Rory Risco

Just realised this topic is over 2 years old... Not sure how I stumbled across it.

Yes Not in my experience, particularly with Risco equipment. Once batteries register ‘low’ on the control panel the system won’t allow you to set it without first omitting it as a fault...

There is nothing coincidental about this... The power cut required the panel to be reset with an engineer code (if you had this code you could do it yourself in seconds for free but this is how alarm companies make their income). Additionally you could replace the batteries yourself for around £2 per battery but again the engineer code is required because any change requires an engineer reset. The call out charge by this company is far too cheap but it is clear they offset this by putting a markup on the batteries. By your own admission, you use the alarm whilst at home as well as when away meaning the alarm is in regular use which will deplete the batteries more quickly - typically even a good battery only gives about a year or reliable service. Seems clear to me that the engineer had to come out as the alarm required resetting (which he didn’t charge you for unless they include basic resets within the call out charge) and whilst there advised that batteries needed replacing which is plausible considering they were 21 months old with fairly heavy use. The batteries may all have been ‘low’ rather than dead taking away the ‘coincidence’ surrounding them failing at the same time as the power cut. Either way, the reason you called the engineer was because the alarm needed reset and at the very least I would be expecting the builder to pay the call out charge. The batteries however needed replaced and will need replaced annually to ensure reliability...