NextAlarm.com help

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 18, 2005 Posts: 15

ON the advice of a few here, I signed up for NextAlarm...now i need help. I have all the equipment. i had to set up a wireless bridge at my ADT alarm panel. It works with the ABN. I plugged the phone into the the ABN and it works...i get the dialtone, the message, etc. When I plug the RJ31x jack into the ABN...nada. No communication with the Nextalarm center. It establlished communicatin with the polling center once, but nothing after that.

The ADT safewatch pro flashes "FC" which means it has a communication problem...i've tried everything I can think of...I've isolated the problem to the alsam, since the network is working and the ABN is working. I've called Nextalarm, but they don't have tech support over the weekend. I really need this fixed by Monday evening. I appreciate any advice you could provide.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 6

You might want to check your wiring of the RJ31x. Here is a diagram .RJ31x wiring Also you could actually eliminate the RJ31x by taking the RJ11 to RJ45 adapter that should have come with the ABN and plug it into the little RJ11 cable that also came with the adapter and then plugging the RJ31x cable in to RJ45 end of the adapter.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 18, 2005 Posts: 15

I appreciate the reply. I was using the RJ31X/RJ11 adapter that came with the ABN. I didin't re-wire anything. Last evening, I became so frustrated with NextAlarm's lack of customer service on the weekend that I removed everything, retunred the wireless bridge i purchased and requested an RMA from NectAlarm so I could get a refund...I would rather pay a little more with ADT and have the peace of mind that comes with KNOWING my alarm is being monitord and there is someone there to help me when i need it.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 19, 2005 Posts: 3

FWTX,

I'm in the Network Operations depart at NextAlarm.com, and on Monday (tomorrow) I'll most likely be assigned to help you debug whatever the trouble is with ABN. It is true that our "New Customer Setup" customer service department is not at full strength over weekends, though of course our alarm dispatch center and general network operations are all 24x7x365.

Please contact me directly at - bryan@nextalarm.com - I will be glad to assist you directly first thing in the AM. For starters I need to know your customer # (FWTX is not enough for me to identity you! Surprised

)

Thank you,

Bryan
NextAlarm.com Network Operations

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 18, 2005 Posts: 15

The offer and reply are truly appreciated, but I've decided to stick with my old alarm service. I called the dispatch Sat. A.M. and they said they would page a tech, but I never got a call. I have already returned the wireless bridge, and requested the ABN return authorization. The odd thing is that when I called the dispatch center to see if they detected my alarm, they had not. When I checked the web log, it showed "Central Station Polling Restored" right after I originally hooked up the ABN and "Loss of Central Station Polling" when i disconnected the ABN, but no other event in the 24 hour period...and I played with that thing for several hours arming, disarming, setting off alarms. I may try back when my ADT agreement is up (which isn't a big factor, anyway, since the $$$ I would save would moe than offset the cost). But, for now, I would feel more comfortable with the tried and tested. Just a personal preference.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 19, 2005 Posts: 3

OK FWTX,

It sounds like your account was not fully provisioned with NextAlarm.com (e.g. still in the signup phase, not fully active). I stand by my offer to personally manage and complete your activation tomorrow, but I also respect your decision to stick with ADT.

On the other hand, if, in fact, you are still in an agreement with ADT, you'll need to complete the terms of that agreement before switching to NextAlarm.com anyway. I hope you come back to us at that time.

Best,

Bryan
NextAlarm.com Network Operations

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 18, 2005 Posts: 15

Your offer is very kind. Here is a little more background to help NA work on some potential issues in the future. I got a couple of e-mails asking me to punch numbers in the keypad and to let them know what the result was. I e-mailed that back, and got another e-mail saying to call customer service. I did and went through the process of punching numbers in again. At the end, the agent said my system was ready. Later that evening, I hooked up the ABN and the fun began...I assumed when he said i was ready to go, it was fully active. That's all the info I received from NA.

I wish NA the best...think it is a great concept. I'm surprised that none of the biggies have jumped on the band wagon, yet...VOIP isn't going away.

Thanks, again, Bryan.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 16, 2005 Posts: 1

FWTX,

For what it's worth, you may want to just let your existing contract with the "biggie" expire. For one, they program all of their zones as an Entry/Exit. Meaning, all of your zones will have the same entry delay times that are programmed for your front and/or garage entry doors. So, if your E/E doors have an entry time of 45 seconds for example, so do "any" of your protected openings. That, in my opinion is, well, go figure. Eek

I own & operate my own security company. I perform many conversions from your security providor to my own and they are all programmed in that manner. Why? It omits a substantial amount of false alarm calls into the central station. In my honest opinion, I wouldn't want to be allowing a burglar that 45 seconds through my window or even worse....my childs window. If you want to stay with them, demand that they change your zone programming accordingly. They are also about the most expensive at $34.95/mo plus, you wrote a prime example, "We'll page a technician" per their CSR, well, what happened? No call. They'd be 86'd on the spot if it were my situation. You also don't even own your equipment.

Good luck and hope you do well. Very Happy

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 05, 2006 Posts: 1

I went thru the process of registering my current alarm panel with Next Alarm in early Sept 05. and purchased a ABN adaptor of ~$120 w/shipping. They claimed my panel could be monitored no problem.

After very slow responses & delays NA could not get it to work. You can only email them via work orders & I think they are selective on who they get back with. I did talk to couple of techs, but nothing materialize. They claimed they had to reprogram my alarm to ContactID messages which was attempted. Of coursed it has not worked with my old monitoring company since the first time they messed with it so I have been w/o monitoring since mid Sept. All of this took forever because of their slow responses.

I wonder how long it would take for a phone call to the police on an alarm???

They sent me emails to reporgram, then walked me thru it ,then claimed an attempted remote control to reprogram. Nothing worked. They said they were working on it. I was willing to pay extra to get some focused service to get it done.

Now they do not respond to my work tickets, so I am paying my old alarm monitoring company to reprogram the panel to work with them again.

I called the Home Security Store, the nextalarm partner that sells all the equipment for a return. They said they will not take back the ABN Adaptor because it was outside the 30 day return window. I called next alarm customer service w/ no answer, just VM that they do not return. Feels like a scam to me & I am ready to tell anybody that asks. I was nice & patient, now they ignore me.

My advice would be to stay far away! No body needs the hassle or the risk!!!!!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 06, 2006 Posts: 1

Well I wish I would have found this forum sooner. I have had my ABN adapter for more than 30 days. Nextalarm told me my system was compatible (ademco vista 10 se). I needed to run cat 5 from one end of the house to the other so I could have the adapter located with the rest of my network equipment and procrastinated due to the holidays. Bottom line is in Nov they had me run the test on my panel where you enter a number and wait for "20" to come up. I guess if you get "20" everything is fine and dandy. Well I got "20" back in Nov. I finally finished the online app on Tues evening expecting it to take an hour or two for them to do whatever processing they need to do. It is now Friday evening and after a trouble ticket requesting status (evidently there is no real person customer service...I hate that Mad

) I finally got an email reply hours later telling me they needed more info about my panel and asking me to key in the number and look for "20"...the same thing I did on Nov 9.

I sent back the same result this time that I sent in Nov and asked how much longer they expected this to take. I received an automated message a few minutes later telling me my email had been received, recognized with my customer number, and I would be hearing from a support team member promptly. That was at 6:36pm. I guess promptly means in approximately 72 hours.

I sent another email informing nextalarm that I was very disappointed in their customer service thus far and further telling them this was no way to begin a business relationship. Oh did I mention the first time I emailed them in Nov, the first line of the reply was, "Please, accept our apologies for the delay in getting back to you."

I really hope this gets better. If I have to continue with my ADT contract AND am stuck with this ABN adapter, I am NOT going to be a happy camper.

I have a friend who swore by NextAlarm when he recommended them to me, so come on guys (NextAlarm) it can't possibly take this long to get this thing done...let's get on the ball, And the email only customer service thing makes me feel like there is one guy with a room in his mom's basement handling all of the tech support calls...that doesn't give me a warm fuzzy at all!