What do you think about alarm systems?

Accomodation, House and Garden
21
Ever seen Tin Men?

22
Your chance of winning the lotto is probably higher, than that there will not be any false alarms!

I suspect if your the only flat with an alarm you are advising to the world that you have something worth stealing, rather like installing a large safe.

Door to door salesman offering A FREE alarm in CH, I would run from an offer like that!

23
Most cantons an audible alarm is forbidden except fro banks etc.

In a nutshell your alarm provider has to ensure that it is not a false alarm, ie bloddy cat wandering around or similar. They do this by phoning up peole whose numbers you provided. Once they have somewhat established it is a real breakin, they can the phone the police who may come. (For the record, 1 false alarm, you pay, 2nd one you get screwed, 3rd one the police confiscate the equipment)

All this takes time; buglary takes 5 - 10 minutes maximum, far shorter than the time it takes to establish if it is real or not.

Save you Chf 100.- per month and go for a pizza, far more enjoyable !

24
No i havent

Thanks guys i happen to agree with you. Im going to time myself searching the flat today. OH thinks a burglar will be searching the flat until he finds something. I think that if he doesnt find something then he will leave as soon as possible. And anyway my laptop and OHs mac are extremely visible. 30 seconds max to take both and i would call it a pretty good result!

25

Not the best illustration, but all I could find in a short time - long and short of it - never trust a salesman offering something for nothing for advertising purposes.

26
What about a dummy alarm system? Don't know if they actually work as a deterrent but so few people have alarm systems here I'm guessing the burglar wouldn't take the risk with your place and move on to the next house and you wouldn't have the problem of false alarms.

27
Ok so i pretented i was a thief. It took me 4 minutes to search the whole place. Will they be here in less time? Dont think so

28
I think your OH has things a bit backwards

Work on protecting the door (easy to do, one time investment) to make sure that the bad guys do not get in or that they go to an easier door in the building.

Don't be worrying about what happens once they are in. They will be in and out before any help arrives (and that is valid for any of the alarm companies). Then you have to deal with all of the insurance and other issues.

Keep it simple. Go for a proper upgrade to the door/locking system and be done with it.

29
Thanks

I agree with you. As you said the point is not letting them in. After they are in just forget it. I want to put a bar on the door. Any other recommendations?

30
do you own the flat or just rent? if owning then get a solid or steel door and frame with multiple locking points and GOOD hinges.

alternative is to fit a second lock in the existing door - not as good as the above but it will put off oportunists who look for easier targets.

in the UK we have a trelli door on the sunroom so can leave the main door open and still have airflow but doubt thats an option for you.

31
I just rent. Im calling the regie for a bar soon. OH thinks that as soon as the thief sees the alarm he will run away

32
Sounds like "you are planning to get robbed." Is this a regular occurrence with you guys?...lol It is terrible to live in paranoia like that. Get your place, live, be happy, and just take the usual precautions. For example, if you go away on Holiday have the post office hold your mail until you return, you know, that kind of stuff. Even though burglaries can happen in Switzerland sometimes, the Swiss are not necessarily barricading their doors with a sawed-off shotgun under their pillows. Material things are just that and the idea to "protect them at all cost, and at the expensive of being sensible" is ridiculous at least to the Swiss...get on with life.

33
as the police n the uk told me, alarms just mean the casual scum bag wll choose your neighbour rather then you. our alarm sends a text message telling you want sensor has been triggered, and is also lnked to the smoke alarms and gas sensors. you can call it and listen to the house and talk to the burgler if you want

34
all the times we where burgled n the uk they never came in via a door, and our neighbours appaertment here they didnt use the door

35
Gata, my son (lives in Carouge, Geneva) was almost burgled on Thursday evening. The would-be thieves broke in through a bedroom window after climbing onto the rear balcony and smashing the glass. Fortunately he was in and managed to scare them off.

The police turned up within five minutes of being called and received a call-out to another break-in whilst talking to my son. At least two other appartments in his building have been done over this year and he's getting an alarm fitted asap!

Geneva seems to be a particularly bad place for burgulary; years ago it was just a question of being more careful when the circus was around on Plainpalais but now it's a constant worry. If you're being offered a free alarm then grab it!

36
Then a fake keypad next to the door will probably do the trick...

Otherwise I would spend money on strengthening doors and windows before installing an alarm system.

37
As I said, we have been burgled around 6 times, none of those times they used a door to either get in or out, it was windows, the roof and the last time smashing the center panel of a door (leaving the door intact)

a wireless alarm with texting etc can be got from about £100, that won't even replace 1 pane of glass to toughened glass

make sure you have an external alarm box clearly on display, and the room sensors etc can be seen and that will massively reduce your chance of being broken into.

Unless they are targeting you for a specific reason (which we where 4 times) then nothing will help, if they want to get in they will get in.

Oh and dogs make no difference at all, even if you dog does get all brave and go for them they will just spray wd40 into its face and you'll have a nice big vets bill as well (again straight from the police and insurance companies mouth)

38
Door-to-door salesmen offering expensive equipment for free rings all my alarm bells. (Maybe I've just got a nasty suspicious mind.)

No offense but have you and your OH:

(a) checked out the company's reputation, online reviews etc.?

(b) phoned them up to make sure these guys who visited you are really FROM that company? Anybody can print business cards.

(c) read all the fine print several times? Too good to be true means there's probably a catch somewhere. For example, maybe the equipment itself is free but only when you sign up for an expensive multi-year service contract.

39
the alarm may be free but there will be a monthly fee for maintenance and monitoring. nothing in life is free! especially from a door to door salesman!!

40
Ok so at the end we went for it. It will cost us 130 francs per month. We did check everything as Mathnut said. The guy was very professional and answered all my questions.

To be honest im still not convinced we need one but id rather pay and not need it than need it and not have it. Call me easily fooled if you want...