ADT Consumer Reviews - Page 2

MONROE, NEW YORK -- Multiple issues with ADT have included the following:

1. Had an alarm event that required notification to the local police department. 45 minutes later, the police department had called back -- long after I called them directly and they'd been to the premise -- to advise me that they received a call that was misrouted and transferred through various sources (phone operator, state police, county dispatch, finally to my local police) because ADT had the wrong phone number for the local police, despite our providing the correct one. When we called them to correct this, we were told by the phone representative that nothing could be done about it. So I'm paying for police notification that isn't happening properly.

2. Scheduled an appointment for ADT to move my security panel due to a door installation. Technician arrived late, berated the door installers, continually used foul language to me and the installers. Spent 2 hours rewiring the entire system, then left it in a non-functioning condition to go to other appointments and never returned. Had to insist that an off-hours technician repair my system and make it operational at 10 PM -- more than 9 hours after the first technician left. Also scheduled a CO Sensor installation (see 3. Below).

3. Scheduled a CO Sensor install for a month ahead with a technician. Received several calls from ADT indicating that the part was received, and then asking "if I wanted to schedule". Corrected them on no less than 3 occasions, and asked how we make sure this is scheduled, was assured this was under control. The morning of the installation, receive a call telling me that they "don't have the part and would need to reschedule", despite being called to schedule 3 times prior stating "we've received the part".

Company clearly is not handling its business well, requests for escalation are not well-received or taken seriously. Calls to local office are not handled by managers immediately, post-sales service is not taken seriously. Clearly, their goal is to sell you the system, then not service it properly.

TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA -- There are several reports of people not liking their ADT service. I have worked for ADT and also have their service. With any company, the workers are the ones that make or break a company. The main problem with ADT, specifically here in California, is that the workers DON'T CARE. They get paid too little, considering all of the stuff they have to do. All of the top supervisors do not care about what going on. When there is too much bad blood between the workers the only ones suffer are the paying customers. ADT has hired some really bad people (one of which stole gas from the company.)

A normal company would have pressed charges but all they did was fire the worker. If a security officer can steal from the company what makes you think they won't steal from YOU? They do not like to fire people, all they do is shuffle them to a new location. The employees do things because they know they can and nothing will happen to them. ADT allows their officers to harass each other without any type of discipline. And after talking to several people who actually pay for the service, ADT has a problem with taking extra money from people and not wanting to pay it back.

My mom has the service and they still owe her a months' worth of service because they took a double payment. It has been several months and I'm sure she will never get if back. Most people only still have them because they are stuck in contracts that they can't get out of. ADT is not all bad, there are some workers who takes their job seriously. But sad to say with all the bad apples lying around all the good people quit and find better jobs.

My advice to you (and this is coming from someone who has the service PLUS has worked there for several years) research a company before you join. Try and see if they will let you get service without having to sign a contract. GET EVERYTHING IN WRITTING. And best of all don't pick a company only on price. Just because it's within your price range don't mean the service will be

ADT has slow response times because the equipment they have is not up to date. And because they are short staffed. All these things should be considered. Because if you have them for armed response and something actually happens, how soon will they show up? Do your own research!! Don't just take my word on it.

I had a Wells Fargo security system installed in my home in 1985. Tyco purchased Wells Fargo in 1998 and merged the company with ADT. This is to show I have had monitoring service for about 25 years of which 12 years have been with ADT. My husband has been on disability for the past year and a half and although I have been slightly late with my payments, I have always called ADT's billing department to tell them when my payments would be expected. On 12/18/09, I was invoiced $105 which was my quarterly payment. This is the ONLY amount that was due to them.

Tonight, I received a call from the "home office" stating I owed them $60 and that they had terminated my service. No warning, no letters, no calls prior to the one this evening. I then called their 800# billing department and spoke to a manager (**) who said my service was terminated because "they had made numerous calls and no one could reach me" along with the statement that letters had been sent regarding the termination. ALL LIES!!! Funny how the "home office" could make one phone call and reach me this evening to tell me my service was cancelled.

I still do not understand how in this day and age, a major company like ADT would cancel a VERY long-time customer over a $60 bill that wasn't even 30 days late? To that I say "GOOD RIDDANCE"!!! After reading the numerous online complaints about ADT that outnumber other monitoring services by 20 to 1, I can only hope homeowners do their research before signing up with a company who has zero value for their customers. I will also be asking my 3 family members who signed up (on my recommendation) with Wells Fargo back in 1985 to terminate THEIR relationship with ADT due to the unscrupulous way they do business.

I've been a customer of ADT since 1995. And the service used to be good. Now, I would never recommend ADT to anyone! Stay clear of this company, your house could be burning down and they would put you on hold and an hour later tell you that they could maybe answer your questions the next day or soon after.

ADT has the worst customer service I've ever experienced, and that's saying something. The fire alarm was going off in my house for over an hour while I was on hold and treated very rudely by the support teams. One lady told me it was hard for her to hear me and told me very rudely to go outside since it was kind of hard for her to hear. I live in Iowa, it's freezing, literally. After being hung up on numerous time, being put on hold for whom knows how long, and being told that maybe I should try calling back tomorrow during normal working hours, I was beyond frustrated.

They only started listening after I threatened to call my lawyer, then they suddenly became more amicable. I don't pay that much to be ignored while my house has alarms blaring so loud that I still have tinnitus. Once again, worst service, I'm currently looking to replace them.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- This situation took place in Fairburn Georgia in 2009. If you sell your house within a three year window ADT makes not exceptions. For moving to accept another job, after your house is sold. They expect the purchaser to transfer the service in their name or they will harass the previous owner to pay remaining years of the contract, if you do not transfer the service to your new resident. They do not leave room for renting or can no longer afford because of economic hard times!

They will damage your credit reports for non-payment and pay money for collection agencies to force you to pay a 3 year contract for a security system that you no longer have since your house sold! I moved to another city to accept a job after trying to get a job in Atlanta for over 2 years! I can't believe some of things BIG BUSINESS IS ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH! THIS LESSON WAS WELL TAKEN!

Avoid ADT. Buy a dog. Reasons:

1: The alarm system will go off and wake you at night. You will wonder if there really is something to be afraid of, or if it is a fluke. Try getting back to sleep now!
2: Because of the above you won't want to turn the alarm system on at night. You need sleep, right? So you figure the alarm system won't wake you up if it is off. Wrong. If the phone company performs routine maint. at night as they OFTEN do the variation will cause your alarm to go off even if it is turned OFF. Yep!

So you have a system you are paying for but you really don't want to use it because it is annoying and you need your sleep. Time to cancel, right? WRONG. ADT sales people will tell you that the contract is a formality, that if you call ADT and explain your reasons for wanting to cancel they will let you do so. Lies. Plan on getting a lump sum bill if you try to cancel. If you call to try to negotiate, let's say you want to pay half of what they think you owe them. Nope. They want that money and they will turn you over to collections to get it.

They simply do not care about having happy customers. They will lure you in with "free" security equipment and get a contract signed, and after that it is too bad for you. You have been suckered in and you are stuck with whatever service they provide or a nice fat bill if you cancel. Stay away.

PLEASANTON, CALIFORNIA -- An ADT sales rep from the Pleasanton, CA office got us to sign up for service by promising us a month-to-month service plan which could be cancelled at any time for any reason. "Nothing to lose" he claimed. In a classic bait-and-switch, the sales rep put us on a 2 year plan with a $500.00 early termination fee. We discovered this quite by accident when calling ADT for an unrelated issue. We've spent 6 months trying to work with ADT and talking to countless customer service reps and managers. All are completely unwilling to help us even though they believe we are telling the truth.

One rep was as bold to tell us that ADT is in the business of making money and therefore would not alter our contract. The sales rep who sold us our contract was completely unethical in his sales tactics yet ADT refuses any accountability. Clearly the customer comes last at ADT. We are very frustrated and very disappointed, we expected much more from such a large, well known security firm. If you are considering signing up with a security service, look around as much as possible and by all means avoid using ADT if possible.

WICHITA, KANSAS -- ADT said that I would get a 250.00 rebate back with my installation that I never received. Not to mention it cost 700.00 to have it installed, thought I was signing an 18 month contract, that turned out to be a 3 year contract. Tried to cancel to get final bill, but then again information not disclosed by the customer service representative when I cancelled was that they had to have a 30 day notice before cancelling. Everyone I have ever talked to there in customer service is very uncaring, and rude.

System had not worked right since it was installed, every time I would leave town and turn it on, before I ever left town, I would get calls from them telling me it was going off, therefore causing me to have to turn around and go back to the house, to reset it. Then it would go off while I was gone and they would send the police to check on it, costing me another 25.00 service fee with the city. It is ridiculous and not worth it.

This is the worst company that I've ever dealt with. They have misled and intentionally misinformed me on numerous occasions. They portray moving your alarm system to a new address as seamless and easy. First I was told that there wouldn't be a charge, then I was told it would be minimal, then it turns into something having to do with "credits", an ADDITIONAL installation fee, an activation fee... and no one would commit to an estimate or verify ANYTHING in writing. I went through so many Depts. and Supervisors that I finally cracked and decided to pay the "Early Termination Fee".

I feel that this money has been obtained through extortion. Why on earth would I continue service for 2 more years if they can't even quote me an estimate charge for changing my address? Initially I'd intended to continue service but this was a terrible experience and I feel as though they WANTED to push me into cancellation. Seems VERY shady... a company that refuses to give a written estimate or even written verification of cancellation. DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM.

We moved our apartment and before shifting we checked with ADT and they told us you move to your new apartment we will put the ADT apparatus free of charge in new apartment (we specifically checked are we starting... a new agreement they said no -- we confirmed it twice) and then a guy came to our new apartment and made sign a new agreement and told it is only for one more remaining year. We happily signed the agreement then the game happened over and now they say that we have started a new agreement so we have to pay for another 3 years.

Now they have charged for both the old and new apartment (one disconnected ADT service in old apartment and for new service in new apartment) and we have contacted them for 3 months till now they have not refunded us the money. They tell it takes a month to refund the money. Why it takes 1 month to refund the money? If so we have contacted them many times till now we have not received the money back and now they say we have two agreements.

How that is a customer is having two agreements? We were loyal customers thinking that we would like to continue this service for another year even after moving to new apartment now. We are wrong and we feel really frustrated with this company the ADT.