Moments ago, I rolled a refrigerator away from the wall and my new fire alarm (purchased from Surety) sounded. I ran over to the keypad and entered the disarm code. Two minutes later, the alarm company called. While I was explaining that this was a false alarm, they said they dispatched the fire department. This is NOT protocol.
The alarm company is expected to verify (or attempt to verify) with the primary number before dispatching.
The fire department arrived and I humiliated myself by explaining this was a false alarm.
I asked for a supervisor so I can better understand what happened. The supervisor stated that Surety put my only “Contact Number” into the system WITHOUT completing the “Site Number” field. As a result, AvantGuard (the 3rd party monitoring company hired by Surety) follows the process of: 1) Call the “Site Number” 2) Dispatch Fire Department 3) Call the “Contact Number.” With no “Site Number” on my account the monitoring company claims to have followed protocol.
After searching for how to set the “Site Number,” I found My Surety Account > System Manager, there is a section under Professional Monitoring which includes “Location Phone”
Since we only use Cell Phones and do not have a “Location Phone,” it wasn’t clear this field is required or the Fire Department would be dispatched. Even the help text states “Location Number - Optional. The Landline location phone number for this account. If you do not have a landline phone, leave this empty.” THIS IS MISLEADING!!! Without entering a cell phone into this field YOU CANNOT STOP A FALSE FIRE ALARM!!!
Consider checking your account to make sure this field matches your contact info.