Their technician said that there was a power surge in our electrical system due to lightning strike but how does he know that the surge was due to lightning ?
In that case it is not a lightning which is to be blamed but electrical problem which is covered under their warranty.
The alarm panel is located in the most safe closet/cupboard of the house. Nothing is exposed to outside elements. So this panel will not be hit by lightning in any manner.
Now can some scientist/physicist/electrical engineer explain to me here that if the lightning struck my electrical system then the power surge would be so strong that it would fry some other electrical and electronic items too. Right ?
I googled and found that other customers also were ripped off by this company for exact same reason. But I do not know why those gullible people did not pose these questions to that company ?
How wrong am I in this case ? How can I fight this alarm company. I am bound by a 5 year contract rate with this company two more years are remaining. Can I blame the company for breach of contract and get out of this contract if they refuse to prove to me that the panel was damaged by a surge cause by lightning ? How can they prove that only one small chip was fried by power surge caused by lightning ?
Help me out people and give me some ideas before I make that phone call to their customer service department tomorrow afternoon.
This is an interesting scenario mirch...
Just to give you an insight, I design industrial electronics and know the inside outs out of isolation barriers, and alot of it has to do with lightning strikes. Firstly, that technician who told you that your panels toast because of a lightning strike might seem like hes making stuff up, but it could be and is probably true. You said your equipment is covered and lightning could not have struck the proximity. However, lightning strikes are usually nearby (most likely a transformer) and they send distributed surgewaves and cause damage. So in essence, the lightning must have struck somewhere else but still ended up damaging your equipment. Now we design a product that we do actually replace/repair in case of a lightning strike though we are not bound to. We do it solely because most of our clients are pretty big names and we would want to retain their business. In your scenario you are just one of the many home owners they service so they might not be willing to write that damage off. Now again, its not our fault as lightning strikes are pretty random and an 'act of god' and no matter how well our equipment is designed, we can only design it to protect a user from the surge but not to save it from total damage. As a consumer and a homeowner, I am with you, but as a design engineer I am compelled to side with that company whose refusing to budge in on this.
p.s. did they tell you its recommended to put some surge protectors to the system? if not, you have a way to convince them its their negligence in warning you that resulted in tihs.