KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
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comment on DIY and ESA / comment on collections
April 23, 2019
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comment on DIY and ESA from article on April 17, 2019
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Ken,
To Gene’s comment about DIY’ers and specifically his comments about the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association changing its name to ESA, his comment is full of Bovine Excrement. I agree with a tremendous amount of what Gene had to say about DIY’ers, but as you pointed out they are still here and need to be addressed by our sales people when given the chance. That is a training issue as much as it was when everyone was going for $0.00, down or $99, down for the installation. Though there is still a lot of business out there that is not as gullible when considering their security needs, it does not hurt to be forearmed with arguments against these new products.
Now I would like to address the name change of the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association. I became active in NBFAA in 1991 and within two years, I started proposing a name change. It was not popular, because people like Gene and myself (older guys) who had been in the industry for many more years than myself, not sure about when Gene started, were invested in the name. I remember flying to meetings and on the plane in conversation (when I mentioned the organization that I represented) there was slight laughter and the comment that they were unaware that Burglars had banded together and did the Fire represent arsonists. When the internet came on strong and you did a search for NBFAA, you were greeted with a whole new association, sexually oriented. I pushed the idea of changing the name for years with anyone I could get to listen and when it finally happened I was ecstatic. Now as far as the SHABBY HISTORY of the NBFAA, I agree we could have done better, and the way many of us tried to help with that was to stay involved and keep giving back to the industry that has shaped and molded many of our lives. We got better before the name change and continue to get better every year, a lot of which is directly accountable to a great Executive Director, Merlin Guilbeau. He has fought tooth and nail for this industry and our association.
Final words on this, Gene is correct (in my opinion) about much of what he said in his comments about DIY, but not at all on the reason the name change occurred from NBFAA to ESA. I made that motion along with many others and we were not trying to cover up anything, just make our association better than it was. Oh, just in case it is not clear about how I feel about Gene, if it were not for strong people like him willing to share their opinions with the industry we would not be where we are today. He is a fountain of knowledge and insight into many of the things plaguing our industry, and I have always been happy to receive his council whenever he was willing to share it.
Tom Donaldson
AT Systems
Dublin, Ohio
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comment on collections from article on April 17, 2019
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Ken
How long should the collections process be before disconnecting services?
Patrick F
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Response
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Good question and the answer isn't a fixed time; it's more of a gut feeling sometimes.
Certainly there are some events that should cause you to engage in immediate collection or recovery action. A termination letter from the subscriber; learning the subscriber moved; alarm disconnected; notice of bankruptcy, to name a few.
But failure to get paid, which involves most of the subscriber breach issues, should not be a fixed hard and fast rule, unless your operation is so big that you can't spend the time to evaluate a single subscriber in default. The rule of thumb should be that you need to take action when the subscriber falls out of its historical payment pattern. That's also assuming you are willing to tolerate any late payment. Unless you have a strict policy on late payment, and stick to it, you are going to have stragglers. But if a subscriber typically runs 120 days late, but otherwise pays reliably, you may want to continue service. On the other hand, if your subscriber pays within 10 days of invoice, and it's now 30 days overdue, you need to find out why.
The sooner you make inquiry the better chance you have of getting paid. That rule applies to when to send to "collection" also, especially if you are sending the collection to K&K. My staff is trained to try and save the account if possible, and that's more easily done when the default is fresh. It's hard to salvage an account when another alarm company has already replaced the alarm. [We've done it].
Why continue to carry an account that is in default in payment? I suppose there is a possibility that the account will start paying. Probably just as likely that the account will appreciate your free services and recommend you to someone else who will, no doubt, end up with the same arrangement. Other than these reasons, the account is costing you money and it's not worth anything because a buyer of your accounts will exclude it.
Bottom line: an account 30 days overdue should be referred to my office. Call our head paralegal Kathleen Lampert at 516 747 6700 x 319 or email her at KLampert@Kirschenbaumesq.com. Concierge Clients should contact the Concierge Program Coordinator Stacy Spector,Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304 or SSpector@KirschenbaumEsq.com for assistance.
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You can check out the program and sign up here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/concierge or contact our Program Coordinator Stacy Spector, Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304.
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