This is the third article in the central station selection consideration series.
The old adage, "you get what you pay for" undoubtedly holds true for central station monitoring as well as in other situations. If you shop around you will find that central stations provide their services for a wide range of prices. Non UL burglar alarm monitoring without daily reporting can range from less than $2 to over $6 a month. That's a wide spread, especially if you have several hundred accounts.
Not all central stations can offer the all the services that you need, such as fire, medical alert [personal emergency response], radio backup or certified central station monitoring. Obviously you can expect to pay more for these services, as well as any special reporting or response instructions you may want that is in excess of what the central station ordinarily provides.
More often than not the selection of the central station turns more on personality between you and the central station representative, whether it be the owner or a salesman, than it does on pricing. This is not necessarily wrong, and in fact may be justified, since your comfort level dealing with companies that service you, such as your selected central station, is important. I think that pricing, while a consideration, is perhaps the least important consideration, and certainly the other considerations that I have suggested and will cover in this serious of articles are far more important in my opinion.
Having said that however, which no doubt will endear me to my central station clients, be keenly aware that your central station knows the pricing of its competitors, and is sensitive that you are interested in keeping your expenses down. Don't be shy about suggesting that perhaps a discount is in order, or a special rate, for whatever reason you can.