‎What happens if you dont answer the call? | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
carsondreed7's profile

Sunday, November 20th, 2022 8:25 PM

What happens if you dont answer the call?

Hi, I am new to Simpli Safe. I used to have the Ring alarm pro. I would like to know if the first contact on the list does not answer, do they send out emergency services and then call the 2ed person? 

If the CO alarm goes off, do they call emergency services first and then call the first person? I heard if it goes off, it's up to you rather tell them to dispatch emergency services, but I think emergency services should be called first. I want more info on that, pls.

What is the response time? And how does the permit work?

Thanks, 

Carson.

Official Response

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

2 years ago

Hi @carsondreed7 ,

Thanks to @captain11 for the link to our Help Center page. To save you the click, I can tell you that for almost every type of alarm, the first Primary Contact on your account would be called first. They will only wait for a couple of rings (they will not wait on the line until you answer).

In the case of Fire type alarms, if you do not respond to that first call, then that's when our operator moves on to your local fire department. 

As for permits - there are different legal requirements depending on your municipality. Some areas only need you to register yourself and your home, while some require a fee, and/or that you participate in some from of education. You'll get the most accurate info from your own local fire department. But our dedicated Permits team at permits@simplisafe.com can help too!

2 Messages

Just spoke with the Monitoring team after receiving only one ring from SimpliSafe on an alarm call.  They swear up and down that they cannot hang up the call until someone (or voicemail) pics up.   Are you saying that is not true? 

Also, why are fire alarms different?  Why will SimpliSafe not call the second primary contact but they will call both if a window/door/glass break sensor is tripped.  It is far more time critical if an armed intruder is coming in my window.

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@neonsport​ Our monitoring agents can hang up before the call is picked up by another person or voicemail. In the event of an alarm, they will only wait for a few rings before calling a second Primary Contact or dispatching the police. 

In the event that there's a fire, we would want to dispatch emergency services as fast as possible to stop it from spreading. If a Smoke Detector goes off and the first Primary Contact doesn't answer the call from our monitoring center, the monitoring agent will dispatch the fire department and then call the rest of your Primary and Secondary Contacts.

Accepted Solution

Captain

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6.1K Messages

2 years ago

@carsondreed7 Great question. The good news is that SS has a very good, comprehensive article to answer your question in the Help Center. See the link below. The bad news is that if you search the community, it doesn't come up with the article in the help center but only a thread with my own, limited reply.  SS, can you include the Help Center on community searches? If it already does, why didn't this come up? Thanks!

https://support.simplisafe.com/articles/alarm-events-monitoring/what-does-professional-monitoring-protect-against-what-happens-during-an-alarm/6344795e8e3e4c348d43ebdf

35 Messages

@captain11​ Isn't it true that they also look at your cameras and if nothing is going on will do nothing if they can't reach you? 

I've had cases where my cat set off the motion sensors although SS say smaller animals don't trigger them - but our 15 pound cats do - now I have the sensors lowered and pointing up.  In those cases I wasn't able to receive the phone call but even so they never dispatched anyone.  That's good that we did not waste police time on false alarms but I'm assuming that was because all our cameras are available for them to view when there's an alarm triggered.  

Community Admin

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3.4K Messages

@s13nIf you're subscribed to our Fast Protect™ monitoring plan, you can enable Video Verification on your cameras. With Video Verification, our monitoring center can see footage captured by your cameras when there is an alarm. If a potential intruder is found in this footage, it can be used for a faster and more accurate police response. However, even if an intruder isn't captured on film, our monitoring center won't cancel dispatch unless the alarm is canceled by you.

There is a grace period where if an alarm is canceled within 30-60 seconds, our monitoring center won't call you as its deemed to be a false alarm.

Video Verification does differ from our new feature, 24/7 live guard protection. With 24/7 live guard protection enabled on the Smart Alarm Wireless Indoor Camera, our monitoring center can view a livestream of an alarm event through it. Using its 2-way audio, our monitoring center will then interact with the potential intruder. 

If the person on the premise says that everything is okay, our monitoring center will ask for your account Safe Word, the same way they would when they call you. If the Safe Word is successfully confirmed, the alarm will be canceled; if it is not, police will be dispatched. Our monitoring center will only cancel an alarm using video footage if its through a Safe Word confirmation with 24/7 live guard protection.

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