There is a report out today from California and it isn't the best of news for Pinnacle Security and Security Associates International (SAI).
Apparently when the homeowner used the Pinnacle home security system through the two-way voice feature, SAI verified the alarm, and sent it to the "non-emergency" number when in fact it was a verified alarm. It added about 10 minutes to the response time on the alarm.
The lawsuit is from the firefighters widow and son who died in the fire. Pinnacle Security and SAI are named both named in the lawsuit.
To be honest, SAI has made quite a mess with the alarm systems in the door-to-door industry. With their customer service issues, and now with the actual job they are supposed to be doing. APX Alarm has made a smart move and went with Criticom who seems to have far less issues than SAI. They are a mess! Hopefully Pinnacle, Icon Security and whoever else is with SAI follows suit. I personally haven't heard too much positive coming from them. The only interaction I have had with them kind of proved this point. When I started my dealership, I contacted them but no one even returned an email or phone call from their side.
I feel terrible for that family for the loss. Hopefully everything works out!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
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7 comments:
so why did your dealership fail?
also just curious do you discus the dishonest and bad things that the company you currently work for does on this site?
Good questions Anonymous!
As to your first question regarding why my dealership failed. First, It didn't fail. Second, have you ever read the e-myth? I really wish I would have before I started. I went in with the idea that I could sell the amount I was selling and would make 3 times the money with the same amount of work I did the summer before as a manager. Well, there was a lot more to it than selling and installing. It seemed to be 3x more work that I didn't want to do. I like selling, but the other stuff took a toll on me and my family. At that point I found a place that paid $450 up front per sale, I weighed it out, decided it was a better deal than having a Monitronics dealership. I could focus more on selling, less on the things that didn't come naturally to me. Competitive Advantage for me was in selling. So, to say I failed, that's not how I would say it. It didn't grow to be huge, but that was never my plan. My plan was to sell and install around 20 systems per month for 7 months per year for a total of around $100k. I pulled it off for a few months, but I saw long term it wasn't anything that I desired to do. It wasn't my passion and I was not passionate about it. I also saw things about the inside of the industry that made the decision to transition out of it a lot easier. To say my dealership failed would be very shortsighted. Good question though.
As for the second question, I write about everything I see. I haven't wrote anything about the company that I have worked with because I haven't seen anything dishonest. If I saw it, I would leave. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. As of a few weeks ago I am done for the summer and hopefully won't need to pick it back up again forever! I work full-time during the day, and sold at night to get ahead. I wanted to enjoy whats left of the summer and spend time with my wife, but no, I haven't wrote anything about them.
Great questions! I appreciate the dialogue. Any other curiosities or questions Anonymous?
Yeah I'm curious if you got my email and if so why haven't you covered any of the facts that I stated in the email? I think this site is informative not of the companies that you discuss herein but of the different types of sales reps that exist in the world today. Companies don't look at ways that they can screw customers that would be an example of a dishonest sales rep. You will find them in every industry, not just the alarm industry. If you were to talk to any company I assure you that they would fire an employee (no matter what the position) if they were dishonest and mislead customers. The problem is most of the time it's hard to prove anything because sale reps are usually good at sales (whether its selling a company that they're honest or whether it's selling a car or an alarm). So no matter how you'd like to spin it I find it hard to believe that any company would go out and engage in the practices that you and some news agencies so readily accuse them of doing.
As far as other questions about the company you most recently sold for do they offer the following:
1. Satisfaction Guaranteed
2. Money Back Guarantee
3. 30, 60, or 90 Day No Questions Asked Guarantee
If your company offers these three must haves as your blog seems to say then kudos to them. I'm more curious if they do because no alarm company that is noteworthy seems to offer those three guarantees.
Like I said in my email I've been in the industry longer than you. I've worked in many different parts of the industry and have been a consultant for many other companies that have started up. I like yourself am still where I am because I feel that the comapny I work for currently doesn't engage in dishonest practices nor have any that I've dealt with. Individuals may but all of the companies I've interacted with have either fired those employees after investigating the claim or they've made the employee cover the cost of the dishonest act to make sure that the customer is 100% satisfied.
No response yet? Good job at avoiding a question that could make you and your company look similar to those you feel are so beneath your sales tactics.
Dear Anonymous,
I am not sure if you are the same anonymous that posted the original comment under the name anonymous. So, I apologize for the confusion.
The companies I have worked for don't have those promises and that is where a lot of problems come from. I think it is crap that they don't have it. They need to offer those things. It would make a huge difference.
Any other questions?
SAI sucks thats all there is to it because of them someone is DEAD!!! and i take them over every day.
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