GT490X fault - no repair apparently possible

[interestedamateur]

Good day All,

 

I am a user, rather than an installer, but this situation will probably interest many installers as well.

 

I had an alarm system installed by a reputable local company in 1991 and never had a problem.  In December 2012, I moved house and naturally turned to them for a new intruder system.  (They had actually been taken over by a larger company by then, but the local company was still "an independent operating division".)  A system was duly installed and all appeared to be fine until earlier this year when it suddenly occurred to me to ask the service engineer on his annual visit if he had tested the speech dialler function, which would call my mobile to alert me to any triggering.  He did not know that I had a speech dialler installed ("bit hard to spot unless you are looking for it") but he then checked it and found it was not working.  Given what he had said about not knowing it was installed, it appeared odds-on that it had not been checked since the first annual service in late 2013.  He then informed me that the control panel, a GT490X, was no longer being installed so repair was not possible and the replacement control panel they now used would not work with the Vocom speech dialler that was installed.  So, a big, and costly, reinstall to restore the speech dialler function.  In subsequent exchanges with the company, they stated that their equipment supplier had ceased to make the GT490X available in 2014.   I asked if the new panel had any kind of continuity of service guarantee from their supplier and they cheerfully said 20 years, so no problem.

 

This raises a huge question.  Should a company, as part of its due diligence to customers, have obtained an assurance from its supplier that its products would be available / maintainable  for a certain period before continuing to install a particular type of control panel?  My installation became unrepairable within two years of being installed, which to me appears to be the result of a very bad practice somewhere along the line.  If their relationship with their supplier was what we would hope was a normal commercial one; i.e. trust and willing disclosure of plans, then this situation - a drop-dead ending of supply and support - simply should not have arisen.

 

So, I would be grateful for any comment.  I would especially like to know if the GT490X really did become generally unavailable during 2014, or might my installer simply have decided to change its product offerings for its own commercial benefit; and blow the customer?

 

Thanks very much!

 

Cheers,

 

IA  

 

 

[MrHappy]

Your installer appears to nolonger support your product, the staff that installed 6 yrs could well have moved on, retired or died..

 

How do you expect the co. to offer continued support for your install when you haven't paid them any income in a number of yrs?

 

Should you be unhappy with this you simply find a different service provider who can support your system

[interestedamateur]

I actually pay an annual fee for support  (the company has had thousands from me over the decades) and they check out the system (takes 30 minutes) once each year.  So, I did not think it was unreasonable to expect a degree of consideration when it came to an expensive system becoming unrepairable in less than two years.  (If you bought a fridge - or even a car - and it broke down when just out of warranty, I think you would be most unhappy if the engineer told you that no spare parts were to be had; so just buy a new one.)  If you do have any system installed, you should expect to be able to repair if for a good many years, not just be told to replace it.

[MrHappy]

unhappy then change maintainer...

 

 

[norman]

I read it as you've had it 4 years? not a long time in real terms but what type of maintenance contract do you have with the maintenance company?

 

Sadly the sale of goods act offers no protection for lifecycle of supply, nor is there any legislation that I'm aware of.

[al-yeti]

4 hours ago, interestedamateur said:

Good day All,

 

I am a user, rather than an installer, but this situation will probably interest many installers as well.

 

I had an alarm system installed by a reputable local company in 1991 and never had a problem.  In December 2012, I moved house and naturally turned to them for a new intruder system.  (They had actually been taken over by a larger company by then, but the local company was still "an independent operating division".)  A system was duly installed and all appeared to be fine until earlier this year when it suddenly occurred to me to ask the service engineer on his annual visit if he had tested the speech dialler function, which would call my mobile to alert me to any triggering.  He did not know that I had a speech dialler installed ("bit hard to spot unless you are looking for it") but he then checked it and found it was not working.  Given what he had said about not knowing it was installed, it appeared odds-on that it had not been checked since the first annual service in late 2013.  He then informed me that the control panel, a GT490X, was no longer being installed so repair was not possible and the replacement control panel they now used would not work with the Vocom speech dialler that was installed.  So, a big, and costly, reinstall to restore the speech dialler function.  In subsequent exchanges with the company, they stated that their equipment supplier had ceased to make the GT490X available in 2014.   I asked if the new panel had any kind of continuity of service guarantee from their supplier and they cheerfully said 20 years, so no problem.

 

This raises a huge question.  Should a company, as part of its due diligence to customers, have obtained an assurance from its supplier that its products would be available / maintainable  for a certain period before continuing to install a particular type of control panel?  My installation became unrepairable within two years of being installed, which to me appears to be the result of a very bad practice somewhere along the line.  If their relationship with their supplier was what we would hope was a normal commercial one; i.e. trust and willing disclosure of plans, then this situation - a drop-dead ending of supply and support - simply should not have arisen.

 

So, I would be grateful for any comment.  I would especially like to know if the GT490X really did become generally unavailable during 2014, or might my installer simply have decided to change its product offerings for its own commercial benefit; and blow the customer?

 

Thanks very much!

 

Cheers,

 

IA  

 

 

Why can't the dialler work either panel?

 

I assume the panel works otherwise 

 

House basher would add a dialler for £200 

[interestedamateur]

Thanks for recent replies - much appreciated.

 

An additional clarification.  The company says they cannot (will not?) supply a replacement GT490X because they don't use them anymore.   (Actually, I now believe Risco still supply these - am trying to confirm.)  I do not know if the Vocom speech Dialler contained in the panel can be mended as an individual component or not, but if not, then replacing the GT490X with another one (no matter how annoying this would be) would still be preferable to having to install the new panel the company now supplies - because the existing wireless receiver that handles some remote sensors will not talk to the new control panel.  So, to regain the dialler function there are two technical options:

 

a. The company sources a replacement GT490X panel with its Vocom facility - clearly the quickest and easiest option, and the one I think they should do for a customer of nearly 30 years standing.

b. The company installs its new (and more expensive) panel with its version of speech dialler; and also replaces the wireless receiver and the remote sensors that go with it.   This is now getting a bit pricey.

 

It may be that the best answer is to cast off the existing installer/maintainer and get another firm to install a replacement GT490X and maintain it from now on.

 

Rather annoying to have to do that though - hence my quest for other people's opinions on the situation.

 

Cheers!

 

IA

 

 

[norman]

1 hour ago, norman said:

I read it as you've had it 4 years? not a long time in real terms but what type of maintenance contract do you have with the maintenance company?

?

[interestedamateur]

System was installed in Dec 2012, but the control panel was dropped from the supplier's product line during 2014 - so I had perhaps just 18 months  during which a failure could have been repaired with the original type of equipment - I think they should have arranged for an extension of the capability of repair for existing customers with that type of kit.  The dialler fault showed up in spring 2018, but could have failed any time after mid-2013 (and quite possibly during the warranty period...) which was the only time it was triggered for real.  The agreement was for an annual maintenance visit - I don't recall an option for free replacement of failed items being offered; does any installer dare to offer that?  

 

If they are now happy to offer repair capability of the new control panels for 20 years, why did they not arrange at least 10 years for the old kit when I had it installed?!

 

[PeterJames]

Just out of interest why do they not offer to fit a separate dialler to your existing panel?  Sorry if I missed the reason in a prior post.

We have all systems on daillers down as audible only, so our engineers would not necessarily know they are there. However, we set the alarm and set it off as part of the service visit and therefore we would expect the customer to say that they didnt get a call.