A True Story .An alarm technician walks into a national retailer of novelty's store's in a mall in Washington County Pa. He greats the manager shows her his work order and the motion sensor he is suppose to hook up. Well as usual the wrong one has been sent it can not be hooked in. He asks to use a phone sits down at the cramped managers desk to use the phone to call dispatch to tell them they sent the wrong unit. He leaves in a huff with a few swear words and says he will be back.
Later that evening the manager a very good looking single woman gets a call on her phone . It is the alarm technician he wants to know if she would like to go on a dinner date. Shes shocked how did he get her number .
Oh maybe he saw it while her cell phone was on the desk. She hangs up thinking that's it . The calls persist . She then calls her corporate security people to report it and they say they will get hold of the alarm provider and get its stopped. But its too late 2 hours later the alarm technician is now banging on the door of here apartment . She calls the police the alarm technician is charged with stalking her and during the interrogation he admits he looked at the Rolodex on her desk and got her personal information.
I only know this because I worked for the same National Accounts Servicing Company based in Florida as a Sub Contractor and got called to go in and fix the mess that was created. I went to the store and took care of the problem and apologized to the manager for what she had been thru and hear from her how the technician arrested was some one I knew.
It did not surprise me
I had a previous run in with this outfit he worked for before for doing poor quality work and they where thrown of a project.
So Ok an isolated incident . No not really because many of these National Alarm Accounts Servicing Company's do absolutely no background checks on who they hire. They call a local distributor for a recommendation and that's it. I was never asked to provide any kind of info for any National Accounts Alarm Company ever and here I am putting alarms in Dollar Stores , High End Fashion Shops, Rental Stores, even Pay Day/ Check Cashing Stores. To make matters worse there are absolutely no regulations or rules on the operation of alarm company's who do commercial work in State of Pennsylvania. Nothing is required No Bonding, No Background Checks No Insurance absolutely nothing . Convicted Felons can and do work for and own alarm company's in Pa. and it is all perfectly legal because there are no regulations.
Add to this the fact Too many of these National Alarm Servicing Company's pay poorly always trying to rip off
installers there is always an extremely high turn over. Stores never get the same technician twice in a row.
and since they send everything by fax and email job order forms can be easily forged and any tech can walk in and in most cases are never questioned what he is doing there and are left unsupervised in back rooms and store offices to rip off any customer information or stores client list they want.
A pretty sad situation all the way around. When I explained this to a district manager she was in shock her company cared so little that they made sure reputable people where servicing there alarms and that a convicted felon could be doing the work in her stores.
Add in the fact too many of these retailers run very sloppy operations when it comes to store security and maintenance requests to have them fixed . I have seen 3 techs all show up for same call. Been sent to stores to install cameras already installed . Have double and triple equipment sent to sites and a call tag to send stuff back never sent and it sits there till it is thrown out for being in the way you wonder how any store is making money. So tell me do you work in a national retailer and feel safe when technicians come to your store to do things.?
Most techs also carry no official ID either. Its all done on a trust . If you dress like a tech act like a tech you must be there to work. What a hell of a way to run a business.
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