ADT Security Services

1. Install began on 2-16-13 and has not been completed as of 3-8-13. The installer never fully
completed the install. On 2-16-13, the installer did not have one of the cameras nor the electronic
door lock on his truck. He said he would come back by when he got another one of each in stock. I
still haven't received the additional equipment as of 3-8-13
2. The salesman promised the following:
a. The camera was wireless and cordless and didn't have to be plugged in. He said the "battery
was a lithium battery that lasted for a long time and ADT would replace it as part of the
contract. WRONG. I had to find a convenient place to mount the camera near an electrical
outlet. The battery IS NOT cordless. Plus and even more important: The camera records for
30 seconds if there's an incident and sends the recording to ADT servers where they are
saved. Oops, if the power to my home goes out, or is intentionally turned off by a bad guy,
no camera, no recording. No evidence.
b. I asked the salesman (Dave), when first approached at my front door "Are you an ADT
Employee?" He showed me his badge and said yes. I asked him "Are the people who
install, are they ADT employees, not subcontractors?" He said "Yes, we are employed by
ADT." WRONG The installer, is AT LEAST a subcontractor, possibly a sub-sub contractor.
Which is why he never brought my additional equipment that was paid for in the contract,
back to the house. . . no allegiance. I would have never purchased the service if I was told, UP
FRONT that ADT used sub-contractors to install their equipment. PERIOD. The reason?  No allegiance!
c. Contractor left sheetrock pieces and dust all over a piece of furniture and the floor, which I
had to dean up. He should have shielded his work with a plastic sheet or something, or at
least cleaned it up.
d. i Was told the installation would take about an hour. It took 2.5 hours and was never
finished. There weren't any installation problems to account for the additional time. If he
would have had the additional camera and electronic lock, the installation would have
taken longer.
e. At the table, during the sales presentation, I asked -Does the alarm system have an loud
-- - audible alarm that the neighbors can easily hear?" The answer was "it has the 95 decibels ,
the decibels of a rock concert and the neighbors will be able to hear the alarm going off,"
WRONG!. With the doors to the house closed, I can't even hear the alarm from the middle
of the street in front of my house.
f. Salesman (Dave) said the ADT Monitoring will decrease your homeowners insurance by at
least 10%. He asked who insured my home, I told him USAA and he said USAA clients get
the biggest discounts of all, some even up to 20%. So I called USAA after the install.
Found out my rates would go from $746.00 to $723.00 ???? that's only 3%!!!
g. This installation was called the "Fort Knox"'. Salesman said '"fully protected'" (will alarm)
from break-ins and home invasion. WRONG!!  This "Fort Knox'" installation will only alarm if someone
walks into my living room from any other room in the house and sets off the motion detector in the living room.
If they break in any window of any bedroom, the alarm WIll NOT go off, and they can compleely cleaoout any bedroom
through a broken window. I found out later that I would need to UPGRADE if I wanted to
protect/alarm in the event someone broke in through one of the windows. SO MUCH FOR
the FORTKNOX bait and switch.
What I had to do to find out if my service was cancelled within the 3-day wait period: 
3-1-13/1015 EST- Called ADT LLC dba ADT Security Services, 14200 E. Exposition Avenue, Aurora, CO
80012-2512,303-338-8200. NO ANSWER. Left message with info and asked for
them to call me back. THEY DIDN'T
3-1-13 -Contacted Hoffman Heights Post Office in Colorado, who services the ADT address. Clerk
(Latasha) was very busy and said she would call me back.
3-1-13 - Contated Hoffman Heights Post Office in Colorado again. Different clerk, looked up the USPS
Priority mail ref #. He advised that that package, along with 61 other "articles" was
delivered to the address (i4200, E. Exposition Avenue) on Feb 21st. However he
advised that for some reason (he thinks the postal scanner had an issue) none of the
61 articles got electronically accounted for as "delivered" even though they were delivered. 
3-1-13 -I got the fax number number of the ADT LLC facility and faxed (ATTACHED) the NOTICE OF
CANCELLATION to the number with all pertinent information and repeated desire to cancel the
contract within 3 days.  .. The fax went through successfully. NO ONE CALLED BACK.  I requested a call back! Nothing!
3-8-13 - As of this date, there has been no correspondence related to my NOTICE OF CANCElLATION.
3-8-13 - I Called ADT Security Services, 303-338-8200 INC. Diane advised a cancellation was posted on
the account on March 4th 2013. She said; "It's a 30 day process .. and will close down by April 3rd 2013, and any refunds due will be be issued on  that date. 
3-15-13 - Installer finally called to say he had the additional equipment and was ready to install, I told him, ?don?t bother?, I?ve cancelled the service as of last month."  He said he would have to talk to one of the directors of the company. 
3-15-13 - On of the directors of the company (Secure Automation) called me and asked me if my intention was to keep the equipment. I said ?yes?, to which she replied ?Ok, Mr Brooks, let me tell you how this is going to work. . . .?   I interrupted her and said, ?no, let me tell you how it?s worked so far? and then proceeded to tell her why I was so disillusioned with ADT, the install and the poor representation and told her that, by her own contract, I have the right to keep all the installed equipment because it been more than 20 days of the date I signed the contract without any correspondence from ADT, nearly 30 days at the time of the call.  She then told me it would be morally wrong for  me to do that since the equipment is so expensive. I said, it?s morally wrong what
your sales team represented and the mess that the installer left, and the fact that no one ever came back or called about my additional equiopemnt to be installed, after 3 weeks!  And further, the incompetence of the termination team to not even contact myself or anyone else in ADT about receipt of my termination. 
3-21-13 - I rcvd an automated call from ADT that they weren?t getting a signal from my equipment (which was removed last week. . sheesh!!).    I really thought ADT was more professional than this.
5-28-13 - Received a threatening "Breach of Contract" letter from a company called "Secure Watch", 507 S. Gay St, STE 200, Knoxville, TN 37902, 865-622-9971.  These were the guys who, I think, actually did the install for ADT.  They've changed their name to Secure Watch from Secure Automation.   So I looked them up.  OMG, look at this link:  http://www.topix.com/forum/knoxville/T41IF8V3LJ7HH2615/p11  It ain't pretty. 
 I ignored the letter, which threatened to contact the Credit Bureau, and "we will charge you 75% of your remaining contract balance."
7-9-13 - I pulled a credit report.  Secure Autom

Please be warned, this is the most crooked company I have ever done business with.  My husband and I had an ADT security system installed in early April.  The full installation charge was supposed to be $440 as stated in the contract that we signed.  To account for the $440, my husband wrote two checks, one for $220 at the time the contract was signed and one for $220 when the installation was complete.  ADT cashed both checks for a total of $440.  However, ADT also used one of the checks to make an additional electronic charge of $220 to our checking account that was never authorized by us.  Therefore, they ended up over chargin us by $220.
Initially, I called the national office, 1-800 numbers etc, to try to get the matter resolved.  I thought they would immediately realize their mistake and gladly help me.  WRONG.  They were incredibly rude, disrespectful, and refused to refund my money, even after providing them all of the evidence they needed to account for their error (bank statements, check copies etc).  I called every single day only to speak with numerous "supervisors" who could not care less and would not help me. 
After my daily unsuccessful attempts trying to deal with the national level of business, I reached out to the customer service sales representative that originally came out to my house to sell me the system.  This gentleman was very apologetic and I believe he tried his best to be helpful.  However, it has been almost two months and literally every day I speak with him on the phone and he tells me the same thing, " they are working on it."  Unacceptable.  It has been almost two months and they have been "working on it" that long without refunding our money?  That money should be sitting in my checking account accruing interest.  Thank goodness we are not a family who is desperately in need of $220 or I do not know what I would do.  I do not know how this company has been in business for so many years.  Please save yourself the headache and look for a different option.  Crooked is the only way to describe their total lack of professionalism.

once the service tech came, it went well.  but their customer service is absolutely horrible.  i will be looking at other alarm companies and will make a switch soon.

I feel abused...I cannot get out of my contract for another 18 months...nor will they come out and check their system without charging me a fee. I am at a loss on what to do,

They were very prompt and professional. They got the work done in 40 minutes and left. They don t do what doesn't have to be done. We are very happy with this alarm company and their workers.

I learned recently that they do not have people monitoring your alarm. There is no one in the office, as it is a computer that is monitoring your machine. I am not at all pleased with this service. I was told that the system was being revised and people will soon start monitoring my system, so I am going to wait to see when that happens.

ADT does the job. They are a large organization, so I think we felt okay about signing up with them because they are widely known and have built a pretty good reputation for themselves. They do what they need to and we feel safer by having an alarm system as opposed to not having one. We also get a deduction on our homeowner's insurance too just by having an alarm in our house which is good.

They were prompt in calling to set up an appointment. They were able to use some of the existing wiring to install the system. I haven't had any problems with this system. I am set up on direct bill pay and the monthly charge is fair.

Although I know ADT is very well known for alarm system, I think they are very expensive. Another thing that I did not like too much was that they try to up-sell way too much. I understand that they want to sell more products but I think they are a little pushy in the sales area.

I do have an older home and they were able to install the system without any wires being exposed which I really appreciated that. I also like the fact that my alarm services has a built in smoke detector as well. I haven't had to have the company come out for any repairs in the last two years.

I have not had a problem with any security issues since I began using ADT. This company has a great customer service department and I feel very safe in knowing that they are hooked up with the local Police Department in case of any emergencies.

I am well taken care of by ADT. They are dependable and reliable. I can not think of a time where I have ever experienced any sort of difficulties with this company. I feel like I am informed customer that receives quality services on a regular basis. As a result, I would be happy to recommend their services to others.

I wasn't pleased when the installer showed up with the wrong sensors. I had specified that I had animals and needed to work around that. After I returned home I discovered the installer had left a large mess in my hall closet. I had towels and clothes in the closet and he didn't even move them when he was punching in from the attic. It left drywall dust and insulation everywhere. I tried to call ADT, but got no response from a manager. I am still having issues now with my billing. They have charged the wrong credit card for the billing and the wrong one for the monitoring.

$31.28 PAYMENT PER MONTH FOR SMALL SYSTEM. ONLY OFFERED A LOWER RATE WHEN I CALLED TO CANCEL. TOO MANY CHARGES FOR HELP NEEDED WITH RESTING AND CHECKING SYSTEM. THIS SHOULD BE DONE AS A ROUTINE.

SALESMAN WAS FRIENDLY AND HELPFUL BUT FAILED IN THE END TO FOLLOW UP (WHICH IS A SERIOUS NO-NO IN SALES). INSTALLERS TOOK LONGER THAN EXPECTED - SEVERAL DAYS. LATER, I HAD PROBLEMS WITH A DOOR CONNECTION AND GLASS BREAKS WERE OVERLY SENSITIVE. I CALLED THE SALESMAN AND ADT TECH HELP TO SET UP AN APPOINTMENT TO FIX THE PROBLEM. AFTER NO RESPONSE, I CALLED TO DISCOVER NO ONE HAD A RECORD OF MY ORIGINAL SERVICE REQUEST. THIS WENT ON FOR SEVERAL DAYS. I CALLED THE COMPANY AND SALESMAN. THEY STILL FAILED TO RESPOND. ADT IS MOST LIKELY TOO LARGE WITH TOO MANY NETWORKS. EVEN WHEN I TRIED TO CANCEL THE SERVICE, I HAD TO GO THROUGH DOZENS OF PHONECALLS. THEY JUST DON'T GET IT. IF I CAN'T COUNT ON A SMALL MAINTENANCE PROBLEM BEING FIXED, WHY SHOULD I TRUST THEM WITH MY HOME SECURITY AT A CRUCIAL TIME? I WILL GO WITH A LOCAL COMPANY. STAY AWAY FROM ADT. THEIR SIGNS ARE RECOGNIZABLE BUT THAT'S ABOUT IT. THEY DO NOT COMMUNICATE AMONGST THEMSELVES AND THAT CAN CAUSE CHAOS. GO LOCAL!

SATISFIED. WE TRUST USAA MEMBER SERVICES, AND ADT IS THE PREFERRED PROVIDER. WE RECEIVE A SPECIAL RATE AS USAA MEMBERS. ADT HAS A GREAT REPUTATION FOR SERVICE - THEIR INSTALLERS ARE IMPRESSIVELY PROMPT, POLITE AND HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL. WE HAVE A CONCERN, HOWEVER, THAT ADT MAY HAVE SOME INTERNAL DATA MANAGEMENT ISSUES. FOR EXAMPLE, ALTHOUGH WE WERE SET UP FOR AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS, THEY MADE A MISTAKE AND CHARGED US FOR SOME BUT NOT ALL OF THE SERVICES. THEN THEY BEGAN FINING US FOR EVERY MONTH THERE WAS A SHORT PAYMENT. WE WERE UNAWARE OF THE PROBLEM UNTIL THEY TERMINATED THE SERVICE & SENT US A NOTICE - AND A HEFTY FINE - WITHIN DAYS OF CHARGING US FOR THAT MONTH'S SERVICE. THEY WERE NOT HELPFUL UNTIL USAA INTERVENED; EVEN THEN, I HAD TO KEEP AT IT. ALTHOUGH USAA ASSURES US THAT BILLING IS THE ONLY ISSUE THEY'VE HAD, & RARELY, WE'RE STILL WORRIED. PERHAPS IT WAS A FLUKE? ANYWAY, THE ISSUE HAS BEEN RESOLVED; AND THE SERVICE WE'VE HAD BEFORE AND SINCE THEN HAS BEEN FINE.