Phonewatch dialling numbers every day ?

zagmund

Moved into a new (secondhand) house last September and had the existing phonewatch system re-comissioned a few weeks later.

So far everything is going mostly OK and no false alarms.

I just looked at my phone bill today and I notice a serious number of phone calls to a series of Dublin numbers almost every day.

I rang Phonewatch and they said they weren't theirs. The correctly reported an activation early in December and I could see that call going out to an 01-200-00xx number.

The weird calls I'm seeing are to 01-454 & 01-453 numbers. I dialled some of them and they sound very like the same system at the other end of the 01-200-00xx number, so my strong hunch is that it is a phonewatch thing.

They all seem to be around the same time of day - 1526, 1527, 1528 and last for somewhere between 10-30 seconds. It has all the hallmarks of an automated system calling home and the only thing connected to the line (that I know of) are the alarm and two normal handsets and I know they aren't dialling.

So . . . I'm pretty sure it's the alarm doing the dialing and will get phonewatch to fix it if necessary, but first I need to know whether we normally expect the alarm to dial in every day as a matter of routine and whether it should be calling a different number than it calls when there's an activation.

Anyone in the know . . . know ?

z

KoolKid

Disconnect the line from the alarm for a couple of days and see if there are any calls made on those days.

altor

zagmund wrote: »

Moved into a new (secondhand) house last September and had the existing phonewatch system re-comissioned a few weeks later.

So far everything is going mostly OK and no false alarms.

I just looked at my phone bill today and I notice a serious number of phone calls to a series of Dublin numbers almost every day.

I rang Phonewatch and they said they weren't theirs. The correctly reported an activation early in December and I could see that call going out to an 01-200-00xx number.

The weird calls I'm seeing are to 01-454 & 01-453 numbers. I dialled some of them and they sound very like the same system at the other end of the 01-200-00xx number, so my strong hunch is that it is a phonewatch thing.

They all seem to be around the same time of day - 1526, 1527, 1528 and last for somewhere between 10-30 seconds. It has all the hallmarks of an automated system calling home and the only thing connected to the line (that I know of) are the alarm and two normal handsets and I know they aren't dialling.

So . . . I'm pretty sure it's the alarm doing the dialing and will get phonewatch to fix it if necessary, but first I need to know whether we normally expect the alarm to dial in every day as a matter of routine and whether it should be calling a different number than it calls when there's an activation.

Anyone in the know . . . know ?

z

What system have you installed ?
The system should be ringing PW once a day to let them know the panel is communicating with them.

zagmund

It's a Simon XT.

So, phoning home every day is normal ? I honestly don't mind as I have free local calls, but this must cost some people a fair whack if they pay per call. Is it configurable to once a week by any chance ? If nothing else it is filling up my bill and making it hard to see the real calls.

z

KoolKid

It could be configured to dial out once a week.
Whether Eircom allow this is another thing.

altor

zagmund wrote: »

It's a Simon XT.

So, phoning home every day is normal ? I honestly don't mind as I have free local calls, but this must cost some people a fair whack if they pay per call. Is it configurable to once a week by any chance ? If nothing else it is filling up my bill and making it hard to see the real calls.

z

It can be but it is not advisable as if the line is tampered with to the alarm they will only know about it the next week.
The 01200 numbers are correct but the other numbers are not. It could be there toolbox number for the alarm. It does not sound correct. I would get them to investigate.

KoolKid

Phonewatch being Phonewatch they will charge you if its not the alarm.
Id disconnect the line feeding the alarm first.

altor

Can you P.M. me the full 01-454 & 01-453 numbers and I will check it out with one of the lads in PW tomorrow for you.

KoolKid

altor wrote: »

Can you P.M. me the full 01-454 & 01-453 numbers and I will check it out with one of the lads in PW tomorrow for you.

That's the easiest solution.

zagmund

PM sent - thanks all.

z

zagmund

So, the word back from Altos is that they are not PW numbers. I will follow up with PW and see what they have to say.

If the system isn't ringing *them* every day should they not be on the phone to me to check it out or to tell me my line has problems. In other words, if this is a check to ensure the line is up and the system is working, are they not supposed to follow up if the check fails ?

z

altor

Yes they should be on the phone plus have an engineer out to see why its not ringing them. It is easily set up and should of being done when the engineer set it up for you in the first place. At the end of the day you are paying them to maintain your alarm plus monitor it so I would refuse point blank if they want any money to do this for you.