saving on security doesnt pay

[Guest Peter James]

I recently did a survey of a medium detached property in a small village in Sussex.

The prospective customer spent the whole time of my survey on the phone to his insurance company, making a claim on an accident with his car (top of the range BMW)telling them numorous time that he was paying an additional three hundred pounds a month for the extras.

When he finaly got of the phone and we started to disscuss his security. We talked about cable runs and the fact of him not wanting an external sounder up due to the building being listed, and the need of panic buttons as he often worked away leaving his wife and daughters .

I assumed that he would want remote signalling anyway, as the house was full of nice things and a little of the beaten track, and all his neighboors had been burgled in the last three months.

I explained the alternate types of signaling how they work and then disscused money.

After explaining the different monitoring fees (digital communicator per year being alot less than what he was pays for his BMW per month) he said "do I have to have it monitored".

I was lost for words at this point, but he insisted audible was the route he wanted to take and he didnt need a detector on the landing(saving a further £30.00) .

He accepted my quote (against my advice) and the instalation was a few weeks ago.

Anyway I got a phone call this morning from the engineer on call, the customers phoned to say that he's just been burgled and wants remote signalling fitted today (and he,s paying Sunday rate).

Im still amazed by what people do to save a few pounds.

Pete

[morph]

The customer always knows best Pete

That is until they have a problem

They forget that we deal with alarms and the consequences of burglary every day and that they only look at it every time they move into a new property.

If it was as simple as they thought, we would be working at something else

[Service Engineer]

Once went to do a Home alarm quote, and the customer mentioned how his alarm for his Merc had cost almost £900, then started moaning at the £575 + vat i`d quoted for his intruder alarm ?

Whats wrong with peoples priorities...?

[Guest oldtimer]

A customer once sat on my shoulder complaining that why should he paying to get

his alarm serviced. His wife said ignore him you installed the system 10 years ago

and it has not missed a beat.

I said to her you know what annoys me is that some people will pay £15K for a new car and leave it outside the house but will fight me to the death for the cost of a service or a modification.

The guy then went quite and sloped off to the lounge.

I then went to test the garage doors and yes you guessed it there was the brand new baby all polished and tucked up in bed.

This mentality is not a one off the security system is the last thing that people

want to spend their money on.

PS did I feel bad when I went into the garage NO WAY

[Deltaseven]

I don't really think we can blame people for their attitudes towards their alarm systems! As my first manager used to say (often several times a day) "An alarm system is a grudge purchase".

Nobody actually WANTS an alarm system. More importantly - no-one ever wants to HEAR their alarm system - it can only be bad news, either a genuine activation, or something gone wrong! I do know how you feel though!

D7