs have been maintained during the good time

KoolKid

hick wrote: »

I don't begrudge you guys defending your charges but using that rational you could say, a €1000 a year is a small price to pay if something was to go wrong

Just giving some feedback as an individual and having spoken about it with friends and colleagues over the past few days, we all agree that the charge is steep in today's climate. While I appreciate it is a service and can't be given away it's also true to say that a lot of other sectors have improved their costs in the past year it seems speaking to folk that alarm monitoring has maintained the charges over the past while, I assume this will be followed with how low costs have been maintained during the good time

So why pay monitoring if you think you will never need it. Not trying to defend the cost because I think it is well worth it. You have to take the logic of what if. Sure if you didn't your wouldn't have an alarm let alone monitoring.
The fact is monitoring fees have come down a lot over the years. There was a time it would cost £500+ .

hick

Like I said before it's just feedback, a lot of folk just feel the cost is a bit high and being in the service industry myself I've had to reduce my costs by at least 20% across the board. But my costs have come down also so it's a means passing on savings.

I do want the service and I do appreciate it, just knowing what's involved in network monitoring from an IT point of view I have a different perspective to the standard user. Basically I'm shopping about and have 2 weeks to decide what to do. I do appreciate all the feed back I've received this evening, information is quite limited on what options are available to people so thanks again.

fred funk }{

being in the service industry myself I've had to reduce my costs by at least 20% across the board. But my costs have come down also so it's a means passing on savings

Cost have not gone down for alarm installers. Alarm installers have huge overheads that other service industries don't have.

We have to be PSA licensed which cost euro 2250 every two years and we have to be certified by an independent certification body which costs over a grand a year. On top of that we have public liability and all the other overheads of running a business. We have to jump through a lot of hoops to be able to install alarms so in fairness you're not comparing like with like.

I charge euro 70 for a call out charge and that includes 13.5% VAT and the tax man gets his bit out of it too. That includes fuel costs and maybe a toll bridge or two. I often travel an hour to get to the job and an hour back.
So it's it not quite as you think it is.

KoolKid

Fred funk sums it up fairly well. Also bear in mind there is a lot of paper work involved for PSA, whichever certification body you use & the monitoring station.
Having said that, Most places will be prepared to haggle a bit. But don't expect a years service for little or nothing.

hick

sorry lads but I have similar hoops, certifications, public liability, governance etc as well as do most others in the technical service industry, afraid that doesn't wash. I've still had to lower my costs. In some cases I had no choice last feb I received a letter from all government departments I work with stating that tendered business must reduce casts by 23% or feel free to terminate contract.

As I mentioned before I don't want it for nothing, it is a service but as I said repeatedly,this is feed back friends, colleagues and myself who are typical of your customers, people think it's an expensive service, take it, or leave it as you will. I'm sure there's a lot of people who just cant afford it anymore, even at 0.60c a day!

KoolKid

Sorry Hick, is this commercial maintenance & monitoring?
If so you are getting an excellant deal. Not to mention whatever discount you would get would probably be cancelled by a rise in insurance.
Like I said shop around, most places will be prepared to haggle. But do it sensibly & look for a sensible discount. And for Gods sake don't use the line about paying for something that might never happen. We all have security & Insurance & health cover in the hope that it never happens.

hick

koolkid this is for home, thanks for all the feedback

enol

I was looking for something else & found this thread! Anyway, I can't claim to have indepth knowledge of alarm monitoring systems (I'm a graphic designer) but I found out quite a bit about them recently when I done a flyer for a guy who does this, he's PSA reg'd, very professional setup by the looks of things, well established, and he's offering free alarm monitoring for the first 3months-1year, a 10% discount on a new system, and can work with existing alarm systems too, he mentioned that alarm monitoring systems can be done for €3 a week, which works about around €150pa. What he's offering seems to be a lot better than whats on offer here by the looks of it so I just thought I'd let you know.
Feel free to PM me if you want his details
I've no financial link or gain from this by the way, just passing the knowledge

KoolKid

hick wrote: »

koolkid this is for home, thanks for all the feedback

Ok Hick, just sounded like it was for a business from you previous post.
Like I said shop around & haggle a bit. But there is not a massive mark up for company's when everything is taken in account.

enol wrote: »

I was looking for something else & found this thread! Anyway, I can't claim to have indepth knowledge of alarm monitoring systems (I'm a graphic designer) but I found out quite a bit about them recently when I done a flyer for a guy who does this, he's PSA reg'd, very professional setup by the looks of things, well established, and he's offering free alarm monitoring for the first 3months-1year, a 10% discount on a new system, and can work with existing alarm systems too, he mentioned that alarm monitoring systems can be done for €3 a week, which works about around €150pa. What he's offering seems to be a lot better than whats on offer here by the looks of it so I just thought I'd let you know.
Feel free to PM me if you want his details
I've no financial link or gain from this by the way, just passing the knowledge

€150 is around average for monitoring. But to maintain Garda response & to retain the EN standard, the system must be serviced every year. For this service alone expect to pay €70 upwards. Also bear in mind EN50131 may be a requirement by your insurance company. The difference between that & a maintenance contract for a full year is very little. Even if you have one other call out you have saved money.

Jnealon

I do monitoring and maintenance for 150 per year on all my new installs so I am sure that there are others who charge the same.
I would advise you to shop around until you get what you want.

KoolKid

Hi jnealon, trying to run a few figures on whats worthwhile on this.
Is you maintenance contract limited to a numbet of callouts? How much do you charge for a callout?

Jnealon

It's monitoring plus one service per year. I rarely get called out between services and when I do it's chargeable but a lot of the time it can be done remotely.

KoolKid

Taking callouts at €70 and then monitoring fees there is very little in it after that

altor

Jnealon wrote: »

I do monitoring and maintenance for 150 per year on all my new installs so I am sure that there are others who charge the same.
I would advise you to shop around until you get what you want.

If the alarm is a new install it should have a maintenance agreement that will cover the client for a year if any faults arise as per EN50131.
So the €150 in this case is the normal amount someone should pay.
If a company was charging a customer to fix a fault within there first year i would be complaining to who ever certified them to install alarms.

Jnealon wrote: »

It's monitoring plus one service per year. I rarely get called out between services and when I do it's chargeable but a lot of the time it can be done remotely.

After the first year if the alarm is connected to a monitoring station the alarm need a service "not just connecting remotely" to maintain Garda response and to retain the EN50131 standard.

€150 - €180 for monitoring plus €50 - €70 for the service seems around the price for this service but some charge more. The charge the op is being asked for seems strange (€108 plus vat) for the service so i can see why he is complaining but without the service the alarm can not have garda response.

Jnealon

Altor, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make by quoting my post twice. Is it that I offer monitoring and maintenance for €150 and you can't.:)
All callouts in the first year are covered, I think this is what you call a warranty.
Connecting remotely to an alarm would be a value added service and would save the customer a callout in certain situations.
I dont see whay the big deal is. There are two companies local to me who charge €180 for the same. The bottom line is that I negotiated a better deal from my central station which allows me to offer this service at this price.

KoolKid

Jnealon wrote: »

Altor, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make by quoting my post twice. Is it that I offer monitoring and maintenance for €150 and you can't.:)
All callouts in the first year are covered, I think this is what you call a warranty.
Connecting remotely to an alarm would be a value added service and would save the customer a callout in certain situations.
I dont see whay the big deal is. There are two companies local to me who charge €180 for the same. The bottom line is that I negotiated a better deal from my central station which allows me to offer this service at this price.

The first year is obviousally irrelevant. It must be a very good deal you are getting from the monitoring station you use. Even taking a 40-50% discount on monitoring this is not worth while unless you get another chargeable call from the customer within the year. So how much do you charge for the first year?

fred funk }{

Jnealon wrote: »

Altor, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make by quoting my post twice. Is it that I offer monitoring and maintenance for €150 and you can't.:)
All callouts in the first year are covered, I think this is what you call a warranty.
Connecting remotely to an alarm would be a value added service and would save the customer a callout in certain situations.
I dont see whay the big deal is. There are two companies local to me who charge €180 for the same. The bottom line is that I negotiated a better deal from my central station which allows me to offer this service at this price.

I think what his point was that you said you charge euro 150 for monitoring and service contract for all new installs. All new installs are under warranty for the first year anyway so effectively you're only charging for monitoring.

I'm interested to know how much you would charge a customer for monitoring and contract if you took over their 15 Yr old alarm.

Jnealon

Monitoring is €99 for first year, then 150 pa for m&m

fred funk }{

Hey Jnealon,

Just wondering does 150 cover every domestic regardless of age and size of the premises?

KoolKid

So its €99 monitoring & €51 for a service?. Not really a maintenace contract . You are simply renewing you monitoring & paying for the service .
Really doing it for almost nothing unless you get another call out as far as I can see.

Jnealon

koolkid wrote: »

So its €99 monitoring & €51 for a service?. Not really a maintenace contract . You are simply renewing you monitoring & paying for the service .
Really doing it for almost nothing unless you get another call out as far as I can see.

Not sure what you're getting at here. I am only interested in offering people a fair deal.
I think you need to examine your costs and tell me how you can justify what you charge.
Anyway this has gone way ot so feel free to contact me offline and I can put you in contact with an arc that does not charge an arm and a leg

fred funk }{

I think you need to examine your costs and tell me how you can justify what you charge.

I think what we're really discussing here is the different types of maintenance contracts being offered to customers.

It seems that you are offering cheaper annual costs and allowing for one service pa but the customer has to pay for other call outs throughout the year. This is doable for the first year or two of the alarms life because the chances are that the alarm wont give any trouble for a few years anyway. If the customer calls you out twice with in the year they have to pay 150 plus two call out charges, is that correct?

We charge more than you pa but we dont charge for any call outs throughout the year even if we are out ten times during the year. All the customer pays for are parts.

KoolKid

fred funk wrote: »

We charge more than you pa but we dont charge for any call outs throughout the year even if we are out ten times during the year. All the customer pays for are parts.

And if you take the life of an alarm as 10-12 years , the real service contract will be better value.

Jnealon

Even with 2 additional call outs per year I would still be cheaper . The chances of this happening are very slim so why charge everyone extra on the off chance that it might.
This is my business model and I do quite well from it and my customers are very happy with it.

Edit by Stoner names of other contractors removed.

KoolKid

Anyone can do one service for €51 . But its not a service contract & should not be sold as such. They are paying monitoring for the year & for 1 service, I think to call one service a maintaince contract is a bit misleading.
Also I would request you remove any company names from your previous post as you are not comparing like with like to claim to be cheaper.

Jnealon

I offer a maintenance and monitoring contract for €150, it includes monitoring for one year and one maintenance visit per year.
On my last audit the auditor found no problems with it, in fact he commented that my paper work, including my maintenance contracts were one of the best he had seen
What is wrong with that
You might not agree with it but as I already mentioned my customers like it and that is all I care about

KoolKid

You are charging for annual monitoring & the routine maintaince call. As there is nothing else included in the maintenance payment I don't think it should be called a contract.

fred funk }{

Jnealon wrote: »

I offer a maintenance and monitoring contract for €150, it includes monitoring for one year and one maintenance visit per year.
On my last audit the auditor found no problems with it, in fact he commented that my paper work, including my maintenance contracts were one of the best he had seen
What is wrong with that
You might not agree with it but as I already mentioned my customers like it and that is all I care about

What extra does a customer get with a contract over someone who doesn't. I'm genuinely interested in this as I really don't understand what exactly it is that you're selling. Maybe the Divil is in the detail

Stoner

I don't think this thread has anything left to offer. I'm going to lock the thread because it has potential to generate friction on the forum and it could possibly be interpreted as a revisit to an older closed thread relating to uniform costs.