We are looking at installing an alarm system in our house. We just have way too much electronic and computing equipment to rely on a good neighbourhood anymore. Does anyone have any recommendations or "stay away froms"?
Thanks

Kylie Purdie<BR>

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Hi Kylie,

Just a recommendation to you when looking - ask about whether or not the company sends a patrol out when they receive an alarm activation. If they tell you police attend - trust me - police DO NOT attend unless there is secondary evidence of a burglary. Unfortunately there are far too many false alarms reported!

Alarm companies themselves often do not attend the premises either, so it really makes you wonder whether or not it is beneficial having a back to base alarm installed.

Nes

We have one of the old FAI Alarm systems, now managed by
Chubb we have found it to be very good, one of the benefits
is that it is not wired into the house, runs on battery system,
great if we decide to move as we can take it with us.

We also have back to base, I also am unsure whether it is
beneficial, we have tested the alarm several & had the boys
set it off but have never had a response from Chubb, They
are supposed to ring us if they alarm goes off before sending
a patrol to the property.

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We've got an FAI back to base alarm too. When FAI monitored it, if the alarm went off or if the periodic dial back to base (test) didn't work, we'd get an immediate call. They were very good overall.

The only thing that we could ever complain about was when they did call us on one occasion to say the alarm had gone off. They asked if we wanted them to send someone to check it out and as we were away on holidays we said yes (of course). A few months later we received a bill for the call out. We argued with them about this as we were under the impression (from the salesman who spent ages talking with us about it) that call outs were included. FAI (or maybe it was Chubb by then) eventually wrote off the bill.

Then Chubb took over and the monitoring has been pretty much non-existant. We set it off a couple of times to see if they'd call and they never did. We don't feel confident that we will be contacted and/or if anyone will attend if our alarm goes off genuinely. As we've just paid off the alarm we're actually getting Chubb to decommission the back to base element.

I'd just go for an alarm that scares the pants off any would be thief, rather than worrying about security firm or police attendance ... by the time either arrive (if they even do), the thief will be long gone.

Cheers,

Helen.
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Three Angels in Heaven.

Kylie it really depends if you want a back to base one or just a basic one.

When we moved in we looked at getting one put in. Didn't see the point of a back to base as I know they don't actually tend to come out to most of the calls so we just wanted a standard one that would sound an alarm when the sensor light went off.

We called two different places out, they came and gave us quotes but in typical trade's man fashion, never got back to us with a wriiten quote although their verbal one was about $1400 I think!

In the end we got a mate to put one in for us (he was working for Chubb at the time)so had all the gear and I was comfortable that he knew what he was doing

cheers
Alexandra