Getting a service/repair for an old alarm

fiona-f

Hi

We recently moved into a rental house which has a wired alarm installed but not working. It's the kind with touch sensors on the doors and windows and I think a motion sensor in the hall. The manufacturers label on it says Aritech but no model number or anything.

The landlord doesn't know a lot about it, it was installed by a previous tenant without his consent and now it's not working. He's happy for us to try to get it fixed but equally happy to leave it unalarmed and needless to say, he's refusing to pay for it. We knew all this when we moved in, so fair enough. However, now my other half has changed his work pattern and it means there are lots of nights when I'll be there on my own so I want to get it up and running if we can. We have the code.

We rang the previous tenant, who told us that the problem with the alarm had worked fine until shortly before they moved out. One day, when it wasn't activated, some sort of problem caused the wall panel (where you enter the code) to fail and as a result the alarm bell started ringing. As the panel had no electricity to it, they couldn't put in the code to turn it off and just let bell ring til it ran out of battery. They moved out shortly afterwards so didn't bother to get it fixed.

So, how would I go about getting this fixed at a reasonable cost? I presume I need an alarm technician but would I also need an electrician or would the alarm guy be able to do that. I rang the company who installed the alarm but they told me it would be a minimum call out charge of €190 for the first hour plus an hourly rate for anything after that plus any materials such as a replacement battery in the bell. This seems like a crazy amount of money to me, but then again I've never had any dealings with an alarm before so maybe it's the going rate? I'd be grateful for any ideas of how best to proceed to a low-cost solution.

fred funk }{

<snip> security by any chance?

That's far too expensive. There's a sticky at the top if the forum page. Ring some installers in there, they're all very reasonable.

KoolKid

The Panel you have is more than likely an Aritech CS350.
It would need a battery anyway, after that its a matter of seeing what activated it in the first place . Possibly a faulty device or a connection problem if it activated when it wasn't set.
€190 is way over the top of a quote before anything is even replaced . Probably between €80 - €120 including the battery & a full assessment as to whether anything else need replacing.
Take a look at the sticky here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055956748
There are some installers listed there.
As always shop around. I recommend always get 3 quotes always price like with like.

altor

fiona-f wrote: »

Hi

We recently moved into a rental house which has a wired alarm installed but not working. It's the kind with touch sensors on the doors and windows and I think a motion sensor in the hall. The manufacturers label on it says Aritech but no model number or anything.

The landlord doesn't know a lot about it, it was installed by a previous tenant without his consent and now it's not working. He's happy for us to try to get it fixed but equally happy to leave it unalarmed and needless to say, he's refusing to pay for it. We knew all this when we moved in, so fair enough. However, now my other half has changed his work pattern and it means there are lots of nights when I'll be there on my own so I want to get it up and running if we can. We have the code.

We rang the previous tenant, who told us that the problem with the alarm had worked fine until shortly before they moved out. One day, when it wasn't activated, some sort of problem caused the wall panel (where you enter the code) to fail and as a result the alarm bell started ringing. As the panel had no electricity to it, they couldn't put in the code to turn it off and just let bell ring til it ran out of battery. They moved out shortly afterwards so didn't bother to get it fixed.

So, how would I go about getting this fixed at a reasonable cost? I presume I need an alarm technician but would I also need an electrician or would the alarm guy be able to do that. I rang the company who installed the alarm but they told me it would be a minimum call out charge of €190 for the first hour plus an hourly rate for anything after that plus any materials such as a replacement battery in the bell. This seems like a crazy amount of money to me, but then again I've never had any dealings with an alarm before so maybe it's the going rate? I'd be grateful for any ideas of how best to proceed to a low-cost solution.

If that is the first hour rate, best advice is to shop around. It is a crazy price since they would have the engineer code to see what the original fault was with the alarm that activated it.

From what the the previous tenants said it sounds like a fuse is gone as the keypad has stopped working. A test of the cable from panel to keypad plus fuse would soon find the fault with that.

As I have said, shop around, some company's out there charge mad money for a basic alarm repair as you have seen from the quote they gave you.

fiona-f

Thanks everyone, glad to see that there's no obstacle to me using a different company to the original installers and v glad to see that I should expect to pay quite a bit less than the first quote.

Fingers crossed it all works out in a wallet-friendly way. Thanks for all your help, off to ring some numbers in the sticky now.

KoolKid

Your welcome & good luck with it. If you need anything you know where we are.

altor

fiona-f wrote: »

Thanks everyone, glad to see that there's no obstacle to me using a different company to the original installers and v glad to see that I should expect to pay quite a bit less than the first quote.

Fingers crossed it all works out in a wallet-friendly way. Thanks for all your help, off to ring some numbers in the sticky now.

Your welcome, with all the companys out there doing alarms you will have plenty to choose from. You wont pay anything near €190 for a call out either if it is just a fault with a fuse on the keypad.