Mix Up and Burglary  - Who is to blame?

 April 23, 2013

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 Question

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Ken,

Bizarre situation. Here it goes:

We installed an alarm system in Philadelphia. When setting up, we always cross reference address with the correct dispatch authority and then personally contact the dispatch number to verify they do in fact dispatch for that particular address. It was confirmed.

Then, here’s what happened:

3/9

19:37 – Alarm Transmits to Central Station

19:38 – CS contacts Dispatch number on account. Operator at that number said number was incorrect, and gave CS correct dispatch number.

19:42- CS manually dials new number and is able to Dispatch police but it was a false alarm.

We were not informed of the invalid number, and the account was not updated by CS.

3/9

20:06 – Another Alarm Transmits to Central Station

20:06 – CS contacts Dispatch number on account (the number that was supposedly incorrect previously) and dispatch was successful. However, another false alarm.

AND FINALLY ON 3/17 – A REAL BURGLARY

12:37 – Alarm Transmits to Central Station

12:38 – CS contacts Dispatch and was told they do not dispatch. They refused dispatch. Tried contacting owner on call list, and was unsuccessful. CS did NOTHING after this.

It wasn’t until 15:13 (almost 3 hours later), when ANOTHER alarm came in (probably as intruders were leaving through another door), that CS contacted Dispatch again (same number that refused dispatch earlier in the day). It rang busy 5 times, then was finally answered. They dispatched at 15:17.

Our clients were robbed. The intruders had 3 hours to completely remove televisions, computers, etc.

The question here is who is at fault? The agency (Police Department) for refusing dispatch, CS for not contacting us about the “invalid information” (which really isn’t invalid) back in the beginning of the month, or us?

Thanks in advance,

Brandon

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Answer

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    I will make a few assumptions.  That you have one of my Standard Form Contracts, in this case covering monitoring; that Dispatch means 911.

    So it seems 3 alarms came in and each time the CS attempted to or did reach 911. I can only guess that your concern is that CS allowed 3 hours to pass from the unsuccessful call to 911 and the last alarm, which the police decided to ignore anyway.

    The who's to blame is too broad a question, because the only question you need to ask is if you're to blame.  You're the dealer; you signed the subscriber up for monitoring and sub contracted the service out to the CS.  CS may have had incorrect 911 contact information, I suppose because it doesn't call 911 but a designated emergency number that only CS use in your area.

    Even if you provided inaccurate information for call numbers you are not going to be liable; your contract will protect you.  Same for the CS.  

    If you don't have a proper contract there is enough to make out allegations of negligence and you may find yourself in a lawsuit that even if you win will drain you [or your carrier] financially for defense and all the time you will have to devote.

    Miscoding and mistakes in call lists are not all that uncommon.  We get a lot of that.  Generally, it's human error and the contracts protect against liability for that.  No contract?  Then no protection.  



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