Download the one-page checklist (PDF)
Ask five questions before you sign: who installs, what happens when it breaks, where footage lives and for how long, what is in the quote line by line, and what you are locked into. Use them on us or on anyone else, and compare the answers side by side.
How should I use these five questions?
Ask every company the same five, in the same words. Write the answers down. A company that is a good fit will answer each one plainly, without needing to call you back.
1. Who will install the system?
Ask whether the people who install are the company's own staff or a subcontractor. Ask who will be on site, and who you talk to if something looks wrong during the work.
Subcontractors are not always a problem. But when the installer and the seller are different businesses, a question about the install can bounce between them.
What a good answer sounds like: "Our own technicians install it. Here is who will be on site, and here is who you call during the job. We test everything before we leave, walk you through it, and write down what we installed and where."
2. What happens when something breaks?
Every system has a bad day. A camera drops out, a sensor fails, an app stops logging in. What matters is what happens next.
Ask who you call, whether they can fix it remotely, and who comes out when they can't. Ask what a service call costs outside the warranty.
What a good answer sounds like: "You call this number. Most problems we can fix remotely. If we can't, the same team that installed it comes out. Here is what a visit costs once you are outside the warranty."
3. Where does the footage live, and for how long?
This question matters for cameras. Ask where the video is stored: on a recorder in your building, in the cloud, or both. Then ask how many days you can look back.
Ask what happens to the footage if the recorder is stolen, or if your internet goes down. Ask how you would export a clip for police or your insurer.
What a good answer sounds like: "On a recorder in a locked spot, kept about this many weeks. Here is what happens if it is stolen, and here is how you would hand a clip to police." A clear number of days beats "plenty."
4. What is in the quote, line by line?
A single total tells you very little. Ask for the quote broken out: each camera or sensor and where it goes, the recorder or panel, cabling, labour, setup, and any monthly fees.
Then line up the quotes on the same points. How many cameras? Where does each one point? Who installs? What is monthly, and what is one time?
What a good answer sounds like: "Here is every item, where it goes, and why. This part is one time. This part is monthly. Here is what is not included." If you ask why a camera is placed somewhere, you get a reason, not a shrug.
5. What am I locked into?
Ask how long the contract runs and what it costs to leave early. Ask whether you own the equipment once it is paid for.
Ask the hardest one plainly: if you cancel monitoring or the service plan, does the system still work? Some systems lose their app without a plan.
What a good answer sounds like: "The term is this long. Leaving early costs this. You own the equipment. If you cancel the plan, here is exactly what keeps working and what stops." You should get it in writing before you sign.