Free Alarm Systems, are they really free?
Of course not.
It’s ironic that the alarm companies who are providing “security” to home owners have to mislead people to get their foot in the door. They will advertise free alarm systems to attract new customers and lead you to think that the stripped down alarm system you are getting is adequate for protecting your home or try to sell you costly upgrades once they are in your home.
I have personally installed over 1,500 free alarm systems as a subcontractor for one of the biggest alarm companies in the world. Subcontractors are great because they pay for their own expenses and drive their own vehicles saving the alarm company tons of money. I was trained for only five days and sent out the next Monday morning to install my very first free alarm system. I was nineteen years old and got paid only $75 for each installation. It took me eleven hours to complete the job and I still had to go back the next day with another installer to see why it wasn't working properly.
The truth is that free alarm systems are not free. The secret formula for free alarm systems is to install the cheapest equipment, have it installed by someone with very little experience, charge $10 - $15 a month more than you normally charge for central station monitoring, and lock the customer in a five year contract. At the end of the contract the customer ends up paying full price for their alarm system. And once the security system is installed you will be paying full price for service calls or for future upgrades and additions.
Home owners also have to realize that a “free alarm system” is a very basic system which usually consists of the following:
One basic control panel
One basic keypad
One small battery backup
Two door or window sensors
One motion detector
One security lawn sign
Three security window decals
I personally don’t like to offer free alarm systems since it’s really not free. Instead we offer the basic starter package for $199 which enables us to provide much better equipment and the ability to keep the central station monitoring affordable. We also provide visitors to our site with our complete price list so that you have an idea of how much the security system will cost before anyone shows up to your home for an evaluation.
It is very important for home owners to fully understand what they are getting into when they sign up for a free alarm system or a system that is heavily discounted. Since there is very little or no profit in the installation of the alarm system we need a commitment from the home owner to use our monitoring services. In return for the alarm system we require you to sign a five year central station monitoring agreement.
If you don’t feel comfortable with a long term monitoring agreement then you can choose to pay full price for your system and sign a month to month monitoring agreement. We have found that by being honest with our customers and providing outstanding service, our customers will stay with us for many years.