Fire Safety

Just a quick word about Masterguard Fire Protection.

We called on a mailer for a free dinner to learn about fire-safety expecting it to be some sort of sales pitch.

It was.

The guy ran through a litany of scary stories about this person who got burned on 80% of his body, that person's wife died, this lady's kids got killed, your smoke detectors have a 55.8% failure rate but he won't tell you what a "dependable" smoke alarm costs. He said if you want to know costs, he'll drop by your house and walk through it and tell you on an individual basis.

My wife wanted a fire extinguisher and it probably wouldn't hurt to have a better fire alarm or two so we said sure, stop by.

For his recommendation of 12 alarms our total cost was $4,500.

He threw a fit when we said we didn't want it and made some comments that made me think he might be back to light our house on fire to teach us a lesson and stormed out.

Anyway, I googled similar products and found similar smoke alarms for $25-40, Carbon Monoxide alarms for about $40, and a two pack of fire extinguishers at costco for $70. Total cost for the same system: $420.

Fire safety is a good idea but don't get raped on pricing by a company who scares you into making a quick decision.