Showerthought: How many of us actually check if a site has a functional cellular backup before quoting residential jobs?

I looked at a house in Portland last Tuesday and the homeowner had an old DSC system with a landline dialer that hasn't worked in years because they ditched their landline. Nobody told them cell communicators are basically standard now for monitoring. Anyone else deal with this on service calls?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesf291mo ago

Had a homeowner up in Vancouver last spring who had this fancy looking Honeywell keypad and everything looked clean, but when I did a signal test the cellular communicator was just dead, like completely bricked. Turns out they'd been paying for monitoring for two years on a system that was effectively just a really expensive light switch. The guy was a software engineer too, you'd think he'd know better. @blakestone is right about the industry dropping the ball on education, I swear half the time I walk into these houses the homeowner thinks the blinking red light on the keypad means "I'm working fine" when it actually means "my battery is toast and I can't call anyone." Parents of a friend of mine had this happen too back when cell backup first started getting pushed hard, they got sold on a new system but nobody ever explained that the cellular module needs a separate subscription and isn't just included in the monthly monitoring fee. The hard part is you gotta break it gently to people because they feel stupid, but really the installers and the monitoring companies are the ones who failed them.

corap211mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I had almost the exact same thing with a client last year and @blakestone is spot on about that.

blakestone1mo ago

Ugh, that's the WORST. It's like the homeowner had NO clue their alarm was basically a paperweight once the copper lines got cut. People just assume the old system still works because the keypad lights up and beeps at them. I actually had a similar call last month where a guy was PISSED when I told him his cell backup was never even installed, he thought the landline jack was all he needed. It's wild how many homeowners don't realize that cellular communicators are the bare minimum now, especially in places like Portland where you can't even GET a new landline in some neighborhoods. The industry is doing a terrible job educating customers on this, plain and simple.