Guest Hopeful Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 Hi Site, Looks an interesting site and one for my question! The story so far... I had a security installation about five yrs ago from a reputable local firm. A year later I had my house extended and had to have the Main box moved and an additional sensor in the garage, but fitted by another (SSIAB) installer. We continued to use this installer for servicing, but since the main box was moved we encountered the alarm setting itself off when in the off mode. The installer visited us over five occasions, changing filters, disconnecting strobes etc to resolve the problem. The last comment was to change the control panel. Now I am no security installation expert but I was getting a little cheesedoff with paying this engineer to come out and "try" another new component to resolve the problem. It was a little like when I used to try and fix my first car without a mechanic. I would go through replacing all the bits oly to find it was something that a mechanic would have spotted immeadiatly. In the end I requested that they disconnect the tamper device and have had no prolems since. My problem is with the engineer, I have questioned why I sould keep paing him to visit and get the diagnosis wrong each time. If he were to tell me he had not a clue then I wouldn't have been so annoyed! What is the view of the members, should I have expected him to have fixed it or keep billing me everytime he had changed/tried something to resolve the problem??? Regards Hopeful.
morph Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 If he was Doctor, you would be dead by now What are the symptoms and what zone was it, type of detector? What filters has he fitted? Is the garage fed of the same supply as in the original position? What else changed in the house when the box was moved? Do the false alarms happen at the same time or random? Any pets etc to be considered? Bit more information and some of us might be able to help. Also what part of the country are you In, one of the guys may be able to assist you. Colin.
Guest Guest Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 If he was Doctor, you would be dead by now My wallet was certainly feeling the surgeons knife colin I was not really looking for techie advice as I have had the system serviced today by another company, they have given it an OK. (althought the tamper has been left as it was). I was just wanting to know whether I should have expected to keep picking up the tab for what I considered quite poor knowledge of security systems from someone (SSIAB)I expected would have diagnosed within a couple of visits, not four or five. Thanks for response and further advice, appreciated Hopeful. bye the way the main box is seperately fused from the main consumer fuse box. It has a veritas control box which works 6 zones. five are wired sensors in the rooms, the 6th is the front door breaker connections.
Guest Guest Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 Was it the same engineer every time? Really depends on what you have contracted them to do and agreed with them. Also were the called out for the same fault every time? but 4/5 visits seems excessive especially when it was installed by them. Personally I wouldn't want to pay either, but without knowing the whole story its hard to say either way and some false alarm problems are simple to sort out others can be a pain. A lot of engineers dont get trained or shown how to look for a problem and then the cause, so it ends up not being his fault, rather the company who employ him in that position. Colin.
Deltaseven Posted June 28, 2004 Posted June 28, 2004 Generally speaking, we would charge you once for the call out (one-off charge), and then charge engineer's time on site (for subsequent call-outs). We would also charge you for the components changed. If it turned out that the fault was something we had done incorrectly, or something we should have spotted immediately, we would cancel the labour charges from after the first visit. This does assume that the fault is the same as the original fault - don't forget that the same symptoms can be caused by different faults. (Eg, your headache could be caused by too much vodka last night or a nasty bout of the flu, and there is a different cure for both ) As Alarmgard says, it is difficult to pass judgement without knowing the full details.
norman Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 If we get a call back to the same fault within 14 day's no invoice is raised, however as stated previously intermittent faults are a nightmare and we can only go by the process of elimination. If you are not contracted to them i would expect a bill every time but with discretion. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Guest pto Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 I think it is a case of 'if it ain't bust, don't fix it' What was wrong with the first installer? Obviously he did a first class job with no problems... or at least you haven't seemed to mention any. SSAIB - what is the point of this body (or being a member of) when two of them have left the whole tamper circuit totally disconnected and yet gave the system a clean bill of health? You might as well disconnect the bell too. How dare he say the panel is faulty and try and make a quick quid when plainly it isn't - I'm sure he knew this already though. Jack
black knight Posted June 29, 2004 Posted June 29, 2004 if memory serves the tamper on a veritas is a spring that is on the PCB - have they just shorted it out? it sound like you were the victim of an inexperienced service enginner(s) who failed to keep you informed of his actions and results. As previously mentioned intermittent faults like this are the hardest to find but i must admit i,m baffled as to why they changed strobes and filters . given this type of fault you would meter out all tampers looking for hi res, and then - if no luck -(with customers permission) disc. some of the tampers explaining that it may or may not go off again depending on the result. At the same time you should agree with the customer some type of pricing structure FOR THE FULL INVESTIGATION so as there is no complaints later on re bills. it id my experience that if you are up front with people they are far happier at the end of the job. you say the tamper device has been left disconected - is that because it is on the main panel PCB and to repair it would mean replacing the whole panel?, if that is so i,m surpised they did,nt offer to put a seperate tamper switch on the box just connected to a tamper zone - at least then you would have had a fully secure system. paul THE BLACK KNIGHT "Any comments / opinions posted are my opinion only and do not represent those of my employer or Company."
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