Can any alarm company service my burglar alarm?

TinTin_57

Hi

Every year since my house alarm was installed, the same guy that did the installation comes back and charges me around £50+ to service it. Now my home insurance doesn't ask if I have an alarm serviced by an engineer each year so it doesn't make a difference from that perspective. I'm wondering if in fact it needs doing every year. He just comes in, changes a battery, types a code on the keypad and proceeds to walk around the house waving his hands in front of each sensor. Thing is though, it's not just the outlay each year, I can't stand the guy. When he comes in the house he makes me uneasy and seems to take an inventory of everything in every room. Then he'll proceed to tell me about ' a mate of mine had one of those.......' blah blah and generally I always can't wait to get him out of the house but I can never get rid! He always wants to call round when it's convenient to him which is also annoying!

Can any alarm company service my alarm or do they need a special passcode for my particular system that only this guy will know?
Does it really need servicing every year or is every couple of years ok?

Any help greatly appreciated as I'm due a call from him in the next couple of weeks and I'm hoping I can tell him not to bother coming.

Thanks
TinTin

Snow_Dog

The battery change any decent engineer should be able to change on the vast majority of alarms.

The walk test to see if all sensors are functioning, if you have the manual/user guide you should be able to do yourself.

Personally I would not see the necessity in having the alarm serviced annually, we do at work as its a requirement of the businees insurance but my home alarm isn't.

If you are that fussed about having it serviced, call a couple of engineers from the yellow pages and see what they say about the type of alarm you have.

Also bear in mind that you can buy from Screwfix a perfectly good wireless Yale alrm system now for sub £200 that even dials out on the phone to your mobile when the alarm is activated. So paying £50+ every year may not be cost effective.

TinTin_57

Thanks for this. I think I may just cancel him then and look into the wireless option. The wireless option was also something he has been pestering me about, quoted £800 for it!!! Taking everyone he's signed up for that on a ride!

silvercar

You're luckey, I phoned up the company that installed the alarm in the house I moved to. They quoted £80 to visit plus the costs of anything needed! According to them they are the only ones that can service it.

I know there is something wrong as every power cut for more than 2 hours results in the alarm going off, even if the electric is still off. There are also a couple of sensors that don't work and one sensor that has been partly removed when a door was blocked off and now hangs from a lose wire.

Solid walls so don't really want wireless.

TinTin_57

silvercar wrote: »

I know there is something wrong as every power cut for more than 2 hours results in the alarm going off, even if the electric is still off.

A backup battery problem? Since my earlier posting I google'd my make of alarm and found the engineers installation manual. I now know the default engineers code so I'm going to give that a try. If it works, all well and good and anyone can service the alarm, if not there are also instructions for how to do a full reset without knowing the code.........so someone could still come and reset the thing for me and from then on someone else could service it.

curlyfairy

You don't need a battery change every year,i normally do it every 3.The battery should last for a while as it charges whilst the electricity is on.£50 is about right for a service of a bells only system.No point in fitting a new alarm if the one you have is ok.Anyone can service it,if the engineer code cannot be found then the system can be crashed and reprogrammed.
Hope this helps.

Ben.