Welcome to VirtuAlarm® – We’re glad to have you with us as an
Authorized VirtuAlarm Affiliate Dealer Partner.
Please review the following information:
Your unique assigned Affiliate Dealer ID begins with the letters “AP” followed by two (2) charters/digits.
Example: AP01, AP02… APAA, APAB etc…
Your unique Dealer ID should have been included in our “Welcome” email. If for any reason you lose or cannot locate it, please call our corporate offices to have support provide it to you again.
Please use your 4-digit Dealer ID when completing any forms as it will be needed on almost every form you submit online. It will also be the first 4-digits of most alarm signals you send through the VirtuAlarm platform into the VirtuAlarm Central Station. (Consider it your “line card number” and more information will be provided when you setup your first account.)
Your 4-digit ID is also your DEALER ID in our UL 827, Intertek & Factory Mutual certified monitoring center, American Digital Monitoring. On any alarm that is dispatched, for licensing, the central station will use the name “Cen-Com” to authorities, but will use your company name when communicating with the Customer or emergency contacts.
Each morning, you will receive a “daily activity report” on all your accounts activities within the last 24 hours, via Email. Please review your accounts activities and contact the Customer if you see they are having issues or false alarms with their alarm system.
SECTIONS IN THIS GUIDE:
A: Alarm Dealer Basics
B: VirtuAlarm® Products
C: Processing Alarm Signals
D: Central Station Setup
E: Customers Fees
F: VirtuAlarm® Fees
SECTION A
ALARM DEALER BASICS
Once you have read this guide, if you have any questions in regards to it, please feel free to contact us directly at 1-800-681-6791. We can even assist you when adding your first few Customers with over-the-phone step-by-step setup instructions. You can also find many support documents through the Dealer Services tab in your Dealer account.
As an Alarm Dealer Partner, you can use VirtuAlarm® products such as our own IPalarm-Wi-Fi transmitter, IP-LTE Dual-tech transmitter or our line of M2M products to send alarm signals into the VirtuAlarm platform. Our multiple alarm processing platforms can stop false alarms before they happen, as well as offer remote arming and disarming at no additional charge.
When you use any VirtuAlarm Transmitter, there is no charge for the basic transmitter services as its all included in the $8.95 monthly withholding fee per account. Additionally, we offer our VirtuAlarm® APP at no charge to you and your Customers to eliminate any false alarms from occurring.
When you use a VirtuAlarm Digital Diverter or you program an alarm panel or third party device that you pay for directly, such as Alula, Alarm.com, DSC, Telguard to send by PSTN, (Phoneline) just program it to send the call to your assigned VirtuAlarm® private receiver number. (Also provided in your “Welcome guide.”) You private receiver number will quickly accept any Contact ID signal sent over the line. If the alarm format IS NOT Contact ID, your first two (2) calls will be rejected by the VirtuAlarm® Contact ID receiver, and on call number three (3) and every call from that point, will be forwarded directly to our multi-format receiver farm to be processed using the appropriate alarm format.
When you choose to have VirtuAlarm® pay for a third party device such as AlarmNet, Napco, Alula, Alarm.com, etc. you will need to request our support department to activate and pre-setup the device in your Customer listing, ready for you to use. This is done by selecting the RED [Add/Import Any Device] located on the top of your Dealer Dashboard, and completing the form.
We Accept the Following Devices, and Many, Many More, any into VirtuAlarm:
Including Any 3rd Party Alarm Transmitters:
SECTION B
VIRTUALARM PRODUCTS
Dealers can purchase VirtuAlarm® products from their Central Station or Distributors throughout North America.
VirtuAlarm® also offers direct purchase and shipping within the United States online at www.M2MofAmerica.com with shipping to Canada at www.M2MofCanada.com or through your Dealer dashboard when selecting “VirtuAlarm Products”.
All VirtuAlarm® transmitters include a free APP with remote ARM/DISARMING as well as our FALSE ALARM REDUCTION PLATFORM to prevent false alarms.
VirtuAlarm accepts inbound signals using the following platforms:
“IPalarm” – Enter the last 6-digits of the MAC address of the IPalarm-Wi-Fi transmitter and it’s connected.
“IP-LTE” – Enter the last 6-digits of the MAC address of the IP-LTE Dual-Tech transmitter and it’s connected by IP 24/7. Should the local IP connection go down, or become compromised, not only will the IP-LTE alert the monitoring center of the fault, but all signals will switch to 4G/LTE/5G Cellular until such time the IP is back in service.
“M2M” – Enter the 6-digit serial number of any M2M product and it’s connected.
“PSTN, identified by Caller ID” – Program the Alarm Panel or use a Digital Diverter to dial our your assigned toll free receiver number and enter the 10-Digit Caller-ID of the Customers phone line and it’s connected.
“PSTN, identified by Account Number” – If your using the same caller-ID on multiple accounts or dialing from a bank of phone number, including 3rd party devices such as AlarmNet, Alula, Alarm.com, Uplink, Telguard etc… then have the alarm signals also sent to you assigned toll free receiver line, but use the last 4-Digits of the Account number being transmitted to identify the alarm signals.
AlarmMail – When selecting the Alarm Mail option during a new Customer setup, you will be issued a unique, encrypted email string and address to send an email to. Simply have the alarm system or device, including video cameras send the email and it is converted into a valid Contact ID formatted alarm signal for VirtuAlarm to process as if the device sent a contact ID format to begin with.
SECTION C
PROCESSING ALARM SIGNALS
We offer several ways to notify your Customer of an alarm condition arriving at VirtuAlarm when the signals are routed into our platform. Once received, they can be processed in multiple ways using any of the platforms below:
“None” – No alerts are sent to the Customer over APP or SMS when an alarm is received and immediately re-transmitted to the Motoring Center of your choice worldwide.
“V-Notify” – Alerts will be sent to the Customer using our APP or SMS at the same time that the alarm signal is being sent to the Central Station of your choice.
“I-Notify” The Alarm signal is held in Queue at VirtuAlarm® allowing for a fully interactive environment allowing the Customer to choose to either CANCEL, DISPATCH or HOLD any alarm signal received, prior to the signal being processed for possible forwarded to the Monitoring Center of your choice worldwide. When an alarm conditions is received, the Customer is alerted in real-time over the VirtuAlarm APP & SMS. The Customer can set a time delay of 30, 60 or 90 seconds to respond to any APP or SMS notification received. If no response is received within the set time period, VirtuAlarm then attempts to notify the Customer using a IVR phone call. The Customer again has 30, 60 or 90 seconds to CANCEL the alarm condition using a 4-digit pin number. If no cancellation pin is received, it then sends the alarm signal to the Monitoring Center of the Dealers choice. With the “I-Notify” system by VirtuAlarm, what took traditional alarm monitoring centers over 10 minutes using just alarm operators, can now be done within a minute or two.
“D-Notify” is for the DIY Customer to allow them to SELF-Dispatch alarm conditions as if they were the Monitoring Center. No matter where they are in the world, they are connected to their local emergency dispatch center with the push of a button.
SECTION D
CENTRAL STATION SETUP
As part of the NEW CUSTOMER setup process in your VirtuAlarm dashboard, you will be asked for your Subscribers complete account information, including the address, zone definitions and emergency contacts. These sections must be fully completed, or the account will be charged for services, but signals might not be processed in the Central Station for alarm conditions. Once the account has been completed and saved, any entries will be used to automatically build the Subscriber in the Central Station. After that initial setup, to add, remove or change the Subscriber information, update the Customer records in VirtuAlarm and the account will be automatically updated in the Central Station.
Please READ each question, using the associated ‘help bubble’ prior to each entry or selection. If you’re not sure of the answer, please contact us before completing the questions/ section. And always remember to click the SUBMIT button or the information will not get saved.
SECTION E
CUSTOMER PAYMENTS
MONTHLY BILLING RATE: When adding a new Customer in VirtuAlarm, you need to input the MONTHLY retail rate you want VirtuAlarm to charge the customer on your behalf. You can choose to charge the Customer any monthly fee you wish, with a MINIMUM of $8.95. Be sure to calculate the rate with your withholding amount in mind for optional services as well. Should you ever have a need to change the rate being charged to the consumer, you can make the change online anytime.
ACCOUNT BILLING CYCLE: You can choose a billing cycle from monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. Once the Customer account is saved, VirtuAlarm will charge the Customer the monthly fee, multiplied by the account billing cycle, plus one month, as VirtuAlarm bills 30 days in advance.. Once payment has been received, the Customer account will not be billed until the next billing cycle.
DELAYED BILLING: You can choose to start the billing your Customer immediately, or if your Customer pre-paid for monitoring by paying you directly, you can request the billing to be delayed for up to 12 months. However, since VirtuAlarm still needs to collect its $8.95 base rate for services, any month that the Consumer was not billed, will be billed to your credit card on file instead.
OPTIONAL SERVICES BILLING: Each month VirtuAlarm reviews each of your accounts for any optional services being provided. If it detects any during a calendar month, those optional services will be listed in your billing ledger and charged to your dealer account at the end of the month. A list of optional services and their associated fees are available under our AFFILIATE RATES section.
PAYMENT OPTIONS: To setup a New customer account, you will be required to input your customers payment information. As the Dealer, you should already have the Customers credit card for payment information. (Only the Customer can switch to ACH once the account has been setup.) In some occasions, you can request to add the account without your Customers payment information allowing your Customer time to update it either online themselves or through you. If after 7 days, the payment information is NOT updated by your Customer or you, the outstanding balance will be charged to your payment source instead to prevent the account from being suspended for non-payment.
All collected payments from the Customer are shown in the Dealer billing ledger as they accrue during the month which can be seen once you log into your billing ledger. Affiliates can request payout of their collected payments, at anytime online.
Customers that have any questions in regard to a charge, need to contact the Dealer in order for you to contact us to resolve. Any disputes or charge backs that a Customer files, will cause disputed amount to be fully charged back to you the Dealer and will also include a $50.00 charge back fee that the processor charges us, even if the Customer removes the inquiry or dispute. Once a customer has made an inquiry or dispute and those fees have been charged back to you, we will not attempt to collect the disputed amount from the Customer through their payment source, and they will need to pay you directly for the amount due. Unless you cancel / delete the Customer, the same payment source will be used again the next billing cycle. Should a Customer perform an inquiry or dispute a 2nd time with us, they will be cancelled automatically and any disputed fees will once again be charged back to your Dealer account.
Credit card declines are handled by our accounting department to update the payment source. Since we bill 30 days in advance, the customer will receive an email from us every day until it is paid. If there was no payment after 15 days, we will enlist you to contact the Customer to get them to update their payment source. If a customer fails to pay and their account, the Customer may be suspended until such time they make payment.
SECTION F
VirtuAlarm® fees.
All fees for services are available for you to review under the section labeled “SERVICE FEES” one page back. The only additional fee that you will have is our standard $8.95 withholding fee which includes your Subscribers monitoring and the basic $2.50 fee of any VirtuAlarm® device, including IP-Alarm, IP-LTE-Alarm and some M2M products.
