Its not necessarily true that service levels drop when one provider is dominant. In fact, in Obs I think the opposite is true. There are too many providers servicing too few customers and as a result, no-one gets a really consistently decent service.
The security companies will only devote dedicated resources to a particular area if they get enough subscribers in that area to make it viable for them. None of the security companies servicing Obs right now have vehicles specifically dedicated to servicing Obs - Obs is serviced by their "general" vehicle response cars that are allocated to the area surrounding Obs. This means that response times will vary according to how far they are away from Obs when an activation happens - and response times are pretty much THE most important criteria for subscribers, I would guess. If Obs residents in general tended towards one or two companies and focused all our contracts on these, as a community we could achieve serious bargaining ability - we could set up a central committee to demand better service for everyone. But having half a dozen companies with a few clients each will mean we can never realistically achieve this kind of communal benefit... -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Peter Brooks Sent: 29 July 2009 08:53 PM To: The Observatory Neighbourhood watch Subject: [obsnw] Re: ADT vs Obs Armed Response - any opinions? On Jul 29, 10:15 am, Anique <[email protected]> wrote: > I think there will always be stories and problems with security > companies. I see ADT arrive very late often when alarms are activated > in our area. > > I think its great that we have a choice of 3 (ADT, CBAR or OAR) or > more > > I must say I found the service levels great at OAR, and the guys very > prompt and polite. It was the administration that was not too great! > I agree that competition is important - I usually like to support the smaller competitor and, if they're not quite up to scratch, work hard to get them to improve. It doesn't always work, of course, but I don't like seeing small operators pushed out by large ones because, of course, once they've gone the service levels drop as with any monopoly. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
