The BSIA has recently become involved in the row regarding the swapping out of Redcare units for other products such as Emizon and Dual-com. So why is there a problem? Well some installers have taken it upon themselves to swap out the communicator used to send signals through to the central station without the knowledge of their own customers. The reason for this is simple , the margins are greater for the installer and both Emizon and Dual-com do exactly the same job so why not. Well essentially its a technicality. Its all down to the grading. Redcare is a grade 4 product and the monitoring price reflects this. Emizon and Dualcom can be either grade 2,3 or 4. The problem does not lie with the manufacturers but with the alarm installers . Some have tried to maximise profits during hard times by putting in grade 2 communicators where previously they were grade 4 and this has given the insurance companies the opportunity to wriggle out of claims if they so chose. Of course the buck will stop with the installer in the end as the loss adjusters come after them and a large claim could put him out of business , but in many cases they were going to the wall anyway and by adding monitoring income to the balance sheets they have been able to keep their heads above water.
So what is the answer. Well both Emizon and Dual-com are as good as Redcare, the simple fact is that the installer must keep their customer informed and the customer must inform their insurance company and in truth the installer should pass some of the savings back to the customer, but in this day and age will they?.