The following article was published in the October issue of Security Professional:

First, let's examine the different categories of service calls.

Some service calls are caused by defective or worn parts. Sometimes contacts go bad, sometimes motion detectors false, backup batteries need to be replaced every so often. This type of service call is something that you can understand, and your customer can understand.

Some service calls are the result of insufficient planning on the part of your installer. Some examples of this might be a 2nd floor smoke detector installed just outside of the hall bathroom that goes into alarm when someone takes a nice hot shower, and then opens up the bathroom door which allows lots of steam to cascade right into your smoke detector.

Perhaps your installer didn't really eyeball the recessed roller switch that he just installed on the front door, and didn't realize that even though closing the door gave you a ready light, in February when it's 10 degrees out and that wooden door gets just a tiny bit smaller, the shim that he should have installed back in July would be needed.

Let's face it, things happen, and even with all of the proper planning on your part, and even though you stress quality workmanship, and expect the same from all of your employees, there is one service call that you have never been able to avoid, until now.

I will lay it out for you this way: You get a call from your customer and the conversation goes something like this...

"My alarm rang last night, and I never got a call from your central station, no police, no call, nothing. Now I have a trouble light lit on my keypad. What's going on?

You now ask a series of probing questions of your customer, and you conclude that the alarm actually did ring, and after checking with the central station you now know for sure that there was no alarm signal sent, and that the trouble light is indicating a failure to communicate. Now you are thinking, bad panel? or, did I reprogram for the latest area code? or is my call forwarding line working ok? or was it.......Hey wait a minute, "Was the Phone Company at your house lately to do any work?". Now we are getting somewhere...

You customer indicates that yes, the phone company was out there last week because they had some static on the line, but it is fixed now, but what does that have to do with the alarm anyway? Now you have to explain that you are going to have to have someone come to there house and reconnect the alarm connection at the Network Interface, you know that little gray box outside of your house, because the Phone Company disconnected the wire leading to the their alarm system.

This is probably one of the least favorite service calls for lots of reasons. Generally, the Network Interface is outside, behind a bush or two, in mulch, and maybe it's a rainy day, as a bonus.

When you open the box, you may see your wire disconnected, or maybe you will see all of the wires inside the interface neatly connected to the various red and green screw terminals. At the very least, you will have to determine which wire is the one running to the alarm system (the wire you ran when you installed the system originally). If the phone company just re-connected all of the red and green wires to the corresponding screw terminals, the communicator should still work, but forget about line seizure, and upload/download capability.

Just for the record, let me take a minute to cover exactly how the connection works between the typical Network Interface, and the alarm panel. Using a 4 conductor wire, the green and red wires get connected to the screw terminals on the customer side of the interface. The green and red wires are the "feed" wires, and are connected to the proper terminals of the alarm system. The black and yellow wires are the "return" wires that bring the dial tone back to the interface. It is this return connection that invariably leads to problems.

Since it is imperative that the red and green wires feeding the alarm are the only wires that are to be connected to the screw terminals, this means that the black and yellow return wires from the alarm must be connected to the household phone wires (which will consist of a minimum of 1 set of wires to possibly as many as 8). Usually this connection will be a "floating" connection inside of the Network Interface and the connection protected by chicklets, tape, crimps, and/or all of the above. Here is a short list of problems associated with this type of connection:

1. The Phone Company technician will probably not be familiar with the connection that you have made, and will almost always cut it out and reconnect just the red and green.

2. Even though you may have left the job with the alarm wire being the only thing on the screw terminals, another party may connect something else later, like a new extension into the "home office" or a new extension into the garage or kid's room. No more line seizure for you.

3. Even though you may have installed the RJ-31X at the alarm panel, you still are responsible for the condition and integrity of the wire inbetween the interface and the jack and/or alarm panel.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to connect the phone line to the alarm panel and not have to worry about all of the above listed problems? How about something that requires no chicklets, no tape, no crimps. and just plugs into the interface?

Well, there is a new device available that enables you to make your alarm/telco connection in about 15 seconds. The BW Connector from Better Way Products provides you with a great new way to handle this connection. You simply run a 4 conductor wire to the interface, as usual. Instead of removing any wires from the terminals inside the box and making splices, you just connect the alarm wire to the 4 position header of the BW Connector, plug the male end into the interface jack, and plug the small lead from the interface into the female side of the BW.

You never have to touch the customer's wires, and you just plug it in. Later on, if the customer or the Phone Company needs to service the line, the connector can be easily removed and replaced in seconds. This is a product that will not only save lots of time during the initial installation, but will save you lots of time in the form of service calls that will no longer be made necessary. Best of all, this new product sells for about $5.00.

As far as I am concerned, any time you can save time and eliminate service calls, that's a good thing! You can contact Better Way Products at 1-888-906-2669.You can visit them at www.bwconnector.com . Their email address is info@bwconnector.com