A LETTER TO WESTMINSTER AND THEIR RESPONSE

Needless to say, the Westminster Security situation has given me a few extra grey hairs. I received lots of calls and emails from residents all telling me what Westminster has told them. So the following letter was written to Westminster with a copy being sent to Bob Toll.

The letter describes everything that has gone on to date. My apologies for any inconveniences that this might have caused but understand that my intent was to provide each of you with the same "deal" I received. Here is my letter:
http://www.freefilehosting.org/public/44449/WESTMINSTER%20LETTER.pdf

I then received the following message from Felicia Ratka who is a VP of Toll responsible for Westminster Security:
Mr. Post,

In response to your email I would like to offer the following as to the position of Westminster Security on the reduced rate requests we have been receiving and some of your comments/statements:

We at Westminster do not make the assumption that as Subscribers living in the same community, you do not speak to one another, we are actually very aware that you do. Westminster Security has several hundred Subscribers in Regency, a very small percentage of which have received a reduced rate for monitoring services. This rate has been offered in few occasions after the original contract term was over and as such is unique to the subscriber and circumstances. As a neighbor and friend to many of the residents in your community I am sure you had the best intentions with relaying the information about the change of your monthly fee but unfortunately, contrary to your statement, the conditions for all residents are not the same with respect to their monitoring services and their contracts with our company.

When buyers sign their agreement they are all offered the same monthly fee and this typically stands for the life of their contract. Furthermore, not all Subscribers are qualified for the reduced rate you were offered. Subscriber's payment histories are not the same and the point in which a Subscriber is in their contract term and renewal periods vary to which we are not at liberty to discuss with other homeowners. Each situation is reviewed on a case by case basis.

We apologize if you feel that this explanation is not sufficient but we hope you understand that while Westminster extended an offer to you based solely on your account history, this does not entitle all Subscribers to the same benefits you may have been the recipient of and as a result, each account will continue to be reviewed solely on the basis of it's qualifications and any offers available at that time.

Sincerely,

Felicia Ratka
Vice President
Westminster Security / Toll Brothers, Inc.
fratka@tollbrothersinc.com
215-293-4382 (phone)
800-931-2403 (fax)

Naturally I had to respond and my response was as follows:

Ms. Ratka,
Thank you for your response. It will be sent to the residents of Regency so that they would know what the pricing position is of Westminster.

Naturally various factors might enter into the decision as to what price a customer is offered upon renewal. However, we do talk to each other and there have been cases where ALL factors are the same because some of us closed on the same day, we paid our bills on time, we had hardly any "false" alarms and when we asked for a better price even one day later, one person got X and another got Y. If you were the person who got the higher price, wouldn't you want to know why or what do you have to do, to get the lower price?

As a reputable company you should have some guidelines as to why I would get a price of $15, someone else $18 and another person $22. If I was $22, I would like to know what I would have to do to meet the qualifications of your $15 price. Don't you think you owe this to your existing customers? This way they might pay their bills faster, have fewer "false" alarms, etc. so that they might qualify the next time for the lower price.

Recently another reputable Security monitoring company sent me his proposal. His price was the same for any and all residents at Regency. He did qualify his proposal by saying that if we had 100, 200 etc. residents sign up, his price would be that much lower, but at least we knew what the price would be for each resident.

During my lifetime, I dealt with thousands of multi million dollar contracts for hospitals in the Greater NY Area. When a company bid, they didn't give Hospital X one bid and Y another even when the credit rating of one hospital was very poor. If they ever did something like that, the Greater NY Hosptial Association would probably not entertain a bid from that company.

As I mentioned, we would be glad to entertain a bid from your company on renewal contracts. By doing it this way, we at least know where each homeowner stands. If there are factors such as poor payment history, naturally you can write something like this into a contract proposal. However, at Regency I think something like this would be the exception and not the rule.

The problem that bothers me the most and just today someone told me the same thing, is that some derogatory remarks have been made about me from, let's say, someone in your company who has told a few residents that I lied about the price I got. I hope that you would correct this situation, since you know that not only myself, but others, also received the price of $15. Some comments even included that nobody at Regency ever received this price.

Again, the easiest solution to the problem is to offer everyone at Regency the price of $15 upon renewal, unless there are clear circumstances that would warrant a higher price. The vast majority would probably qualify for the $15 and you have already set this price for some. However, this is your decision. but if acted upon in a positive manner, it would retain customers and would provide an end to this problem.

As far as me personally, I guess I have no choice but to honor the contract I already signed and sent away prior to all of this happening. I don't want to deal with the possibility of not abiding by this contract.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ron Post

DONATION OF CLOTHES

A person from Family Resources asked me if I can inform our residents that they will be in our community on August 22 to pick up used CLOTHING

If anyone wants to donate their old clothing please e-mail Family Resources by going to their website at the following : www.frainc.org .

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Regency Hadassah

Invites you to wish your friends and neighbors a Sweet New Year.

To be included in Regency Hadassah's New Years Greetings, leave your donation of $10 and your name at Arline Grossman 15 Doral Drive

CAROLE MILLER'S CLUB WAS FOUND

Thanks to emailing and at least one person who does read my emails (Lee Gaynor), Carol Miller's golf club was found. Thank you Lee for finding it.

If I lost a club I would probably never ask anyone to find it. This would then be a great excuse for not playing well. I'm beginning to run out of excuses for poor playing.

Also, I would like to thank some of the Regency guys who have been diving into pond number 1 in looking for Carole's Club. You can stop diving but remember, you will now begin to glow in the dark

A WORD TO THE WISE

Don't use Q-Tips after you shower. I don't think I had to write this message since my foursome this week, Marty Kornfeld, Steve Baliff and Irv Shatsky have personally spread the word throughout the community.

Doctors have even stated that Q-Tips should be banned from the market. Now that my hearing has improved immensely I made just one mistake. Instead of going to the doctor over the weekend, I should have waited until I finished playing golf this week with Marty riding in my cart. I was now able to hear every word Marty spoke - why didn't I wait???
Another few days of deafness would have been worth it.

THAT'S IT FOR NOW (A LITTLE VACATIONING NOW AND I WILL SEE YOU BACK ON MONDAY)
RON