Monitoring service or self monitor

[newalarm]

Alarm Relay has a weird pricing schedule. First year it is one price, second a different one, and third again different price. Then it stays at that last price. Price increases are not huge. I would need to look at my bills.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah its been years now but recall with Alarm Relay email stuff / internet messages were extra at the time. 
 
Extra being above $8.95 per month paid for by the year.  
 
At the time of my little experiment I was trying to do an apples and apples comparision of the services.
 
Here with Next Alarm still getting original discount from years ago if paid for by the year. 
 
I have not had any issues with them to date.
 
Newbies are discounted today under $20/month if paid for by the year.
 
A few years ago did do some testing with larger company's / reponse times / testing / et al.  1st company tested was Tyco and they did fail miserably with my first testing. (relating to one building with around 4K of people working in it).  After a thumb press of sorts relating to a national contract they did get better and I did choose them over their national competitors.  I was looking at the time for one national contract for multiple buildings in locations in Texas, East coast and midwest (well and west coast). 

 

[apostolakisl]

@Lou,
 
Can you post the features of Alarm Relay.  Do you pay for it by the year?
 
Here been using NextAlarm now for a few years (~ 10?) for two homes and I have been happy with their service paid for by the year. 
 
It is more than $8.95 per month (well and less than $20).
 
I do get email notifications and can get granular with it if I want. 
 
It has been a few years that I looked at Alarm Relay and base price was good but any options were extra (like internet and emails).
 
I did a personal alarm monitoring company experiment here checking out a few different services one year a few years back and posted my results here on the forum.  
 
Ended up with an illiciti business oriented alarm monitoring company.
 
I did pay a year in advance and it was around $8.95 per month.  They then upped original contract 3 months in to the first year.  They stated that I requested additional services which I didn't and basically emailed me telling me that they had made a mistake on the yearly price.  Even though I had paid for the one year of service they then put me in to a non release contract (very difficult to get out of) so I ended up taking them to the State's attorney's office which basically didn't do much until I opened up a case every week with them (literally).  The company though had already been fined for illicit business practices and changed their name to continue their business then continued to do basically the same thing as the owner of the company was the same person.  They still are in business today and do cold calling and advertise low monthly rates.  I did switch back to Next Alarm after initial issues (3 months of a 1 year contract).
 
BTW it looks like they changed their name again.  They are known today as A.S. Alarm services based in Kirkland, Washington.  Thinking though they use different names all of the time.  Kind of sad that the state allows these kind of illicit businesses to thrive.

 
Yes, the first year is new customer discount.  I checked my quickbooks at the office and found CC charges to them.  $142.40 in 1/2013.  That included one year of service and $35 setup fee. Since then I have been paying $131.40/year which works out to $10.95/mo.  At home I believe I am paying the same, but it gets a little confusing because I have self referred myself to my in-laws and my office, and to a friend so that makes the bill price screwy (you get a referral bonus of I think $25).

 

[drvnbysound]

The referral with Alarm Relay is the same as the setup fee, so it's a wash on their end - $35.

 

[pete_c]

Thank you Lou. 
 
What are the options you get with alarm relay for the price you are paying?
 
Is your home, office and in-laws accounts exactly the same for the same type of service?
 
Noticed here with Next Alarm CCTV stuff has been added to my main page configuration.
 
Not sure how it works though. 
 
I did click on the button and it doesn't mention any changes to my account when adding the CCTV stuff.

 

[apostolakisl]

Thank you Lou. 
 
What are the options you get with alarm relay for the price you are paying?
 
Is your home, office and in-laws accounts exactly the same for the same type of service?
 
Noticed here with Next Alarm CCTV stuff has been added to my main page configuration.
 
Not sure how it works though. 
 
I did click on the button and it doesn't mention any changes to my account when adding the CCTV stuff.

 
I am not aware of what other features they offer or what they may cost.  I just have the regular monitoring, the same at all 3 locations.  I don't get any emails or other notifications.  If my system alarms, they follow my script, which means they call me, if I don't answer, they call my wife, if she doesn't answer they dispatch, end of story.  My Elk and/or ISY sends me all the texts/email/phone notifications I desire (which for me is an email with every arm/disarm/alarm).  I have the units set to do a weekly test call.  If the test call fails, the panel gives me a failure message (at least it is supposed to according to the literature since I have never had a failure I can't say for sure). I have checked my log and indeed test calls are listed as having succeeded.  I don't think alarm relay reports a failed test call since I never told them my test call timing.  You'd have to ask them.  I do know for certain that my panel gives me a failure message if I unplug the phone line, but that is a dial tone failure, not a CS com failure.
 
My guess is they offer such things as failed closings/openings and stuff like that but probably it costs more.  I don't need any of that so I didn't ask.

 

[pete_c]

Thank you Lou. 
 
Yup I get NextAlarm emails and can configure an email when I flush my toilet should the need arise (may be very soon now).
 
Guessing to get this with Alarm Relay then the monthly service (paid for by the year) will go up a touch.
 
Way back when I was doing my apples for apples testing of services I priced Alarm Relay with my preferred bells and whistles to almost the same price or a bit above what I was paying for with Next Alarm.  That was a few years back now.
 
Here utilize my Leviton HAI OmniPro panel / software which does create a bit of redudancy to what NextAlarm does for me.  (lately testing other software/firmware so its really much more than 1 text/email that I get - its a bit over the top testing speed of whatever happens).

 

[apostolakisl]

Here utilize my Leviton HAI OmniPro panel / software which does create a bit of redudancy to what NextAlarm does for me.  (lately testing other software/firmware so its really much more than 1 text/email that I get - its a bit over the top testing speed of whatever happens).

 
It seems to me that the cost effective way to do this is just by having your system directly notify you and avoid the redundancy you speak of.  Aside from constantly confirming that CS com is up and running, I don't know what benefit there is to that.  I also use a prepaid cellular plan on my home line for the alarm so if it did a call for every little thing, I would need a much pricier cell phone plan (instead of $10/year).  I suppose I could use google voice as the primary dialer and the cell phone as a backup if I were going to do that.  Incidentally, I can confirm that google voice does work with CS calls to Alarm Relay.  I have one of the panels setup using the obi202 and google voice.  It actually has a check box for alarm monitoring.  It must change the compression protocol.
 
I also think that alarm relay is OK with you doing even daily test calls if you are more concerned about the com.  I sort of asked that years ago when setting up and the guy didn't express any issue with that.  I personally felt that it was a little abusive so did weekly.
 
EDIT: Just another FYI.  I called Alarm Relay about commercial fire monitoring and elevator phone monitoring.  They do offer those services. I want to say it was $24.95 for fire and $29.95/mo for elevator or maybe vice-versa.  At least on the elevator they were quite high priced.  I ended up going with $10/mo on the elevator (times 6 elevators) from an elevator only company.  I haven't really done any other comparison on commercial fire.

 

[ano]

I pay $11.95/month for Next Alarm. They do have lots of features like they can send an email if your child doesn't deactivate the alarm by a certain time, or send an email when a certain code does deactivate it.  All nice, but I have the Omni email board now so don't really need any of them. 
 
Next Alarm doesn't like you to have your system send test calls, but they do have it report open/close reports, so every time you turn the alarm on or off that is a test call in my book.  The Omni will report a dead phone line, and it will report if its open or close reports can't contact the alarm center, i.e. the Internet is down, and an email from Next Alarm if my adapter is not connected to the Internet. (I get the same type of message from Ooma is my VoIP adapter is disconnected.
 
How do you get an Internet adapter from Next Alarm?  Is it free or do you have to purchase it? 
 
Next Alarm has been O.K. but it worries me some because they seem so mixed up when you call their monitoring center.  Is alarm monitoring that COMPLEX an operation? 
 
Our HOA has a security patrol, so it would be fantastic if THEY could just get a message of a fire or burglary and then report it, but has anyone seen a "box" you can get that will receive the alarm signal and display a message like "FIRE alarm reported at 546 ELK drive"  Basically a monitoring station in a box? 

 

[apostolakisl]

I pay $11.95/month for Next Alarm. They do have lots of features like they can send an email if your child doesn't deactivate the alarm by a certain time, or send an email when a certain code does deactivate it.  All nice, but I have the Omni email board now so don't really need any of them. 
 
Next Alarm doesn't like you to have your system send test calls, but they do have it report open/close reports, so every time you turn the alarm on or off that is a test call in my book.  The Omni will report a dead phone line, and it will report if its open or close reports can't contact the alarm center, i.e. the Internet is down, and an email from Next Alarm if my adapter is not connected to the Internet. (I get the same type of message from Ooma is my VoIP adapter is disconnected.
 
How do you get an Internet adapter from Next Alarm?  Is it free or do you have to purchase it? 
 
Next Alarm has been O.K. but it worries me some because they seem so mixed up when you call their monitoring center.  Is alarm monitoring that COMPLEX an operation? 
 
Our HOA has a security patrol, so it would be fantastic if THEY could just get a message of a fire or burglary and then report it, but has anyone seen a "box" you can get that will receive the alarm signal and display a message like "FIRE alarm reported at 546 ELK drive"  Basically a monitoring station in a box? 

 
$10.95 vs 11.95, it is 10% (kind of a lot as a percentage), but it is also only $12/year difference.  So if Next Alarm has the features you want, I would say it is worth the $12.  I wouldn't know the difference since I don't want any of those features, but in truth I don't know that Alarm Relay doesn't include them.  To me, the most important thing is that when my alarm goes off, I get a phone call within 60 seconds asking if it is OK.  And I get that every time with Alarm Relay.  Of course Next Alarm may be just as good at that, in which case, it is a $12/year choice.

 

[pete_c]

Thank-you Lou.  I do only test my alarm / automation / OPII stuff in one home here which is my sandbox.  So yeah its not for practical use rather just speed stuff.

 

[ano]

Its not so much the $1 difference that matters. I just want them to call the police or fire department, after they attempt to call me. I also wish i could tell them to NOT try to confirm a fire alarm when my fire sprinklers set it off, because that is just wasting time. 
 
Can Alarm Relay use a different flow chart for different alarms?  Like if sprinklers go off, just send the fire department NOW!!
 
Any ideas how Alarm Relay handles alarms that are cancelled at the panel?  Next Alarm really isn't clear on this.  Like a said before, I cancelled one false alarm once, and police ended up showing up several hours later.

 

[apostolakisl]

Its not so much the $1 difference that matters. I just want them to call the police or fire department, after they attempt to call me. I also wish i could tell them to NOT try to confirm a fire alarm when my fire sprinklers set it off, because that is just wasting time. 
 
Can Alarm Relay use a different flow chart for different alarms?  Like if sprinklers go off, just send the fire department NOW!!
 
Any ideas how Alarm Relay handles alarms that are cancelled at the panel?  Next Alarm really isn't clear on this.  Like a said before, I cancelled one false alarm once, and police ended up showing up several hours later.

 
Yes, they do whatever you want.  You give them a flow chart on how you want alarms handled.  Like I have panic set to no confirmation call at all and water alarm set to confirm only.  Every time I have discussed this sort of thing with them, they are fine with it.  You just need to send it to them in writing.  They accept email with the registered return address as "in writing".  Frankly I think that with email spoofing abilities, that may not be the best, but they may allow you to disallow that also.  They do send a reply email to the registered address so I guess if someone spoofs your email, you'll still get the reply confirmation email and know something is up.

 

[pete_c]

I cancelled one false alarm once, and police ended up showing up several hours later.

 
That is bad.  I have done this a few times and never had the issue of police showing up.

 

[apostolakisl]

I just clicked on the "products" page of alarm relay.
 
All of the features we have been talking about are listed there.  No prices were listed, however, I doubt they are free.