Ngunnawal residents woken for fourth week by 3.41am Supermarket alarm

We’ve had a response from the owners.

I am aware that the alarm belongs to the premises not the company.

My point was that it is common for at least one local security company to not tell clients when an alarm does this on a regular basis. So it is quite possible that the client was told of the first time it happened but are unaware that it has been happening regularly since (assuming the place is being monitored which I think it is).

Best bet is to write a letter to both the manager of the supermarket and the manager of the security company (their stickers are usually on the windows of the premises). When you write, tell them that you are writing to both people.

Also, do not ring up the security company and get abusive. Staff usually have permission to hang up on abusive clients so they will ignore. Feel free to ring and complain every night though, they will try to help you if you are reasonable with them. Just remember the person you speak to on the phone is almost certainly not at fault.

Surely just creating this thread is enough for the supermarket to take action on it’s service provider?
They know now that you can easily burgle this place at 3.41am on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and nobody responds?

Pork Hunt said :

joingler said :

Don’t blame the supermarket.

Having worked for a local security company before, it is often the laziness of security staff (either in monitoring or in service) to do anything about it. Find out what security company it is and ring them up to complain. Then you should also write to them about it.

Drop into the supermarket and tell them that the alarm is going off. If they are with the security company I once worked for then there is a 95% chance they do not know it is going off.

What part of
“yet the supermarket and it’s security company are failing to respond to complaints or do anything to prevent it recurring”
didn’t you understand?

The OP didn’t actually make it clear what they’d done to resolve the situation. The way they wrote:
“Local residents have witnessed the flashing lights and ear splitting noise yet the supermarket and it’s security company are failing to respond to complaints or do anything to prevent it recurring.” makes me think they haven’t necessarily clearly contacted the management of the supermarket. The emphasis on the terrible things they’d witnessed late at night kindof makes me think they’re (somewhat reasonably) outraged that the situation hasn’t fixed itself by now.

But:
Bitching to a check out chick is likely to result in nothing happening because they’re not responsible and have no idea what the deal is. Maybe it’ll get passed onto the manager/owner, maybe not.

Ringing up the security company is likely to result in nothing happening because they’re simply providing a service (monitoring) to a client, they’re not responsible. Maybe it’ll get passed on, maybe not. I cannot emphasize enough that the alarm system does not belong to the security company – a lot of people seem to have the idea that this is the cases, but it is not. They simply provide monitoring for a fee – they may do sales/installs as well, but in any case the alarm is going to be the property and responsibility client, not the company that sold it.

Unless they’ve actually gotten in touch with whoever manages or owns the supermarket, they’ve done nothing of any worth.

Mr Evil said :

Just politiely tell the supermarket manager that if they don’t do something about the issue, and it keeps continuing to happen, the offending aural alarm will be removed from the building with a sledgehammer!

Then if that doesn’t work, use said sledgehammer to redesign the bonnet on his Merc S-Class or BMW Z4, or whatever else they drive these days.
As a victim many years ago of an alarm that activated contantly during nighttime hours, it would not have been too much of a push to apply the sledgehammer to the shop owner- Fatigue can drive you to the brink.

joingler said :

Don’t blame the supermarket.

Having worked for a local security company before, it is often the laziness of security staff (either in monitoring or in service) to do anything about it. Find out what security company it is and ring them up to complain. Then you should also write to them about it.

Drop into the supermarket and tell them that the alarm is going off. If they are with the security company I once worked for then there is a 95% chance they do not know it is going off.

What part of
“yet the supermarket and it’s security company are failing to respond to complaints or do anything to prevent it recurring”
didn’t you understand?

Just politiely tell the supermarket manager that if they don’t do something about the issue, and it keeps continuing to happen, the offending aural alarm will be removed from the building with a sledgehammer!

That being said, I’d expect that the client should have been called at 3:41am as well then, unless they’ve got it so patrols go out automatically, in which case it’s probably cost them $200+ thus far. I’d find it hard to believe they don’t know that it’s happening.

joingler said :

Don’t blame the supermarket.

Having worked for a local security company before, it is often the laziness of security staff (either in monitoring or in service) to do anything about it. Find out what security company it is and ring them up to complain. Then you should also write to them about it.

Drop into the supermarket and tell them that the alarm is going off. If they are with the security company I once worked for then there is a 95% chance they do not know it is going off.

I worked for a local one too, not sure if it’d be the same one.

My guess on what’s happening here is that there’s someone new doing deliveries who hasn’t been told how to disarm the alarm or simply can’t be bothered and doens’t give a damn that they’re setting it off whenever they go in (it happens. a lot. cleaners were the bane of my existence).
Your best recourse is to the supermarket itself, not the security company. If you call up the security company the best that’s going to happen is that they’ll refer it to the client, and I’d say that’s 50/50 at best, just as likely it’ll get lost in transit.

Keep in mind that the alarm does NOT belong to the company, it belongs to the client, who’s paying the company for monitoring, patrols, ect. Dropping into the supermarket is probably the best bet, especially since the owner is probably actually there most of the time given it’s just a little one.

Don’t blame the supermarket.

Having worked for a local security company before, it is often the laziness of security staff (either in monitoring or in service) to do anything about it. Find out what security company it is and ring them up to complain. Then you should also write to them about it.

Drop into the supermarket and tell them that the alarm is going off. If they are with the security company I once worked for then there is a 95% chance they do not know it is going off.