Hi there
For the last couple of years we have been deflecting small claims court threats from our alarm company.
We are supposed to pay an annual maintenance charge but are refusing to on a number of grounds.
To begin with they changed the number that the modem dials without having the decency to tell us. We had been paying 7p each time we armed or disarmed the alarm (an average of 4 calls per day). Now we pay 70p each time, after they moved us onto a 090 number.
I am assuming that this was done at the time of the last "service". If so it is even more galling because I asked the engineer if a 0800 number existed and he told me that I was lucky that I was not on one of the 090 numbers.
It was during the service that the firm decided to fit one of the two pet sensors that we had been promised 6 years earlier as part of the initial install (non pet friendly sensors having been fitted at that time). Whilst swapping out the sensor he noticed that the lounge sensor had never been active/online.
Although I am annoyed that it seems likely that he changed the modem dial up number at least he is the first competent engineer that we have had for years- the previous one forgot to tell the monitoring station that he was testing the alarm and the old bill turned up after he tested the panic button. He failed to notice that if you open the roller shutter on the garage (something we seldom do) then the alarm starts bleeping (still does).
Our fire sensors trip if you forget to turn the cooker hood on when boiling a pan of potatoes and although we reset the alarm at our end and all shows as fine we have discovered that it has been showing as on-fire at the monitoring station some weeks later.
Infact the sensor upstairs went off last week after a shower (for the first time ever) and it is still refusing to reset so we are unable to set the alarm.
I appreciate that I need to phone the alarm company to come out and tamper with the fire sensor so that it will not lock in the open position anymore but the area manger is a muppet. He refuses to answer direct questions, eg why was the number changed? and replies that our telco should be charging per second even though I keep telling him that both virgin media and bt retail charge per minute.
Frankly I would be happy to walk away from the contract if they would just give us the alarm system that we paid for all those years ago but they wont do that until we pay them for the services that have never been done and they are unwilling to refund us any of the money for increased phone charges. They have suggested moving us onto an ip based system (at a cost!!!).
At a rough estimation they are losing £300 in service charges but we are paying an extra £900 in phone charges
This is a large national company that has been busy buying smaller firms over the years. Our alarm was initially with a small firm in watford before they were taken over.
My questions are:
1. Is it legal for them to have changed the number with out telling us?
2. Do they get some of the money from the call charges?
3. Should fire sensors be cleaned during the service and is this why they seem to be going off more often?
4. At the time of installation I did ask for a rate of rise sensor in the lounge next to the kitchen rather than an ionising smoke sensor, I got the latter. Would the former be permissible or does it have to be the latter?
5. Can we just switch to another firm or do we need them to provide the engineer codes (I think the alarm is a meridian or something similar).
Sorry about the ranty nature of this post but I am becoming increasingly despondent and pi$$ed off.
Thanks in advance.
For the last couple of years we have been deflecting small claims court threats from our alarm company.
We are supposed to pay an annual maintenance charge but are refusing to on a number of grounds.
To begin with they changed the number that the modem dials without having the decency to tell us. We had been paying 7p each time we armed or disarmed the alarm (an average of 4 calls per day). Now we pay 70p each time, after they moved us onto a 090 number.
I am assuming that this was done at the time of the last "service". If so it is even more galling because I asked the engineer if a 0800 number existed and he told me that I was lucky that I was not on one of the 090 numbers.
It was during the service that the firm decided to fit one of the two pet sensors that we had been promised 6 years earlier as part of the initial install (non pet friendly sensors having been fitted at that time). Whilst swapping out the sensor he noticed that the lounge sensor had never been active/online.
Although I am annoyed that it seems likely that he changed the modem dial up number at least he is the first competent engineer that we have had for years- the previous one forgot to tell the monitoring station that he was testing the alarm and the old bill turned up after he tested the panic button. He failed to notice that if you open the roller shutter on the garage (something we seldom do) then the alarm starts bleeping (still does).
Our fire sensors trip if you forget to turn the cooker hood on when boiling a pan of potatoes and although we reset the alarm at our end and all shows as fine we have discovered that it has been showing as on-fire at the monitoring station some weeks later.
Infact the sensor upstairs went off last week after a shower (for the first time ever) and it is still refusing to reset so we are unable to set the alarm.
I appreciate that I need to phone the alarm company to come out and tamper with the fire sensor so that it will not lock in the open position anymore but the area manger is a muppet. He refuses to answer direct questions, eg why was the number changed? and replies that our telco should be charging per second even though I keep telling him that both virgin media and bt retail charge per minute.
Frankly I would be happy to walk away from the contract if they would just give us the alarm system that we paid for all those years ago but they wont do that until we pay them for the services that have never been done and they are unwilling to refund us any of the money for increased phone charges. They have suggested moving us onto an ip based system (at a cost!!!).
At a rough estimation they are losing £300 in service charges but we are paying an extra £900 in phone charges
This is a large national company that has been busy buying smaller firms over the years. Our alarm was initially with a small firm in watford before they were taken over.
My questions are:
1. Is it legal for them to have changed the number with out telling us?
2. Do they get some of the money from the call charges?
3. Should fire sensors be cleaned during the service and is this why they seem to be going off more often?
4. At the time of installation I did ask for a rate of rise sensor in the lounge next to the kitchen rather than an ionising smoke sensor, I got the latter. Would the former be permissible or does it have to be the latter?
5. Can we just switch to another firm or do we need them to provide the engineer codes (I think the alarm is a meridian or something similar).
Sorry about the ranty nature of this post but I am becoming increasingly despondent and pi$$ed off.
Thanks in advance.