1 Message
Monitoring Service: Vacation Mode
I've had several security systems. With others, when I went on vacation, I could go online and specify the contact information of my housesitter and what dates she would be at the house. That way, if she set off an alarm by mistake she could call the monitoring center and cancel it and they would know she was legit. SimpliSafe seems to have no way to do this .
Last summer when we were going out of town for two weeks I called their support folks. They had a hard time understanding what it was I wanted to do. They finally edited my account and awkwardly put in the name of the housesitter and some verbiage about the situation - all in the field that was previously just my name.
This seems to me like something really basic that should be possible without so much effort.
captain11
Captain
•
5.9K Messages
1 year ago
@katrinaooms Simplisafe does try to keep things simple, and with that, good or bad, there are some features customers want and SS doesn't give them. With a bit of tweaking, you can get what you need in some shape or form.
My wife and I left for an international trip earlier this month and I put my neighbor of 20+ years as the first primary contact, as he is just two houses away, with me listed as 2nd, and my wife the first to be contacted after dispatch. Easily odne and took about a minute of my time Opting in for visual verficiation, I added comments in the monitoroing notes that if anyone is seen in the house during an alarm event, dispatch, period. These steps will become even more effective when Simplisafe's LIfeGuard Camaras and process is fully released.
Luckily, no issues and we are now back. Hopefully, what I configured can be something you may be intered in and can use.
BTW, SS, if any of my six water sensors had gone off, I could would have been alerted on my phone and could shut off the water manin remotely with the 3rd party product I purchased on Amazon. I humbly suggest this would make an aswesome additon to your product line: water sensor goes off, SS3 is alarted and shuts off water main. Hint hint.
(edited)
0
0
davey_d
Community Admin
•
5.4K Messages
1 year ago
Hi @katrinaooms ,
There's a couple of things that would be helpful to know.
First, if your housesitter accidentally triggers an alarm, there's a short grace period in which she can cancel that alarm by disarming the system. And if she does so quickly, the operator will assume that someone authorized was on the premises, therefore it was probably a false alarm, and there would be no dispatch call. You can set up secondary PINs through the SimpliSafe app or your account online, and that gives her the ability to disarm, but won't allow her to make any changes to your settings.
But if your housesitter was not able to cancel in time, then a professional monitoring operator would call the first Primary Contact on your account. Technically, the operator doesn't care who is answering that call. The most important piece is that they know the Safe Word passcode. That's how the agent will know that the person answering is authorized to cancel dispatch.
So you could set that first primary contact to your housesitter's info (also through your online account or smartphone app), then change it back when you get home. If you're not comfortable with sharing your Safe Word passcode with your babysitter, then you could also just add to the Notes section of your Location Profile that there's a housesitter present. So if the operator does end up dispatching your local police, that info can be relayed to the officers.
0
0