The RMLS™ Board of Directors recently voted to change the default lockbox hours on SentriLock lockboxes to 8am to 9pm Pacific. Board members heard feedback from fellow REALTORS® about the original SentriLock default hours of 9am to 8pm being insufficient for some showings.
Subscribers, if you wish to provide the expanded access hours on your lockboxes as soon as possible, you will need to do the following:
- Renew your SentriCard® in a RAD or SentriCard® reader
- Insert your SentriCard® in your lockbox(es)
- The lockbox will make a series of beeps. When finished, remove your SentriCard®!
Want access times that differ from the RMLS™ default of 8am to 9pm? You’ll need to do the following:
- Insert your SentriCard® into your SentriCard® reader at a computer with internet access.
- Log in to SentriCard® Utility using your SentriLock ID and password.
- Click “Customize a Lockbox” on the main menu.
- Select the lockbox you would like to customize, and click “Continue.”
- Under “Lockbox Settings,” use the “Access Times” button to select the access times you would like.
- Don’t forget to save your changes! “Save Changes” is located at the bottom of the “Lockbox Settings” window.
- SentriCard® Utility will update your SentriCard® with these changes. Once the updates are complete, the green status bar will appear.
- Remove the SentriCard® and insert it into the lockbox you wish to update.
- If you would like these new hours to remain on the box after you remove the shackle, make sure to uncheck the “Auto Reset to Defaults After Shackle Release” box at the bottom of the “Custom Lockbox Settings” screen.
We hope subscribers will find the expanded default showing hours useful!
Great….now I get to drive around to all my listings where my lockboxes are and slide in the plastic card to update the showing hours. Too bad this wasn’t set up better from the beginning. I don’t know how ANYONE can say that this system is more advanced than Supra. Sentrilock is very cumbersome in all of the steps and as for the RAD device in my Honda, which doesn’t charge unless the car is running, I have to “renew” the card every day when I get into my car.
Our office is very dissatisfied with this new lockbox system.
Todd.
Hi Todd,
Thank you for the comment. You can update your boxes at your convenience, the next time you are at the property. You don’t have to make a specific trip to the box unless you want the hours updated immediately. As for the RAD charging in your car, it just charging when you are driving is more than enough to keep it charged. You have probably noticed that it can last 2-3 weeks on a charge.
As long as your card is in the RAD, it should automatically update. I will be writing a blog article soon about how that exactly happens. The basics is that every night at midnight it connects to the SentriLock server to check to see if the card needs to be updated. This is almost always the case, so the next time the RAD is moved (driving your car is enough movement), it connects to the server and updates the card. It is based on movement in order to conserve the RAD’s battery life as much as possible.
Thanks,
John
Actually John, more often than not I have to manually renew the card with the rad device as it has not updated itself through the night. Not sure why it’s not renewing itself as the RAD is definitely being charged enough.
First of all I agree with you Todd about how complicated this system is compared to the Supre system. It does do more, but it requires a steep learning curve. Unfortunately, the teacher from SentriLock did a “firehose” class covering the bare basics. Too many components. Having said this, NAR and RMLS have forced this on us and we are stuck with it. My husband (who is quite computer literate) and I spent a total of over three hours yesterday on line and on the phone with SentriLock tech support. We ‘learned’ one important thing. The RAD ‘goes to sleep’ to save battery power. So when you expect the RAD to have updated the card, it did not. But as soon as the RAD senses motion, it wakes and connects to the server to perform the update. Having found this out, our RAD unit now works as advertised. Check it out for yourself. Hope this helps.
Can you change hours on a lockbox in the field? Say you are putting in on the house and the client objects to these hours. Can you change it?
Hi Malcom,
Thank you for the question. Unfortunately, lockbox access hours can’t be modified from the SentriLock mobile site. You will need to login to the full SentriLock site with your card in the card reader in order to change lockbox hours. This is because the hours change needs to be written to the SentriCard in order to update the box with the new hours. I agree that the RAD could update the SentriCard for you in the field once the change was made, so I’m going to submit that to SentriLock as an enhancement request.
Thanks again for the question!
John
John and all,
I had some trouble today with my RAD updating my card. Drove into town with a few stops, got to a new listing in SW Portland on 30th and my card wouldn’t work, said it was expired. Went back to the car and pulled the RAD out of the car, removed/inserted card, several times, and it kept getting “connection failed”. Went up the street to a “high spot”, same result. Called Sentrilock and the CS rep did an over the phone update so I could work. What he told me was that the RAD is based on 2G technology. This seems pretty antiquated (iphone 1 I believe). Is there going to be an update to the RAD in the near future that uses 3g or 4g technolgoy so we can get signal in more places. Clearly there are going to be huge holes and they will only grow as cell companies make the business decision to pull old 2g arrays off the towers and replace those with more modern and in demand stuff.
Thanks and hope you have some insight into this.
Hi Malcolm,
I apologize for not being able to reply sooner.
The 2G network that SentriLock uses is the same one that Supra uses for their ActiveKEYs. The reason these devices use a 2G network is the small amounts of data that are being transmitted in order to update the devices. The reason the personal cell phones and other devices we use are on 3G and 4G is due to the ever increasing bandwidth needs of web sites that we as consumers are using.
There are many devices used across many industries that warrant the use of 2G data networks, and as such, I don’t forsee the removal of those networks from the cellular providers. The providers make a lot of money from those older low-bandwidth networks.
Thanks,
John