Why does nobody talk about false alarm fines in commercial installs?

I did a job at a retail store in Austin last month, set up their new panel with motion sensors and glass breaks. Two weeks later they got a $150 fine for a false alarm at 3 AM. Customer called me yelling, saying I messed up. I checked the logs and it was a spider web on a sensor. Now I'm torn between adding pet immune sensors as standard or just warning every client about the risk. Do you guys eat the cost of that stuff or make clients sign waivers upfront?

2 comments

2 Comments

barnes.brian1mo ago

Man that's brutal, I had almost the exact same thing happen last year with a dentist office. Put in these cheap basic sensors and a stray cat set them off three nights in a row, $450 total in fines before they called me screaming. I eat the fine if it's legit my fault like bad wiring or a screwup in programming, but spider webs and animals? That's on the client. Now I always put in the contract that false alarm fines are their responsibility and I reccomend pet immune sensors but they gotta pay the upgrade if they want em.

reed.eva1mo ago

Brian's got the right idea with contracts... I had a similar mess with a coffee shop last spring where a fly kept setting off the beam detector. Wound up splitting the fine with them just to keep the peace, but never again. Now I add a line to every invoice that says false alarm fees are on the customer unless I can prove it was my equipment failure... saves so much headache.