KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE
You can read all of our articles on our website. Having trouble getting our emails? Change your spam controls and whitelist ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
******************************
ISC Schedule / Comments on Fire alarm pricing / monitoring
March 16, 2023
**************************
Schedule for Group Discussion Meetings at ISC [subject to dealer interest] Meetings are limited to 6 dealers. Contact Stacy Spector,Esq at 1 516 747 6700 x 304 or SSpector@Kirschenbaumesq.com to reserve a spot. Private meetings with Ken Kirschenbaum are still available – contact Stacy for appointment. All meetings presently scheduled at Palazzo Prestige Lounge.
**********
Group Meeting Schedule:
Tuesday, March 28 at 2:00pm-2:45pm: Employee Retention Credit Group Meeting with Mitch Reitman
Tuesday, March 28 at 3:00pm-3:45pm: Central Station Group Meeting with Director of Sales Joe Goodman, COPS
Wednesday, March 29 at 10:00am-11:00am: Finance Group Discussion with Jim Wooster, Alarm Financial Services
Wednesday, March 29 at 3:30pm-4:00pm: AIN Buying Group with Stan Matysiak
Thursday, March 30 at 9:30 - 10:30am at ESA meeting room: Bassano Suite 2705 by convention floor: Liability, insurance, horror stories, claims and other issues from perspective of Claims Administrator [Bart} and Alarm Defense Attorney [Ken]. Ken Kirschenbaum and Bart Didden. This promises to be entertaining and informative. You don't want to miss this.
Thursday, March 30 at 11:00am-11:45: Alarm Brokers Group meeting with Rory Russell, Acquisition & Funding Services
Thursday, March 30 at 1:00pm-1:45pm: Contracts Group Meeting with Ken Kirschenbaum
Thursday, March 30 at 2:00pm-2:45pm: Insurance E&O Group Meeting with Shawn Iverson, The Insurance Center
Thursday, March 30 at 3:00pm-3:45pm: Sale or Purchase of Business Group Meeting with Ken Kirschenbaum
*****
Private Meeting Schedule: Still a few open times for private meetings. Call Stacy.
*********************
Comments on Fire alarm pricing from article on March 11, 2023
**********************
Ken
Re: Article on 3/11/23 Fire alarm monitoring pricing
The responses to the comments on fire alarm monitoring pricing were no brainers. Do these people ever watch the Program Shark Tank on TV because if they did they would not make them let alone justify them based upon pricing. This applies to the Central Station’s comments without mentioning that person’s name who should keep in his own camp, since he is in the monitoring and not fire alarm business and that is a big different.
With those comments it is apparent why they are not approved or monitoring fire alarms in New York City.
The justification in low pricing is like comparing a lemonade stand to a lemonade store. The central station monitoring fee should and does play very little in the overall price that the fire alarm firm charges for this service. Whether you just monitoring the customers owned or leased transmitter there still is an obligation to perform testing of that transmitter at the customers premise on a scheduled basis and not just believing that everything is working correctly because test timer or other signals are received daily. With those prices as stated there is no way that that is happening. That service MUST be included in the monitoring fees and not be an add-on option to be charged for if the customer decides to do it or not. Therefore that in itself justifies the higher prices. With the lower prices that is not happening.
What was not mentioned by the central station in their comments are the frequency as stated and required in the NFPA 72 on reporting that have to be met. The so called alarm company can choose a less frequent cycle that cost much less and does not meet that requirements and the central station will accept that decision without any backlash, advice or comments and that should not be allowed. Why is permitted by the central station? If the account did not have a required permit needed when notifying the authorities would the central station allow that as well?
Does this or any other Central Station inform the fire alarm firm that they have only one option and enforce it? As stated, a lower overhead is not a good excuse to be below market pricing. That is how a past alarm mechanic’s mentality that is how alarm companies operate and not how a true alarm company does. With that attitude they will never grow and always be a mechanic at heart just happy to make a salary.
Established fire alarm firms charge what they do not because they can or the overhead, but because it is the right amount to do and provide the proper services. Those who are way below mark pricing are missing an opportunity here to be completive and profit at the same time as opposed to attempting to tank the market and claim that the other are overpriced as stated in the comments posted.
It will be very interesting and we will see the comments from the central stations when very shorty when AI Bots will be doing the job of the central station for notifications whether it be by computer directly to the police or fire departments or by telephone service and it goes overseas with the pricing dropping to seventy five cents an account and them having all the listing and requirements to do so. Then we will see what the central station say about the pricing and overhead to justify them.
Lastly do the central stations also support the low prices and cutting out of the alarm companies by Simply Safe, OOMA and other by working directly with the end user cutting out the alarm company? How about self-monitoring, what is their stance on that?
Yours truly,
Same Old Song Now By Different Players
******************
Another comment
********************
Ken
Anonymous stated the single greatest cost is health care . Lots of discussion on expenses . pricing etc . In my 50 ++ yrs of experience I have determined that the greatest cost is attrition . That is something over which I have significant control . Not all , but a significant portion.
james t Wooster, Sr
jtwooster@alarmfunding.com
cell 917 747 5379
***********************
Another comment related to monitoring
***********************
Ken
Is K&K part of the team to REPURPOSE “monitoring resources”?
If the remote-monitoring segment of the alarm industry is now being “repurposed”, are the related contracts an essential part of that modernizing process? Hope K&K are part of that team.
We are hearing and reading much about the new alarm standard, TMA-AVS-01, but little or no reference to the related legal issues and contract updates. It could be just-in-time to preserve much of the traditional market $value of RMR. Alarm Associations and Monitoring Centers have lost much credibility with Law Enforcement. AVS-01, #3,#4 can restore that credibility, if leadership is committed to get it right this time. Key words are still “False-Alarms”, aka UPR/Unnecessary Police Response. Solving that problem has not been the mystery. Monitoring center resources now recognized as the perpetrator of false alarms and levied the fines/fees accordingly, not the customer alarm-site.
Lee Jones
Support Services Group
**********************
STANDARD FORM AGREEMENTS: To order up to date Standard Form Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com
***************************
CONCIERGE LAWYER SERVICE PROGRAM FOR THE ALARM INDUSTRY - 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.
***********************
ALARM ARTICLES: You can always read our Articles on our website at www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-articles updated daily *************************
THE ALARM EXCHANGE - the alarm industries leading classified and business exchange - updated daily.
https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-exchange
*************************
Wondering how much your alarm company is worth?
Click here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/what-is-my-alarm-company-worth
******************************
Getting on our email list / Articles archived:
Many of you are forwarding these emails to friends or asking that others be added to the list. Sign up for our daily newsletter here: Sign Up.
**************************
Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com
|
