I run a small electrical and alarm repair business and I am finding alarm companies are setting engineers reset on things like tamper or even alarm activations . I find customers are very angry as they never asked or were told about this only to find when they are decorating and they take the lid off a pir or they are getting a new front door and the fitter removes the door contact setting off the tamper they find the panel locks out on engineers reset.

 

The customer stopped the maintenance contract 2-3 years ago yet find that it will cost an arm and a leg to call the installtion company out to resolve the problem.

 

Now I am old school Engineers reset was only put in on the insistance of the the local police authority for nusance alarms. Also my feelings are this is illegal and a form of extortion leaving the customer feeling they have been held to ransom.

 

So whats your thoughts on this good practise or are you breaking the law.

 

I just find it bad publicity for the companies that do this as I recently got 4 jobs to crsh the panels to remove the engineers reset function on a domestic sounders only system

I would want to know about any tampering of a system I had under contract. Sounds like you are on a winner if they are calling you out to crash and reset imo, but I wouldn't see them as long term customers.

if you install a system and it fails to perform, you are liable as the provider. Im sure many of have been out to 'reset' after decorators, electricians etc had 'just opened it' to find it had been defeated. Plus its an EN requirement on approved systems and a requirement of the insurance for such firms. Most if not all will remove it, but id ask the client if their insurance co is aware.

I hear what you say guys but engineer lock out on a tamper alarm and even although it under contract are you not duty bound to remove it if the contract is cancelled plus not good for business as I find customers are networking more on local social media.

 

Thing is in a domestic situation the customer owns the system plus they have informed their insurance company they no longer have a maintenance contract

Duty bound, yes if they pay or arrange it on say the last maint visit. As above you are protecting yourself against a claim.

 

The customer owns the system but the programming could be deemed intellectual rights of the incumbent.

We lock all tampers out. There is no reason for the customer to be taking lids off pirs/panels, in doing so could interfere with the integrity of the system, no?

I've seen decorators refixing pirs on upside down and all sorts. So if this was under maint for insurance purposes, decorator removes sensor refixes it upside down resets the system, then the system fails to perform after a break in, who's the customer calling?? Decorator?

Edited January 27, 201610 yr by 9651

Duty bound, yes if they pay or arrange it on say the last maint visit. As above you are protecting yourself against a claim.

 

The customer owns the system but the programming could be deemed intellectual rights of the incumbent.

Really ? Some customers may say thats stretching it a bit plus I have come across a couple of Galaxy jobs where the engineers code is locked in so that cannot be right . We are talking about a domestic situation where the customer never agreed to it or worse was never told

I have come across a couple of Galaxy jobs where the engineers code is locked

never knew you could code lock a galaxy ?

You can't lock an engineer code in a galaxy......

Appologies I meant a DSC PC5015