ADT Security Services
Reviews and Complaints

After initiating installation in march 2018, installer showed up late for appointment. He tried to persuade purchase of more expensive option. When we refused he complained of job being more difficult. Installer proceeded to severe entire fiber optic cable wire leaving us with no phone, wifi or cable then tried to minimize what he did. Installer insisted on having contract signed anyway on a temporary basis at a much higher monthly rate. When we refused, once he was granted the ok to leave by company he ripped equipment from walls leaving unsightly damage. It was later, we discovered that they were really company named "defender" as authorized vendors of adt products. Getting refunds almost impossible along with being billed for services not received. I thought this was the leading in their industry only to find them being the worse. They should be held accountable for all of their faulty practices. I found them to be a nightmare and wouldn't recommend them to my worse enemy.

ADT has called me 18 times to ask me to pay a bill that isn't due. I transferred my service to a new location in November. I spoke to the customer service reps about 8 times. Twice I spoke with the supervisor. 3 times they sent me to the cancellation department. 3 times I was told it was indeed cancelled (transferred) and I did not owe anything. Yet...the calls keep coming. I just got one again - and the gal looks at the notes and says (again...), oh you are correct, you do not owe a balance and your account was closed. This is now bordering harassment. I just want the calls to stop. It's insanity.

ADT contacted me in early January 2018 stating that a $245 bill was past due. I informed the person that all service bills were paid upto date and they had made an error. I again spoke with an ADT rep today and spent more than 30 minutes on the phone. I had asked for a Manager but was never put through to one. In early January I had asked them to cancel my account as the alarm wasn't working again for the last few months. In the 5 plus years since they installed the alarm, majority of time it hasn't worked. They fixed it after we had a break-in a couple of years ago but it stopped working a few months ago. I informed the rep in January and again today that I was cancelling the account - due to fraudulent billing, poor service and not rectifying the issues even though I have complained about it multiple times.

We had Adam from Bulldog security show up at our house selling ADT services.
He flat out lied about the services, prices, didn't explain and the process, then sent a very inexperienced tech to set up the service.
Same day of the installation, we called both ADT and Bulldog security for the cancellation process and no one was willing to provide us with ANY information.
Bulldog just plain never answered their phone, we kept getting a recording saying that we need to leave a message but when we tried we got another recording saying that we were not able to leave messages.
ADT would just keep transferring us to Bulldog even though we kept telling them no one was picking up the phone. This went on for two days.
I finally got someone from Bulldog who said that I was not legally allowed to cancel even thought they could see my name on the contract.
Some guy named Rene called, said the same thing and promised that they would send us a cancellation form by email which we never got. Again, we called several times, were on the phone for almost an hour with ADT who REFUSED to tell us the cancellation process and kept transferring to Bulldog who never answered the phone.
Then we called the sales guy, Adam who just plain said "Good luck" and hung up on us.
Finally, we just printed a cancellation request and found a fax number after looking for the information for three days. We now got an email saying they received the cancellation request.
We better not be charged anything for their incompetence, unprofessional behavior, rude customer service and lack of cooperation.

ADT South Africa... Sales Manager Ashley... where is my panic button. ? Why did you charge me for new ones and deliver old one?
Mallard Street...

ADT is not always there... we are living in danger.. 2 window are not protected... you have known fir a whilrpe and admit it.. now you want to charge me a discounted price to fix your stuff up... If anything happens to the pensioners on the property, ADT, Fedility will be held Respobsible...

Defender's / ADT Security IS THE WORST COMPANY IN AMERICA! SERIOUSLY! They lie about EVERYTHING! I was promised several things over the phone and when my technician came to install the equipment that same day, he had no clue what I was talking about and refused to help me in anyway. Nicholas Hurd with defenders was the WORST person I have ever dealt with in customer service! He had lies just flowing out of his mouth like it was Okay! I was declined my military discount and my homeowners insurance discount. I was denied the 8 window censors I was promised, denied the security camera I was promised, I was never shown a contract or terms or conditions. When I asked about them I was told they would be emailed to me with in the hour. I received them 2 days later after complaining to 7 different customer service representatives and at least 4 supervisors. All of these people also lied to me, and told me there was nothing they could do to fix his awful customer service and lies! What company seriously allows this? They are totally okay with being totally dishonest to their customers and then having a contract, also the terms and conditions that also lies. Oh and that "contract" I never saw for 2 days and had to print it myself...had a forged signature as mine. I NEVER signed anything with anyone or electronically! This company is a scam as a whole. I have gotten my notice of cancellation after just 2 horrible, nothing but trouble days with them. My last straw was when I was double charged on the wrong card and before the 1st 72hours were up. When I called ADT about being charged and on the wrong card 2 times ADT tells me they have not even received my contract from Defender yet...its been 2 days and electronically you have not received my contract with my card information? That is so unprofessional and shady of Defender and ADT. This company/companies that are suppose to be linked are so far from that. They are taking people's money and using them with out reprocucctions what so ever. I should have just sent Nicholas Hurd(tech guy) packing as soon as he lied about not being able to give me the discounts and all the other stuff that was promised to me over the phone. Do not take any of their mangers or representatives word about what they are telling you, or that they are taking notes while on the phone with you...THEY ARE ALL LIEING TO YOU! I was told by multiple representative that they were typing everything into notes for my file. Well, guess what? I got to speak to a manger that told me that there were no notes on my account regarding their wrong doings toward me or what they said they would do to try and keep my business, or at the very least repair my issues. Unbelievable! I am completely in shock and total disappointment that this company ADT/Defender's is this way. They should be put out of business for how they treat their customers in person and on the phone. It is beyond sad the the "#1" security company ADT is a total scam. People who work for ADT or Defender should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of people who are just trying to protect their homes. I will never recommend them to anyone. Do your homework on both companies, read terms &conditions, and make sure you get your contract, read it before letting the crooks of technicians they send to your home walk out your door. I wish there was something I could legally do to shut them down for good! I will be happy when I am rid of their equipment, and get my $158 Back. Oh I was only suppose to pay $100 not the extra $58. I feel so annoyed by this disservice I could scream and go on for hours about how awful they are, but I've said the main points and will be sharing this review everywhere I possible can to keep another person getting taken advantage of.

10/19/2017 I requested a repair man to repair one door contact in my home. I also asked for a new door contact to be installed in my new garage addition. I was told the total would be $247.50. On the date of repair two men showed up at the same time. One determined he did not need to be there and left. The second man arrived and completed the repair and installation. I was then billed for 2 service calls in error. I called in on the day of service and was told it was ADT's mistake and I would not be billed for both service men. LIARS! I not only was billed by both but I was overcharged for both calls. 10 phone calls later and they will not correct their billing error.
I give up. I will be closing my home and commercial account ASAP! Tired of the lies and deception from this crappy company.

On November 16, 2017 we had a system installed in our house. The installer Geoffrey VanDyne was not from ADT but "protect your home". In the first place, we wanted the system installed by ADT not another company. Why was this company sent to our house? I did not sign up for Protect your home and I don't want "protect your home". This guy comes into our house in his OWN CAR and cannot answer ANY questions about the system. He know nothing about the $500 deductible in case of loss He insisted on installing the main system panel before he would explain anything. Even then he couldn't answer our questions. Totally unprofessional. Next step- he pulls out all of these various devices that he says we can purchase at a cost of $8, 000! I told him I signed up for a basic plan with equipment free but he continued to hound us to buy more- very pushy and arrogant. The he says that is $9.00 extra for equipment warranty- wrong.
NEXT STEP- we thought we were OK regardless of this person so we signed up. However in talking to our neighbor who just had an ADT system installed in her house at the same time as us (by an ADT person in an ADT truck), we come to find out that she not only got more equipment that us (cell phone communication, cameras front and back, and most disturbingly a LOWER price!- NO charge for the first year and $300 year after that. At that point we knew we had been scammed bu this person.
In sum, we think we got scammed and cheated out of not only money but equipment. A company like ADT and its reputation is certainly diminished by such installers. I am asking you first to help us resolve this by providing us the extra equipment that our neighbor received and lower our payment to $27.99 where it is supposed to be. I thought I would write to you first to try and fix this situation before filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Their Dealer number is 5022472

I travel for business and wanted to ensure my family and home are safe and secure and since we have been an ADT customer for 20 years we went with the Pulse system with external cameras. Well, what we learned after the fact is the cameras have a 3 minute delay in the next video due to the ADT servers resetting...in actuality your family and home are not secure for 3 minutes missing any actions that may have taken place as their servers reset! This is not safe nor secure and who in their right mind would accept this?

I called ADT to cancel and request a refund of the cameras where a representative of ADT's Loyalty department sent a confirmation email that we would be refunded $387...2 weeks later, no refund so I call again and told the loyalty department does not have this authority nor are their representatives to email externally. They acknowledge this is a training issue but will not refund me for my expense of a badly designed camera system. The rep states she will have a supervisor contact me on the next business which they did not call so I had to call them.

I speak to another rep who was helpful but could only extend a 3 month credit that still leaves me not whole. I request to talk with the supervisor where they disconnected the call and I had to call back again!

ADT does NOT Apprise you of the camera server reset when you purchase making your home and family insecure and will not refund!

Do Not Purchase the ADT Pulse cameras unless you want your family left vulnerable!

My husband and I been adt customers since 2013. This year we moved to a new home. We moved our services to a new home and purchased more equipment when installer came. We were supposed to be charged 1200 for equipment and 50 every month for services. We paid $107 installation fee but were supposed to receive visa gift card to offset it. The day of installation on 03 31 17 we paid 1st out of 4 equipment payments and first months service fee. However technician tablet messed up while he was here and he never got us to sign the contract. He said office will mail us one. He said he didn't feel like driving back to the office to get another tablet. After technician left we discovered that portable alarm monitor is not holding a charge for 24 hours as technnitian said and it needs to be plugged in always otherwise the whole system starts beeping like crazy. Which made it not very portable unit at all and defeated the whole purpose why we bought it and paid 300 for it. We also had a problem with outside alarm. Technnician said it has 60 second delay. Bit it didn't it starts beeping as soon as we walk in the house. Our neighbors were not happy with it. We tried dealing with it for a month but we couldn't. My husband called to get both items returned bc we got misinformation when we got it and we didn't want to spend 600 on something that doesn't work right. He was assured when he called that technician will come to pick it up and we won't have to pay for it. Ling story short involving multiple calls No one came to get the devices. Also manager said that we will receive credit because of double charging the old account for 3 months. So we thought we are done paying for it because they never pulled money for the equipment bc of what manager said. We were still paying monthly fee that was coming out of account automatically. We got a letter in October saying that our account is being sent to collection agency soon because we are not paying our bills. And contact their billing department to keep it from happening. We got so upset. I looked back at the account and it turns out that they stopped charging in July and we had not paid monthly fee now for almost 3 months. We got no notice that they have problem charging our account and had no idea. It was bill that is coming out automatically and we always had plenty of money in account. We also got mail from collections agency there too that our account has been sent to them dated next day later than add notice. Just this time the amount grew quadruple from what adt mail said that we got day before. We had no idea and received 0 correspondence and 0 emails from them regarding our account. My husband has been on the phone with collections agency adt and defenders every day for over 2 weeks now. Apparently we are being charged for all equipment as early contract termination fee. We have no problem paying for what we owe but we still wanted to use adt services. We did not want to terminate our contract. My husband talked to multiple managers at defenders and add as well as collections agency and noonenis able to help us. It is unbelievable how crappy this company is. We don't even have contract signed with them but we have to pay early termination fees on account we don't want to terminate! We are contacting lawyers to file a lawsuit. I cannot believe this company is so crappy would not even let us know that t here is a problem with payment and wouldn't even give us an option to pay it to keep an account.

I dealt with four technicians over the past month and all of them were ineffective, inefficient and unfamiliar with your products.
I originally called to ask how I might quiet the beeping that occurred every 4 hours and then chirped every few minutes if I didn’t disarm the system. I knew there was a low battery in a sensor. The rep told me to hit system status twice and repeat this with the disarm button. She assured me that this would stop the system from these annoying alerts that kept waking us up. She also told me the easiest way to replace the battery was to have the company send it, so I happily agreed. Four hours later……BEEP
I called the next day and that rep kept telling me to open the keypad and each time I did, I was told to enter my passcode. He couldn’t tell me much of anything. He was clearly reading from a manual and I swear he had the wrong model. He told me to double push the disarm and system status buttons in the reverse order I’d been told. I said I’d been instructed before to push the buttons in the opposite order. He said “Oh yeah. I see that here now.” He ended up telling me there was nothing I could do other than wait 5-7 days to get the battery. Then he suggested I just unplug it. I reminded him that there was a backup battery and asked if I should remove it. He told me to let it run out. I asked how long that would take and he didn’t have a clue. I asked to speak to a supervisor and he disconnected me.
I called a third time and explained the situation and was told “I’m in sales and can’t help with that.” I was transferred. This tech told me I could hit the system status and disarm twice and it would go off for 24 hours. He told me “We advise people to do this just before going to bed.” I tried that and four hours later……BEEP – Time for everyone to get up.
Yet again, I called and the lady told me the only other option was to unplug the unit and remove the battery, which I did.
A week later I still didn’t have a battery. I called and asked the rep to check the tracking number, since I didn’t receive on in my order notification email. He said “It’s in Texas and hasn’t gone anywhere and started laughing. I asked for a manager. He was most accommodating and offered to send another battery. He also told me that every representative I spoke with was misinformed. He gave me the code to silence the beeping and allow the unit to be functional. All of this inconvenience could have been avoided if the representatives quite simply, did their job and provided customer support.
Both batteries arrived the same day. I removed the sensor from the wall, opened the battery compartment and………….They sent the wrong battery! The sensor used a common old AA battery and this whole travesty could have been avoided.
In the meantime, the system battery died (probably from being removed as instructed). I receive a call every night telling me I have a low battery even though I have asked 3 times to stop telling me. I feel ADT is trying to make me insane. I found a battery on Amazon that is compatible and ordered it and received it within 2 days. ADT could have sent a battery within that time frame for $60. I actually called to see if it was a typo.
I work from home and all these calls and incorrect information impacted my productivity.
There are many home security options on the market today and I am researching their efficiency and reliability to determine if I can find an alternative company that provides comparable products, is more cost effective, and also supplies reliable support.
Very disappointed and frustrated.

Ann Marie McMahon

We just moved into a new house two months ago, and ADT was our choice of security service, which we had 12 years of prior pleasant experience with. The first appointment for service installation was about removing existing equipment and replacing them with ADT equipment. A younger guy came in with a yet another younger guy, who apparently was a trainee shadowing the main guy. They spent 5 hours in the house to install the new equipment. They were clearly inexperienced, didn’t quite know what they were doing. About an hour after they left, system starting to beep giving a zone error. Then we tried to trouble shoot remotely, customer service over the phone was less than helpful, they had a temporary solution which only worked for few days. Then we realized that the alarm never sent a signal to ADT upon few tests, and called in to topriuble shoot that. Customer service on the phone tried to convince us that it is working fine and to test again, for which he didn’t even wait on the call to resolve and hang up on us. After further trials we called in to schedule tech service which we were told was only possible a week out. When the tech guy came in a week later, he explained that almost everything was installed incorrectly, including the upside down mounted sensors. He spent an hour to give us a temporary solution, and said he needs to come back again as he needed special equipment. So he gave us an appointment for 5 days later, and did not show up. So here we were after two months of constant struggle not able to get any service. I called in with frustration to cancel service. They put me through the monitoring department, who were courteous, they apologized and cancelled monitoring. But they said that I needed to talk to the authorized dealer to cancel the main account, and that they couldn’t do anything about it. So I called the dealer. After talking to three different people for over an hour, losing connection twice (giving them the benefit of the doubt), they decided to have me talk to a manager, who tried to get the servicing technician on the call, and call dropped again. So we gave up on trying to call them, and this was four days ago. No one called us back since then. So we still have a system that randomly beeps with incorrectly installed zones, and not monitored by anyone, and no one in ADT will stand up to take the accountability.

A few years ago we had ADT install our home alarm system. To do so, we had to sign a 3 year contract, which is understandable. However, the service was terrible. The system never did really work (one of the zones had to be redone 3 times and still proceeded to give false alarms.) We had the police in one night at 3am and the system was not even armed. It became a total waste of our time and money. We tried to cancel after a year or year and a half, but they said the buy out fee was close to $1K. So we left it. But then it went from bad to worse with false alarms and poor system management. We finally just cancelled. Fee or no fee, it wasn't worth the time waste.

My ADT alarm was sounding in the afternoon and the message read, Carbon Monoxide detector.

ADT was on the phone within minutes. The person on the phone said they did not understand why I was receiving the message because my account did not show I had carbon monoxide detection installed. I asked what was I to do. She had me go to the security panel and cut the alarm off. It started back within minutes. She was not going to call the fire department because of what my account was saying. I asked if she would send a tech out to look at the detector in the basement. She was not going to do that and she did schedule it for later that day. Meanwhile the alarm finally stopped after a few hours. 2) The tech arrived and said I did have a carbon monoxide detector but it was not noted on my account. He had a computer and updated my account. He explained that the detectors usually have a replace date on them for they are good for about five years. He refused to change mine. He suggested I have the fire department come out because he could not test my house for carbon monoxide. 3) The fire department came out and could not find anything. They suggested that I have ADT replace the detector. 4) As required by our area, I called our local Natural gas company to come out and check the area too. They came out that evening and did not find any issues with carbon monoxide in my home. I asked them to turn off the gas to my furnace because I had scheduled a furnace inspection for later in the week. They turned the gas off at the furnace. 5) A few days later, the ADT carbon monoxide detector went off again. ADT called within minutes. I explained what had happened previously, the rep telephoned the fire department and also scheduled a tech to come out. The fire department did not find any problem and again recommended that the detector be replaced. 6) A tech came out later and could not find any replacement date on the detector. I asked him to replace it and he refused. He said he thinks a button was probably pushed. I told him no one had touched it as long as it had been in the basement until it went off. I also told him that if he would not replace it, then I would have them remove all of their equipment from my house because I was not going to continue to worry if it was working or not, nor was I going to call the fire department every time it went off. 7)He went outside and after about 15 minutes walked in with a man he said was his supervisor. He informed me that they will change the unit but another tech would have to bring out a new unit to replace it. 8) The third tech arrived checked everything out and replaced the unit. He could not understand why they did not replace it. According to him the last time ADT was at my home was 2005. The life of the units are five years. The new unit does have a replace date on it and on the paper that was packed with it. It is obvious from the first call that my safety was not an issue for ADT. To ignore the message from their own equipment because my account was not accurate, could have proven to be life threating to me. How could they expect me to continue to ignore the alarm not knowing for sure if it was accurate or not. replacing the unit would insure as well as provide assurance that an accurate working unit was installed in my home. I had to threaten to have them take out their equipment before they finally decided to replace the unit AND a supervisor had to make that decision. This is an example of very poor training when it comes to protecting the safety and lives of ADT customers. I would never recommend them to anyone.

Quoted one monthly fee of $37.99 for wireless system for 24 months, monthly paper bill. Get quarterly bill from them for $177 @ $52.99 fee for 36 months. I had to call to get a copy of my contract as I did not have one when installed. Someone signed my name and initials and changed info, plus going to draft my bank acct each month, which I adamantly had refused to do. They talked to their serviceman who said a $48.99 fee was agreed upon. Who knows where they get their info from. I am 65 year old widow on fixed income and cannot pay this amount. According to them, I have two options drop back to basic landline service for $27.99 for 36 months or cancel and pay penalty of 75% of original contract price of $1900.00. I need to cancel this service and have them remove the system without paying the outrageous penalty. This is fraud, pure and simple.

I have called ADT numerous times in attempt to cancel my service. The first time I called, they told me I was under a 3 year contract. Thus, I waited until the end of the 3 years and tried cancelling again. They would not let me do so over the phone. They told me to fax my request. I followed their instructions exactly. I am STILL being charged. This is ridiculous!

April 2017: I was called in the evening accusing me of owing an amount that I knew to be incorrect.(The billing service switched me to quarterly and they wanted the whole quarterly payment now. I had been paying monthly for about four years.) I was totally taken aback by the demand and I said I didn't owe that. The young man never explained that he switched my payment plan without informing me.
Later, a young lady called me and said she was going to discontinue me and notify my insurance company.
She notified my insurance company. I wrote a long letter saying why I no longer wanted that questionable security service and made arrangements otherwise which suited the rural area better. This was in April and my equipment has not operated since, just shows yellow. This little electricity sucker is just an annoyance, but I do feel you should train these younger workers better.

I have been an ADT customer since 2004. I sold my house and moved in Dec 2015. As soon as my house was on the market, ADT was calling me asking where was I moving and talking about moving my service. I moved my services, but was NOT aware that I was also signing a NEW 3 year commitment with ADT. I probably should have read the million word document more, but I would think this is something they would call out OR not even have since I had been a customer the previous 11 years.
Fast forward, I began to see better technology on the market and called to find out I was in a 3 year commitment.
Fast forward to 6/29/2017. I was not sleeping due to bad activity in the area. I called ADT to ask about adding cameras to my system. I was on the phone with the rep, Collin McCray, for over an hour. I explained that the sensors on one of my doors was faulty. I explained that in December 2015 I asked for sensors on my upstairs windows and their installer advised against it. Therefore this call was to 1)add cameras 2)fix the door that was never right 3) install the sensors I requested the first time. This entire 75 min he talked about all the discounts he was giving me blah blah blah. At the end of the 75 min, he said they could install it July 17th...unacceptable I said. BUT I signed up for that appointment and he said he would call me back after his lunch break to find an earlier appointment...NEVER heard from him again. More than 1 time in this 75 min conversation I asked, "will installing the cameras make me sign a new 3 year commitment"..."no it will not, you are doing an addition therefore you will not sign a new contract". This was said MORE than one time. When ADT called the next day to tell me to sign a contract, they also moved my installation up to July 5th. I came back early from vacation, asked a friend to stay at the house so I could go to work during the window, AND left work early for the installation. Guess what is the first thing the installer said...you must sign this 3 year commitment before I install. WHAT? I asked Collin this SEVERAL times and he said I did not need to sign a 3 year contract because it was an addition to my current system. The installer verified with his manager. I then called ADT only to get the 3 year song and they can’t do anything about it. I then tried to file a complaint against Collin since I had his name...no manager is available they said. I asked that they file the complaint and that I expect a response. 1 week later... STILL NOTHING! 18 months is all I have and I PROMISE ADT will not be my security solution. They are sneaky, they are not honest, and they are not responsive.

I been helping my friend paying adt service for one year. Cuz she has adt account for two years and I move in. She want cancel adt account but she can't pay cancellation fee for 900. So I took over her account which only one year remained on her account. Today I called to let adt know that I am going to move out the house on september and I don't want to continue service. But they told me the cancellation fee is 900 I need to pay. 1) I never been told that I have three years contract with adt. I thought I just going to finish my friend contract. 2) adt never call me or call police when I have someone come to my house without press password. I don't feel secure 3) and I try to explain my situation to move to china for half year and when I come back I live with my mother at new york which is not my house and my mother don't need any adt service. But he force me to use any way and said if I am not use adt. He will take 900 out of my account directly. I said there is no 900in my account. Please understand my situation and please contact me at [protected] or my email. [protected]@hotmail.com