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ADT Security Systems

ADT Security • Sales practices • Service • Military clause

ADT is by far the largest home security alarm service in the U.S. and also does a big business in providing service to business and government. ADT works with independent re-sellers and it also has partnerships with Sears and other retailers.

It's important to note that you're buying two things when you get a home alarm system -- the equipment and the "service," which basically consists of monitoring your system and responding in whatever manner you agree to when alarms are received. Note that you must provide a working telephone line.

Like cell phones, security services will offer all kinds of deals, including "free" equipment and, sometimes, "free" installation. Of course, it isn't really free. The cost is simply built into the contract you sign, which usually runs two years or more. Like any contract, the ADT contract means what it says -- and only what it says. Nothing your salesman tells you means anything. Verbal promises are meaningless.

Therefore, read the contract fully before you sign it. Understand what you're getting into -- a multi-year contract that obligates you to pay whether the system works or not, whether your phone line works or not, whether you have a job or not.

Sure, there might be a few cases where you could get out of the contract but it's a lot easier to be safe than sorry. Read it thoroughly. If you don't understand it, don't sign it until you find a disinterested third party, preferably a lawyer or paralegal, who can read it and explain it to you. Otherwise, you'll end up like the complainants whose tales appear in this section.

Don't believe us? Check out the complaint below ...

Patricia of Tracy, CA (10/20/05)
We signed a contract with ADT in 1998 for a term of three years. The account was in my husband's name and his signature is on this contract. When I called ADT to cancel our services in June of this year, I was told that my husband had to cancel because it was his account. My husband called later in the week and was told that the company required a 30-day notice for cancellations. Since we had already sent our payment for the quarterly statement, the rep told my husband that we were going to be pro rated on our refund.

Several weeks later we received a statement telling us that we owed $331.22 for the balance of the contract. We were expecting a refund, not a balance. We were very surprised to receive a copy of a second contract made out in my husband's name but showing my name in the signature. When I questioned the rep about the discrepancy in this "new" contract she didn't have an explanation.

Damages: ADT constantly calls and wants to collect this money that we feel that we do not owe them. They send a statement every month trying to collect from us. We feel this will affect our credit report that we value very much.

Gurdeep of Sacramento, CA June 30, 2009

I had ADT home alarm system installed in January of 2008. I am in a 2 year contract. Intialy, I had comcast digital phone and my system worked phone but then my monthly rate jumped so I called ADT and asked if their system is compatible with AT&T U-verse and they assured me yes, the system was compatible. So, I went ahead and switched to AT&T U-verse and the ADT system stopped working. I called ADT, they said oh, AT&T must have hooked it up wrong so call them back. I had AT&T come and take a look and alarm system still did not work. I made several calls to ADT customer service and every time I was told yes, they are sure it should be compatible and working. They would send a ADT tech out and the tech would tell me no it will not work. I went back and forth between ADT local tech, AT&T tech. Finally, ADT said we will send our own ADT tech out to check. The tech came and said no, there is no way this is going to work and I will make a report to ADT that the system is not compatible. I was told by ADT that if system is not compatible they would let me cancel my contract without any panelity. Now they are giving me run around about canceling my service. I need help.

Glenn of Putnam Valley, NY June 24, 2009

4/30/09 complaint filed with ADT due to no response to alarm condition at home. On 4/30 ADT confirmed in writing procedure was in place going forward.

On 6/18/09 alarm condition occured at home. ADT did not respond per agreed upon process. On 6/18 ADT confirmed there was no response to alarm and agreed services were not provided and needed to research further.

attractive of canoga park, CA June 23, 2009

they billed me and said if I don't pay service would end with "x" amount as my balance. They continued to accrue a balance, with my service interrupted. They have not responded to my calls, fax, or mail. They sent me to a collection attorney; due is FOUR TIMES original balance!!! I have to hire an attorney and still have no alarm system

Gwen of Midway, FL June 19, 2009

My system has not worked properly in over five weeks. I came home one day and my alarm system fail to go off. I call ADT and told them that I was walking around in my home with my system engaged and the alarm has not going off nor was my motion sensore. I phoned to report the problem because no one from ADT call me.

Two days later I get a call from ADT telling me that there is a system failure at the garage door. I knew that because I called ADT two days earlier. Okay, it's been established that I have a system error. I spoke to at least 20 representative, all were very rude except two. The two that was somewhat nice promised to help but you guess it, I have not heard from them again.

I asked for a weekend appointments to have the system review and was told that there were no weekend appointments. This confused me because a weekend appointment was provided when the system was installed so I could not understand why the weekends was a problem now. Someone showed up about two weeks later on the weekend and guess what? The sorry repairman told me that he didn't have the part to repair the system. Just sorry. I phoned ADT again and spoke with an insensitive CSR so I asked to speak to her supervisor. The supervisor comes to the phone with an attitude, I asked for her name and she gave it to me and decided to spell it for me. Surely I'm capable of spelling a name as common as J---; she was trying to be cute, I guess I disturbed the smoke break, her voice sounded raspy. She too offered nothing but excuses.

I decided to take advantage of the telephone number give to me for the CEO. I phoned and was told that I was speaking to his assistant. As expected, she was useless as well. She gave me her telephone number and told me to call her when the technician came out and she would see about refunding my monthly fee. Imagine that, I was to call her, news flash, I'm the customer here. It seems to me that she should have been keeping an eye on my account to see if the technician came to my home and she should call me to tell me that she's refunding my fee. I guess that seems too much like the right thing to do.

I placed another call to the CEO office and talked to another lady who said she was the CEO's assistant. This CEO must be one busy person considering all of his assistance. Now my question is busy doing what. Surely his time is not invested in customer services because his CSR, supervisors and assistants all appear to be just simply out of touch with wants going on with the customer. I wanted to cancel my service today and a little voice told me to check my contract (something I should have done in the beginning), sure enough, I'm stuck like Chuck for three years. LOL I plan on telling everyone I meet about the service I received from ADT and my experenices as it relates to me.

Mildred of Trenton, NJ June 17, 2009

I cancelled my 4 surveillance camera security system within the 3 days allowed on my contract. The agent I first signed on with was angry and tried to tell me I could not cancel that I was basically stuck with the system and the 1300.00 bal. I then read my contract again and no where does it state that once installed its yours. It allows for 3 days to cancel after installation. The reason I cancelled was I did not like that the camera frames had up to a 7 second delay which would allow any burglar time to get out of the view of the cameras. After speaking to him I spoke with Becky from the local billing office in Pennsauken NJ she was very nice and after saying I had to fax a letter of cancellation and why, she said there were no problems and she'd setup a date for the installer to come back and uninstall the system. He came w/in 2days and took down the cameras and wiring.

They still charged my acct. over 400.00 the first installment for payment and have now sent my acct to a collection service. The collection service, when I spoke with them, put the file on hold because they did note that ADT had a letter in their file that it was suppose to be cancelled!!!! What is going on!

Ronnie of Lithonia, GA June 3, 2009

In Feb 09 I changed my telephone service from one company to the next I called ADT to inform then on the change spoke to a female no name I do not have. Gave this female all my new information new numbers new carrier for the phone through the whole conversation I was never told that my new phone service was not compareable to ADT so my home want unprotective from Feb 09 to May 09 and the alarm want off on the 30th of May with my 71 year old mother in-law in the house alone.

Heather of Locust Grove, GA May 30, 2009

They had a contractor install the system, come to find out, through our phone company, it was illagally installed, was supposed to be wired directly to the phone box outside the house and was wired to a jack inside the house. We had problems from day one, when someone would call our house, the system would interuppt our call and say "system on" and not let us have a dial tone for at least 5 minutes.

this happened several times and I reported it twice with ADT saying that's what it is supposed to do. WHich doesn't make sense because it shouldn't cut off phone service for emergency calls.

then we had severe static and a humming on our line, the phone company came out and unplugged the alarm and it stopped that's when we found out it (the alarm system) was wired wrong, we called the alarm company and they wanted to charge us 140.oo for thirty minutes for them to send someone out to see if it was wired wrong. it was aweful customer service. they sounded like the were reading from a script and kept wanting to give me different phone numbers. the company that contracted to do the wiring there was no answer and I left a message, and do not expect a call back. WE WOULD LOVE TO CANCELL OUR SERVICE BUT DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET OUT OF OUR CONTRACT, IT IS NOT STATED ANYWHERE. they are AWEFUL!

Beth of Sterling, VA May 30, 2009

I owned a business and used ADT services for 8 years in three locations. I moved, not simultaneously. When I moved to the second location, after two years, I was told I could not move the equipment from the first location, so I had to install new equipment. Then I received a bill for breaking the first contract. When I called to ask about it and told them that I had moved, they quickly cancelled the bill (but of course, I was going to be paying from the second location!). When I moved to the third location, I once again left the equipment because the third location had equipment installed. It was my understanding at that point that I was taking over the contract from the previous tenant, who had been there 2 years. I stayed in the third location for 3 years. I cancelled the monitoring service when I went out of business. I am now being hounded for a cancellation fee of 1490. How long are the contracts!??

Sam of Fairfax, VA May 28, 2009

I am surprised that ADT activated an old system (Rollins) and made me believe that this system will work, which they initially charged me for activation and an extra sensor. After a short time they offered to buy me a new ADT system!

At the beginning of my contract on December 2008, I told the ADT sales person that I was a tenant on the property and I had no intention to install a new system. I only wanted to know if the present system (Rollins) would work. He assured me that his manager would fix the system and the system will work and stay working, unfortunately it stopped working on February 2009.

Since then I have contacted them, their local office, and their sales representative to handle this issue. They sent a technician, then they told me that the system was inoperable due to its old state. The technician told me that the system was beyond repair. I called ADT office to cancel the service. However they asked for 800.00 cancellation charge!

Randy of Phoenix, MD May 28, 2009

We cancelled our contract effective Apil 1, 2009 when we sold our home; the new owners were not interested in transferring the remaining contract to them! We received our "Final Statement of Account" on or about April 22 and immediately made a payment for the total amount due of 453.19. We then received another bill stating that we still owed for one more month of monitoring service.

I called ADT on Arpil 22nd and was told that our balance was zero and to disregard the outstanding bill of 35.38 for monitoring service thru April 11, 2009; our phone line was disconnected as of 4/1/09 anyway. We received another bill on May 23, 2009 dated June 1, 2009 showing that we are past due the 35.38. When I called today I was told that the "Final Statement" was not really our final statement and that they attempted to charge my credit card on file for the outstanding monthly monitoring servic still due but it was declined so I needed to send payment; the card they had on file had been compromised and a new card issued but I never gave them the new number because they didn't need it since I had sent in our final payment.

I repeatedly asked why the statement would say "Final" if it was not and was told basically its not final and pay up. No amount of conversation was going to sway them. We wil pay the outstanding amount because we do not want to jepordize our good credit but will never ever do business with ADT or any of its subsidiaries.

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