bean
11-25-2006, 08:24 AM
I have a storage room with a corporate owned, major chain company - one that gets most of their income from the rental of trucks and trailers, but a significant amount on storage too. Their name contains "Haul". If you can't figure it out by now.. :wave:
Anyway, the location my room is at recently added computer controlled 24 hour access to those who are willing to pay the extra $10/month (it used to be an extra $100/mo and you had to schedule night entry with the management). I'm in the middle of emptying my room of nearly 3 years out, but due to my work hours have a lot of trouble making it there during business hours, so I went ahead and paid for 24 hour access for my final month.
A few days after getting my 24 hour access, I swing by around 10pm (they close at 7) to start hauling stuff off. You have to swipe your card in 2 card readers - 1 disables the alarm system for your room, the other actually opens the doors. Both worked fine, but when the doors opened, it was like a damn air raid - sirens galore, strobes, etc. I got back out of the building, found a contact number for the alarm company, and called them. They got ahold of the GM and had him call me - he explained that when they switched to full time 24/7 access, they never reprogrammed their alarm system, they have to manually bypass all of the zones for the storage center when they close at night and someone forgot to do it. He'd already spoken with the monitoring company and told them to ignore any alarm triggers for the rest of the night, and basically said "cover your ears".
Several more visits go by.. no problems. Until tonight.
I got in tonight with no problem, and had one of the dollys outside of my room (which is at the far end of the building on 2nd floor) - I'd passed many motion sensors, plus the main entry has a sensor on the door, with not a peep. On my way back to the elevator, I'm greeted by sirens and strobes as soon as I pass a motion sensor - but I'd passed the same sensors on my way in, and I saw the detection lights come on that time too. WTF?! I nearly crapped myself, the siren was all of 10 feet away from me and LOUD. Once I got out, I'm on the phone with the alarm company. Once again, the GM calls me up - except this time he remembers who I am and greets me by name (doh). This time, a "new guy" someone forgot to bypass the zones. We chuckle a bit about how this has happened to me a couple of times now, and he apologizes. Apparently this time, the new guy even saw my car at the loading dock but turned on ALL zones anyway. He asked if I was coming back tonight (I was planning on making a few trips, so yes), so he sent new guy up to fix it. The first time around he gave me a code to punch in to the keypad that should have disarmed the alarm, but didn't due to the way it was armed, this time he didn't bother.
The sad thing is, the alarm system is actually tied in to the card access system - each room has its own alarm, if one is opened without the proper card the same siren goes off. You can't even get into the building without an access card - if you force the sliding door open, you're greeted by the all too familiar sirens.
I'm chalking it up to teething problems with recently going to 24/7 access - just a guess, but most of the motion sensors in each section probably have their own zone, so they probably have to bypass something like 10+ zones every time they arm the night alarm (this is a large climate controlled 2 story facility).
Nah, I won't go SC on them over it, but damn it was tempting. The people that work on site aren't exactly what you can call the brightest folks... by a long shot.
Anyway, the location my room is at recently added computer controlled 24 hour access to those who are willing to pay the extra $10/month (it used to be an extra $100/mo and you had to schedule night entry with the management). I'm in the middle of emptying my room of nearly 3 years out, but due to my work hours have a lot of trouble making it there during business hours, so I went ahead and paid for 24 hour access for my final month.
A few days after getting my 24 hour access, I swing by around 10pm (they close at 7) to start hauling stuff off. You have to swipe your card in 2 card readers - 1 disables the alarm system for your room, the other actually opens the doors. Both worked fine, but when the doors opened, it was like a damn air raid - sirens galore, strobes, etc. I got back out of the building, found a contact number for the alarm company, and called them. They got ahold of the GM and had him call me - he explained that when they switched to full time 24/7 access, they never reprogrammed their alarm system, they have to manually bypass all of the zones for the storage center when they close at night and someone forgot to do it. He'd already spoken with the monitoring company and told them to ignore any alarm triggers for the rest of the night, and basically said "cover your ears".
Several more visits go by.. no problems. Until tonight.
I got in tonight with no problem, and had one of the dollys outside of my room (which is at the far end of the building on 2nd floor) - I'd passed many motion sensors, plus the main entry has a sensor on the door, with not a peep. On my way back to the elevator, I'm greeted by sirens and strobes as soon as I pass a motion sensor - but I'd passed the same sensors on my way in, and I saw the detection lights come on that time too. WTF?! I nearly crapped myself, the siren was all of 10 feet away from me and LOUD. Once I got out, I'm on the phone with the alarm company. Once again, the GM calls me up - except this time he remembers who I am and greets me by name (doh). This time, a "new guy" someone forgot to bypass the zones. We chuckle a bit about how this has happened to me a couple of times now, and he apologizes. Apparently this time, the new guy even saw my car at the loading dock but turned on ALL zones anyway. He asked if I was coming back tonight (I was planning on making a few trips, so yes), so he sent new guy up to fix it. The first time around he gave me a code to punch in to the keypad that should have disarmed the alarm, but didn't due to the way it was armed, this time he didn't bother.
The sad thing is, the alarm system is actually tied in to the card access system - each room has its own alarm, if one is opened without the proper card the same siren goes off. You can't even get into the building without an access card - if you force the sliding door open, you're greeted by the all too familiar sirens.
I'm chalking it up to teething problems with recently going to 24/7 access - just a guess, but most of the motion sensors in each section probably have their own zone, so they probably have to bypass something like 10+ zones every time they arm the night alarm (this is a large climate controlled 2 story facility).
Nah, I won't go SC on them over it, but damn it was tempting. The people that work on site aren't exactly what you can call the brightest folks... by a long shot.