On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 10:21:14 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

Anyone have experience using one of the lower cost security monitoring
services that charge $10 to $15 a month for alarm monitoring, versus
$35 from ADT? There are a bunch of them available that either can
step you through how to'
change the dial # on the existing system or else give you a small
adapter that sits between the existing alarm panel and the phone
line. It intercepts the alarm call to the old monitoring company and
in turn dials the new one.

I don't know about that. Unless you cancel ADT, they're going to keep
charging you, whether your alarm calls them or not. Don't they also
remove their equipment, which they install free?


Wondering about experiences with
reliability, conversion, hidden charges, contracts, etc.

I have a friend who owns a burglar alarm company with about 700
customers, many that he bought from companies where the owner was
retiring, and others that just swtiched from someone eles. . He
contracts with a monitoring company, and last I heard he was charing
15 or 20 a month, certainly less than ADT.

He likes to put his own alarm panel in very location, but doesn't
charge. Now they have panels where he can make most changes without
going to the customer.

I'm not sure if he removes his equipment or not when somoene cancels.

When my brother bought a house in Dallss 20 years ago, he didn't sign
up for monitoring, and I can see that. Wasn't much crime in his
n'hood, but I thought he shoudl still use the alarm and siren when he
went out of town. So my first day vistiing, I turned it on and tested
it, and it rang, and then I went to go bike-riding. I didn't realize
the old monitoring company's phone number was still in the alarm, if
they called the house on the phone, the number was changed when my
brother bought the house a year or two earlier.

So the police showed up. It was pitiful. Even though I was taking
his bicycle out of the garage, via the alley, when they came, they
seemed not at all suspicious. I had a key to the house but they
didn't ask if I did. And I know my brother's last name, but they
asked for no evidence I have the same last name (if they even knew his
name). I guess because I'm white, and maybe because I was 45 and
looked at least 35.