Advanced Direct Security- ADT Authorized Company

February 14, 2014

 

On the evening of February 14th, I had a fire in our wood stove in the sunroom/kitchen area of our home.  It had died down to coals when I my husband and I took our dinner into the living room to watch the evening news so I put the one remaining log in the stove and opened up the damper.

 

After we ate I took our plates back to the kitchen and noticed light smoke in the entire area and it had a chemical smell to it. The fire in the stove had blazed up and so I closed the damper back down.  I went back to the living room and told my husband that there was smoke in the kitchen area. A few moments later the alarm started ringing.  I went upstairs to check the attic.  I felt the door to the attic and it was cool so I opened the door and turned on the light and there was no smoke up there.  I went back downstairs and the alarm was still ringing but ADT had not called. I tried to turn off the alarm but it would not respond. We waited another five minutes or so and ADT still had not called so I called 911.  They said they would send a fire truck out and that we should wait outside for the fire dept.  While waiting outside I used my cell phone to call ADT and after several minutes a live person answered. I complained about the 15 minute delay in ADT responding to the alarm and, incredulously, she told me that ADT was simply testing it.

 

I insisted on talking to a supervisor but she said none were available and that I could talk with a tech if I wanted to wait for 2 to 5 minutes.  While waiting outside, on hold, the fire trucks arrived and I explained to them what was going on.  The alarm finally stopped ringing on its own, and after being on hold for a tech for 15 minutes I hung up.

 

The firemen tested the alarm and found the alarm in the sun room/kitchen area to be different.  They used a ladder to spray fake smoke on that alarm and it finally went off, triggering the rest of the alarms in the house.  After the alarm went of the 2nd time ADT called but when I would answer the phone I would get only a dial tone.  This happened twice.  The third time I got a live person and I was so angry that I demanded again to talk with a supervisor. Someone named Dee came on the line but she did not seem to grasp the problem and was very condescending.  However, she agreed to send someone out on the afternoon of the 28th (at no charge) to fix the problem.

 

On the 28th the workman arrived as scheduled and spent a couple of hours going over the system.  The comment written on his report (which I asked him to email to me) reads:

 

          ?FA/BA covered USAA maint-no trip charge.  System had two fire circuits wired in parallel on ZN1 @ panel.  One circuit had EOL resistor.  Other circuit had broken wire & was not wired for correct circuit.  Repair wire & re-wire circuit.  System & comm. OK.?

 

This means that the entire time we have had ADT through USAA, the system has not worked properly.

 

We had BRINKS/BROADVIEW until 2010 when, through USAA, we changed to ADT.  Soon thereafter ADT bought BRINKS/BROADVIEW.  ADT sent out an installer to make sure that our system was hooked up to their system and it shortly became clear that the system was not working properly.  ADT sent out another individual to fix whatever it was that the first installer had done improperly, and she said at the time that he had done a number of things poorly or improperly.

 

Since that time we have had a number of interactions with ADT and they have all been terrible in that ADT does not respond.  It is apparent, after the episode noted above, that the system had NEVER been installed properly and thus despite paying the monthly fee to be safeguarded, we were NEVER safeguarded.  We live in a rather isolated area and it is infuriating to realize that we have been paying for security that we never had.

 

Today I contacted ADT regarding this recent problem and asked that I be reimbursed all monthly charges back to the inception of our relationship.  After an interminable wait I spoke with Korisha who said they would need to reimburse me based on a time frame and said she would connect me to billing.  After another 15 minute wait Valerie came on line and the whole process started all over again.  She then connected me to billing and Pamela came on the line.  She offered three months of credit, which I refused, and she said that only a manager can do better and she connected me with Kenneth in the leadership team.  I explained the situation to him and he said that I would need to talk with Corporate Customer Relations and gave me the 866-561-0952 number to call.  I did and eventually reached Sharon.  Sharon told me that ADT got the report on the 14th and sent the fire dept. and that ADT had tried to call me three times.  I tried to tell her that she had the information wrong but she was adamant and would not listen to me so I hung up.

 

Today, while I was trying to make contact with ADT about refunding us for the four years that we have actually had no coverage, we had an individual finishing the install on our new propane-fired generator and while venting my frustration about ADT he told me his own story about his interaction with ADT and how difficult they were to work with ( he discontinued his service with them).

 

ADT runs ads on TV that show them calling a woman on her cell phone within 10 seconds of the alarm going off.  This is definitely false advertising.  ADT told me when I originally complained back in 2010 that the alarm has to ring for 60 seconds.  I was shocked and expressed my objection to this and they said they would change it to 30 seconds.  Still, their ads are disingenuous regarding the time they take to respond.

 

I feel ADT should reimburse us for everything we have paid them since switching to their company in 2010.  Additionally, they should not be allowed to use their deliberately misleading ads.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Sandra S. Bennett

 

December 19, 2011  After struggling with Brinks/Broadview for several months (see files) in February we decided to change to ADT Security through our association with USAA). And then ADT bought out Brinks/Broadvview.   We soon found that ADT, unlike Brinks, does not call back immediately when the alarm goes off despite the depiction in their TV ads which shows them responding immediately.   I called ADT regarding their non-responsiveness and was told that they do not call unless the alarm has run at last one minute.  I told them that we could have been murdered in far less time than that.  They eventually changed the response time to 30 seconds…or so they told me.   This evening, at about 8:45 pm, after we had turned on the alarm for STAY, I dropped a small metal pan lid on the floor and it set off the glass-break feature of the alarm  system.   Because of our ongoing complaint with  ADT over their lack of response to the alarm going off, I decided to wait at least 15 seconds before turning off  the alarm.  I believe it was actually closer to 25 seconds when I coded it to stop.  I waited about five minutes and did not hear from them.  I was about to call them back and raise objections when my husband  noticed a message on his cell phone.  The message was from ADT saying there was an incident with our alarm.  I could not understand why they called his cell phone instead of our home phone.  When I called ADT (800-238-2727) it was about 10 minutes to 9:00 and after making several automated decisions finally spoke with a live personl named Kristin.   We have a password and pin but she wanted a “code’ word and this information did not seem to be anywhere in my files.  After one wrong guess I made a lucky one and Kristin then listened to my story.  She said she would have to pass me on to the right party which turned out to be someone named Lori.   Lori informed me that ADT had tried to call our home phone three times but got a busy signal. Other than my call to ADT no one had been on the phone so I could not figure out why they would have called my husband’s cell phone.  I was quite upset about this, so Lori suggested I talk with a supervisor.   Guy, the supervisor came on and explained that not only had they tried to call the house and failed (he said the alarm LOCKS UP THE PHONE – so how on earth would anyone be able to call and tell them it was a false alarm?) but that they had then called husband's cell phone and when they got no answer they called the Transplant Office number at the hospital, and when they got no answer there they called my cell phone (I had forgotten to charge it) and left a message, and then they called our son Gray’s number (he is out of town). I really could not believe this sequence, I asked them to remove the transplant number from the list.    I also told Guy that I rarely have the cell phone with me except when I am traveling.  He said he doesn’t go anywhere without his and doesn’t even have a land line.  I explained to him that because my husband is a physician and we live in a rural area where reception can be a problem, we have to have a land line.   I asked GUY what ADT did when they couldn’t get hold of anyone (it was now about 9:00 pm).  Guy replied that they called law enforcement.  I said I had asked Lori (or Kristin) to cancel any calls to law enforcement and assumed they had done that.  Guy said it appeared they had not and so he put me on hold and checked.  When he came back on line he said that he learned that law enforcement was just arriving (we didn’t see or hear anything) and that he had told them to cancel.   I told him that that all this was unacceptable, that their ads show ADT responding immediately to an intruder when the STAY alarm is on, and the woman getting a call almost instantaneously to the home being broken into and assuring her that law enforcement is on the way.   I also said that if the phone line was frozen up while the alarm was ringing, that it would make it impossible to call out as well, but I had called them on the line so it could not have been frozen – plus we have call waiting feature on the phone.    Guy did not seem to think this was strange but he asked if we would like to have someone come out and check out the system.  I said yes and we set up December 30 for the repair person to come out.   If this is how the ADT system works, then it really is of very little use to us and apparently we have been paying for a useless system for the past 10 months.  I will look into what else is available.   Sandra S. Bennett