ADT Security Services
Reviews and Complaints

We stopped the ADT security system for my aunt at least 1 1/2 years ago because she'd become too confused the arm and disarm it. On Christmas day 2009 I went to check on my aunt and found a piercing screech that had been going on for 2 hrs. The phones did not work and when I called ADT on the cell phone to ask them how the alarm could be turned off, they had no answers except that if I didn't have the password there wasn't anything they could do. When I asked to speak to a supervisor I was put on hold then disconnected.
I finally ripped the ADT unti off the wall which stopped the horrible noise. Next day had an electrician to find the problem with the phones not working. He found that ADT had never bothered to disconnect the phone line from their system. When the battery back up ran down it set the alarm off.
My aunt is an 80 year old woman with memory loss; she has a Lifeline attached to her phone. When phone wasn't working neither was the Lifeline.

Would like to say that ADT is a money making scheme, they send salespersons who probably has a Standard 5 Education to sell their product, needless to say how they train these guys to sell a product where they legally bind you for 3 years. So sad cause I was asked to finish off at my current job, was told by these ''Educated'' salespersons that you could cancel the contract at anytime, now because you didn't read your forced contract you are bound to pay the remainder of a contract that first of all is of no use, cause you never see an ADT Security person in the area, and the customer service is just pathetic. You can never get hold of the CEO's or second in charge cause they playing Golf with all the monies we pay. Nobody ever calls you back with solutions rather giving you options like to clear you name from ITC you have to pay the remainder of the contract, what sort of nonsense is this, by signing this contract we give up our right to cancel or terminate this contract. Isn't our country already in so much bad debt, and now they list you cause you can't afford to pay their salaries. Is there not an Institute that helps one with these kind of companies, that force you to sign up with them, and because you didn't read the fine print, your life or your name is blacklisted.

I pray that God will have mercy on your souls, how you could swindle people and force them to sign up with you, I will hand this matter over to my Almighty Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Anynomous

I was promised with the purchase of my ADT alarm system that I would receive a 200.00 gift card for the promotion. It has been over 2 months and I have called serveral times. I have not received my Visa Gift Card and was planning on paying for the first few months of service with it- Please contact and let me know, they said that I was suppossed to get a email but never received that either.

We requested ADT security services to be installed at our residence on July 23, 2009. They took $150 up front took our credit card number at that time. The security system never worked. If we make a call to complain we have to pay $25 to $158 for service call. We cannot cancel the service because we have signed a 3 year contract! They deduct the amount monthly from my credit card. They say in their website that they will pay the money back if we are not satisfied within the first 6 months. They refuse to do that saying it is a dealer who installed the system in our house. We did not call the dealer. We called ADT. This sounds like a big fraud. Can anyone help me to get out of the contract without losing much?

Today (9 nov) around 12:00 am I received to alarms. I was sleeping so I did not hear them but my brother in law did. When I woke up, I saw 2 missed calls and 2 voicemail from adt. I check my wife phone that is the 2nd contact and it had the same thing. When I called in the morning to speak to a representative and ask them why they did not called the police when none of the contacts answer the call, they decided to check what was the signal for. The representative told me that the 2 alarms they received was because of a breakup on the back door. He continue stating that he have no idea why they never called the police. I decided to cancel the service and told the representative to transfer me to the cancellation department.in there the other representative ask me if I wanyted to disconect because of this incident I told her that I have been a costumer for the past 2 yrs, paying the over price amount of 33.95 a month and when an alarm came to my house, they didnt even attempted to call the police when there was a "breakage" alarm. This is unnaceptable! She instead of offer me something to convince me stay with the company like a courtesy visit to make sure everything in my system is good, or 1/2 % of my overprice monthly payment for the next yr or so, instead, she told me that the cancelation will be effective in 30 days. You guys have the worst customer service ever!

Please note that just because you guys received the pin number it is not an excuse for you for not calling the police. Someone could of had a gun in my head making me put the code. Receiving another signal at 8:00am saying that the equipment is malfunctioning after receiving a signal that someone breaked into my back door, (8 hours after the incident happened) is not a valid excuse for you not to call the police.

We have had equipment problems with this company starting in Sept. Recently in Nov. we were replacing doors in our home and when we were finished we made appt for 1/15 to have sensors relpaced and repair sensor in which they were out to replace/repair numerous times, we were charged 131.00 on this day. After the tech left I tried to shut of the chime he had set fo the doors and could not do it. I then called ADT and a tech walked me thru the same thing I was doing and it did not work, she also tried other tricks and relized the tech locked us out of the panel. The following morning the sensor we had problems with previously went off, and I culd not do anything about it, it took ADT 1hr 15min to call and inform me of the signal. At this time I was told I would have to power down the system (shut it off) She then said I would have to make another appt for 1/22. On 1/21 I received a call from ADT stating that they will not be out on 1/22 because the appt was not booked and the earliest would be 1/29. I told her at that time this was not acceptable and an emergency call should of gone out after my first call. I have called the local Mgr Mr McIntyre 4 times and left messagesI have spoken to a Mgr at the National level and he stated he would handle the problem and call me back on the 21, this was not done. I have called this company many times and have been bounced around with no success. I have an 83 year old Dad with cardiac problems and he has an alert button he wears in case of an emergency and due to our system not working it does not work, and I am afraid to leave him alone. I have filed a complaint with BBB and I hope you could look into this more deeply. They stated today when I canceled our service I would have to pay 99.00 for what I do not know, our system has been down for 2 months and I expect the 131.00 I paid for services on the 15th when the service call caused all the problems and I could not use my system. This company's customer service is terrible and they give you the run around. I would never recommend to anyone and hope you can look into this further so another customer does not hav to go thru what we have. I will be going with a new company.

I requested that ADT waive a $194.72 service cancellation fee for the reasons outlined in this document. Although I was burglarized and the alarm failed, this is just one reason for my dissatisfaction, the real reason is Poor customer service .
I am a 23 year veteran of this country with service in both IRAQ and AFGH. This is no way to treat anyone, let alone a veteran.
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During the week of 25 July through 1 August, I was vacationing in CT with my family. Upon returning home in the afternoon of 1 August, I discovered that we were burglarized and approximately $5, 000 of goods was taken. I immediately contacted the Chesterfield County Police Department to report the crime. I also contacted ADT monitoring services to inform them that we were burglarized and that the Alarm key pad was showing an alarm event had occurred. ADT informed me that they had not received a signal. The representative asked me to test the system, and again, no signal was received. The representative instructed me to contact the service office to have a technician check the system.
On 3 August, I contacted the local ADT Richmond, VA office, to coordinate a technician visit. The technician came out on 4 August and discovered that the system was not connected to the phone line. In a telephonic conversation with the technician, I asked him if there was any evidence of tampering, he said “no, there is no evidence of tampering”. The technician connected the system to the phone, tested it, received positive contact with the monitoring office and departed.
On 4 August, I contacted ADT to have a sales representative visit my home to provide recommendations on up-grading my system. Sales representative visited my home on 12 August.
On the evening of 12 August. Prior to our walk through, we tested the system. I called the monitoring center and while on the line, proceeded with the test. Much to our surprise, the center did not receive the alarm signal. We tested the system again, except this time, without the monitoring center on the line. We immediately received a call from the monitoring center. Chris discovered that the system did not have “telephone seizure”. He stated that this had nothing to do with my service provider, that the technician should have checked this and had it fixed. He made note of the issue.
After our walk through of my home, he made several recommendations, which I thought were valid. I expressed to the sales rep to have these upgrades done for free or for half the price. He agreed and said he would go to bat for me. He stated that he could not make the decision; however, he would be in contact with me the next day.
After no call was received for a couple of days (7Aug), I called him. He informed me that his boss was on a camping trip and would return on 10 August and he would follow up with me then. He also put me on a three way conversation with a technician. The technician explained to me that the issue with the “phone line seizure” was not an ADT problem and that if I wanted this fixed, I would have to pay for the visit. I did not want to entertain the technician any longer after the blame game began. The technician said that he would contact his manager and see how to best resolve my situation.
Again, I did not hear from him on Monday or Tuesday. I called him on Wednesday, 12 AUG to get a status. He informed me that there was no resolution and that he would call me back. By this time, I had become extremely frustrated and decided to cancel my services.
I called ADT customer service. I cancelled my services and asked to speak to a manager to request a waiver to the cancellation fee. I explained my situation and asked her to confirm my cancellation services, which she did. She said that she could not make the decision to waive the cancellation fee, but would contact the Richmond office. She stated that she would be in touch within forty-eight hours. After not receiving a phone call from her, I called customer service again. I asked the representative to check on my file for cancellation. He stated that my file was showing active. I requested again to cancel my services immediately and to be connected to management. I left a voice mail with management, but was never contacted.
On 18 August, I called ADT Corporate, FL, customer relations. The rep said that she would investigate and contact me.
31 Aug: ADT Corporate contact me and state that they side with the Richmond Office to disapprove the waiver.
SEP 8: Placed complaint with Better Business Bureau (BBB)
SEP 11: Paid bill in order to deny ADT from ruining my credit; still awaiting BBB response.

In June I cancelled my service with ADT. I sold my house and moved to another state. They told me I would have a credit balance and they would send a check to my forwarding address. I have called about four times now and have been told that the balance has been credited to the credit card that was on file. This is the same card that was used to pay the monthly service and in fact was a debit card with my bank. I closed that account and card back in July. I have contacted the bank and they tell me that they can not credit a closed account. I asked for proof from ADT and they give me this 20 digit or so reference number. They said it has not been rejected by the card company. Today they told me it was done on August 17th but I called prior to that (Aug. 12th)and they told me it was done then. They said it is policy to send back creidt balances back they same way they receive their monthly payments. This can't be unusual that someone moves and closes bank accounts. It must happen every day. I am just getting the run around. Up until this point, I had no problem with their service but I will not use them again when I buy a house.

i would never recommend adt services my second home was broken into thru a window and the alarm was activated this was by a estranged family member the called adt immediatley and impersonated me that I forgot my password adt shut the alarm off never asked security questions that were set up on system that this estranged family member proceeded to have a service tech come to the residents and change the alarm code and not once did there technician ask for id to verify i was the home owner on the contract i was at work all day that day when i went by in the evening to check my property there are about ten people my home and the dead bolts have been changed out i now have squatters on my property adt never dispatched law enforcement i am now in the middle of a lawsuit fighting to regain possesion of my property and all adt has to say is you have to take it up with the estranged family member? excuse me but what in the !@#$ was i paying for? i guess anyone can go down the street break into joe blows house pick up his mail on the kitchen counter call alarm company impersonate and take over were's justice

I called ADT to pay my bill over the telephone. I talked to a customer service representative and I paid my bill using 2 different credit cards. I was given a confirmation number. Later I found out that my payments were never processed and ADT cancelled my service. They are charging me a $90.00 fee for breaking my contract and has sent my account to a collection agency.

They say, they can not give me a reason why my payments were not processed and said the confirmation number I received does not mean a thing. They said I should have paid attention to by credit card statements and made sure ADT was paid.

I just moved into my new home two weeks ago. I moved from out of state and did not forward my mail, as I am trying to escape my stalker ex-husband. The only companies that have my name are my current utilities and none of them were forwarded from out of state either. ADT sent me a mail advertisement about new security service, addressed to "me" at my home address! I have only been here two weeks! How the hell did they know who I am and where I live? It's insane. To top it off, it's signed by the Director of Public Relations, Donna Cooper and asks me to contact her with an 866 number. Upon calling, I find that Donna Cooper does not exist, nor will they give me the name of the real Director of Public Relations. They say that they don't buy lists, so they don't know how my name was on the advertisement. Of course when asking to speak to a supervisor, no one is available and won't be until the year 2023. I mean, why do they feel they have to put a fake name on their ad? It's ridiculous. Why put a name at all? Like I'm going to rush to the phone and order service because "my ol' pal Donna" suggests it. Give me a break.

It seems as if businesses are just getting more degraded by the day. I don't know if the economy is just turning them all into scammers and liars or what - but it's very disheartening. And while I love the internet and am very comp savvy, I am so sick of this information age, where anyone, anywhere, can track you and find you at the click of a button. It's a full time job keeping even a small amount of privacy in your life.

Anyway, with this kind of deception on part of ADT - I wouldn't trust them any more than the criminal who wants to break into my home. My trusty dogs, shiny silver handgun, and 6' 3" ex-football player hubby will protect me just fine.

I was recently offered a position with ADT as a "Builders Security Representative". The job title is very misleading as are most of the job titles having to do with sales. As I found out, it was nothing more than Door to Door sales to homeowners that already have the equipment installed in their homes. Apparently, after a series of phone calls and being told "No, we are not interested in having the system activated", the next approach is to go knock on their doors. As I was told, " The customer is less likely to say no if someone is at their door". Many folks have their phone numbers placed on the "Do Not Call" list, well ADT has found a way around this. Apparently. buried in their original paperwork with the Home builder it states that ADT can call them for up to 5 years. I was led to think I would be working with Home Builders and Home Owners that initiated a visit to discuss their security system. We were expected to visit up to 100 homes per week. I was also told, as a last resort to say to a customer "Let me activate your system which will register your warranty". You can always cancel in a few days, but this way by doing this, it will allow me to remove your name from our list so you are not contacted again. I feel like such a fool for falling for this. I knew it sounded too good to be true. I am a professional in the field of Audio and Video equipment and not a Door to Door Pest...

After three years of a contract with ADT Security Systems, we decided to go with another company (our new son-in-law works for this new company).

We cancelled our service with ADT in January, after our payment for the month had been debited from our account. ADT kept sending bills, after our termination, and insisted they were not paid for January (the money was debited from our checking account).

I answered their bills, letting them know they had been paid for January, and for them to please revisit their account for the payment. My letter was polite, but I was not going to pay for the service I had already paid for.

The next month, I started getting calls from a collection agency. The amount was minimal, but I was never given the nature of the charge. ADT was unwiling to communicate with me.

I do not recommend ADT Security Systems. Their customer service is very poor.

I received an invoice today # [protected] in the amount of $12.83. When this system was installed I was informed by the technician that I would be able to look on the internet and see which user number had accessed the alarm system enabling it or disabling it and on what date and time. He said this was an optional service that was included with my monthly ADT fee.

On Feb 26, 2009 I called and asked about how to enable this feature and the person I spoke with on the phone led me through the procedure for enrolling on the internet. He said a technician would stop by and would activate the feature on my keypad at no charge as it would only take 5 minutes. The technician showed up about ten minutes later and I was surprised to see him. He said it would just take a minute to activate the feature and he was in the area.

I asked him if there were any charges for this feature. He said that the only time there would be a charge would be when I actually got on the internet and used the feature. He said that then there would be a one time charge each time I actually used the feature. He also said that if I did not look it up on the internet I could call in and the representative on the phone could give me the information I need verbally at no charge. He said to call the local office to verify this. I called the local office and had a hell of a time getting past the recorded options menu to speak with a live representative. The person I spoke to was not sure about the charges and said she would have someone call me back.

Someone called me yesterday and informed me that there was a monthly charge of $11.00 to have this feature, whether or not I used it. I told him that the technician told me that it was included in my monthly monitoring fee. He said the technician was wrong.

I told him that if it involved a fee of $11.00 per month for a service that I would very seldom use then I did not want it. He said no problem that he would cancel the service immediately. He did not say anything about having to send anything to anyone in writing..

I spoke to another billing representative when I received this invoice today, who said that If I wanted to have the service canceled that I had to mail or fax a letter to you saying so. I asked about having the charges removed as I was not informed about this monthly charge and had never used the service. She refused. I told her that if she refused to remove the charges of which I had never been informed then I would do the same and refuse to pay the invoice. That is where we stand today.

It is very unprofessional of a company as large as TYCO/ADT to basically trick a customer into signing up for a service under the premise that it is free only to tell him after the service is activated that there is a monthly charge. Yes we are all having financial difficulties at this time due to the economy but this is a very low and cheap way of increasing your revenue.

I cancelled my ADT plus residencial which is a assurance, they gave me a cancellation number, after 2 months they staill charging me for that assurance.

I call them again and give me another cancellation number.

why I need to call several times in order to reduce my bill, I know that everybody is involved in this crisis, this is a very bad practice.

Our ADT "experience" was a comedy of errors...until it became, not so funny.

We moved into a house in October which had an extensive ADT system pre-installed. We contacted them, they sent out a sales guy, and we signed our contract...a 3 year deal with only 2 years enforced (and duly noted on the contract). Jim, our sales guy left us a copy of our contract and went on his merry way. A few days later, the installer came out to activate the system, replace batteries and make sure everything was working. Again, no issues.

So then it started. On January 20th, we received a letter from the postal service noting that a piece of mail had been found which had been opened. It was an original copy of our contract with our full address, all phone numbers, my credit card number, expiration date, signature, all information about our alarm set up AND the emergency password code...all in the clear for anyone's prying eyes to see.

Then the saga continued. My wife immediately contacted ADT and informed them of this breach of our security and changed the password code. Later that night, I received a call from an ADT rep saying 'the postal service notified them...' and I quickly corrected the guy on the phone that it was my wife who did notify them of what happened. He then asked if XYZ was the new password code or the old one. This is a COMPLETE violation of ADT security policy as well as any security company I have ever dealt with. They ALWAYS ask you for the code and verify the code is correct. They NEVER are supposed to tell you the code phrase.

After that, I mentioned, "Well you know my credit card number has been exposed too." To which the response was "there's nothing we can do about that, you need to call your credit card company." At which point I lost it...seriously lost it. I told the fella on the phone, obviously you do not understand the seriousness of this breach. I informed the guy on the phone that I wanted a call from a manager on this issue ASAP. Of course, that never happened.

The next phase of the 'experience' came when we tried to find someone, anyone, at ADT who would actually take this seriously and realize how gross this breach was. After upwards of 10 calls between my wife and I, I finally spoke with a guy named Cornell out of the Beaverton, Oregon office after attempts to speak with the regional customer service manager, Thomas Bennett, went un-answered.

I explained in detail the fact we had a copy of our contract, so there was no need to send a copy, especially a copy with all of our personal information in the clear. Cornell explained that this was clearly not a standard process or procedure within ADT and that if they ever sent information like that, it would be sent by a traceable means. I also explained how the person I spoke to on 1/20 TOLD me my password code and did not ask me for it. He stated that that was clearly not the right process and that he would have that researched and see that the person receive training on the proper processes so that it did not happen again. I again asked to have Mr. Bennett call me to discuss how all this had been handled and expressed how frustrated we were that a security company would allow breaches like this to occur. I also expressed my concerns for identity theft and that I was considering a discussion with my lawyer

Several days went by with no response or anything. Several calls and voicemails back to Cornell went un-answered. So on 2/3, I receive a call from a manager named Tim who informs me that Cornell asked him to look into my claim that I received a call from an ADT employee who did not ask me for my password code, but rather told me what my code was. Tim proceeds to tell me that he researched this and there was no recording of the call, so there was nothing they could do. Interestingly enough, my call with Tim was being recorded (the beeping on the line was the indicator). I asked Tim a few probing questions like, "you mean you cannot tell when someone accesses a person’s account?" The response was, not unless the person makes a change to the account. What? You have got to be serious? A security company that does not log who is accessing customer account data? I informed Tim that I was an IT Director and KNOW that everything can and should be tracked, considering they are a publically traded company. Additionally, I suggested that they could check their phone records for the call to my number and find out who made the call. Tim seemed dis-interested in my suggestion and I again requested to speak with Mr. Bennett on these issues. I also called Cornell and left him a voicemail outlining my frustration and anger with how major security breaches like this just seem to be dismissed.

Several more days went by with no response. I called Cornell while on business travel and finally got him on the line. Cornell then proceeded to explain to me ADT’s positions on the matters I had raised. First, ADT claimed no responsibility for the ‘postal services mis-handling’ of the original contract copy they sent. Secondly, he explained that Tim was not able to track down anything on the person who called me since there was no recording of the call and there was no record of anyone accessing my account (supposedly). After Cornell stated his side, I re-enforced my position that the contract should have never been sent in the first place and that they could simply look at phone records to find out who called me. I also expressed dismay that Tim had told me that there was no way to track who accesses customer accounts. Cornell agreed that he would be concerned as well, since he is a customer of the security service. Cornell then explained that they had referred my case to their legal team, since I had indicated I was going to talk to my lawyer.

I then again expressed to Cornell that was still waiting for a call from Mr. Bennett on all of these issues and he assured me he would try to set something up for the following week. I also expressed to Cornell that I was trying to be reasonable about this whole thing and merely wanted ADT to accept responsibility for what they had done and provide me token compensation for the damage I had suffered through having to change all my credit card info, bill payments, etc.

Then, on Feb 18th, I finally receive a call from Mr. Bennett with Cornell and another person on the line. Mr. Bennett proceeds to merely state, “Cornell mentioned you wanted to speak with me.” Then there was silence. No nothing about trying to recap what he had been told, what the situation was, why I was so frustrated with ADT, no nothing, just silence. I stated, well, I expected Cornell had informed you of all of the issues, is that not the case. I again expressed my frustration with having to repeat, again and again, all of these issues to yet another person who seemingly had no interest in helping or doing the right thing.

Mr. Bennett then stated how they could not be liable for the postal service mis-handling the mail. I again expressed that the issue was not that it was mis-handled, but simply that it had been sent by an employee of theirs against their normal processes and procedures. Coincidentally, the employee no longer works for them. Mr. Bennett then stated, that the employee did not violate policy…which I corrected him and said, I never said policy, I said standard procedures and processes and that Cornell had been the one who stated that mailing the contract in such a manner was not a standard process. I then questioned why they could not track who called me that one night. Again, no answer. I provided them the time of the call, the date and the number which my home caller ID had shown and asked them to ‘figure it out.’ I then asked why I was told that access to customer account information was not tracked. Condescendingly, Mr. Bennett asked, “You seem to know a lot about our policies, have you read them?” I explained that I had not, but I know security requirements for publically traded companies, I know ISO requirements and that I have over 20 years in IT and IT security under my belt.

After that, I just cut to the chase and asked if he was aware at what I was requesting them to do to compensate me for all of my time I had to spend dealing with this whole issue. He mentioned that I wanted to be able to end my contract at any point in time with no termination fees or penalties. I replied, “And…” To which I received another condescending remark to which I replied, “and I do not want to pay for any more monitoring service until the contract runs out or I find another service in my area.” Interestingly enough, this was the same thing I told Cornell the last time I had spoken with him and his response was that that sounded reasonable and fair given the circumstances, but he could not commit to anything.

With that said, Mr. Bennett then asked me if I was happy with their monitoring services to which I responded, no I am not happy with any of your services and if I could find a replacement service in my area I would drop ADT like a hot rock. At that point, Mr. Bennett responded with, here is what I am going to do, since you are not happy with our service, I am going to contact our legal department and have them terminate our agreement with you since we do not want to do business with you under these circumstances. At which point, I uttered an explicative and hung up.

ADT has no concept of customer service and support. They obviously have no concept of following standard process and procedure. They obviously do not handle customer confidential information with proper due care, nor do they seem to have proper computer security, monitoring or audit trails available in the event of a security breach such as I have outlined here. They do have a crack staff at routing customers to voicemail, dead ends, people who do not care, making excuses, placing blame and avoiding accountability.

I will be writing a letters ‘up the chain’ and will be making this issue known to everyone I can, since a security company that does not take security breaches serious is a major issue. Where else I take this, I have not yet determined…to be continued.

On a side note, during this whole fiasco, in my work role, I had been tasked with securing 6 buildings, nationwide. I deliberately did not offer that information as leverage to my personal situation, but rather wanted to see if they would ‘do the right thing.’ That was answered very quickly and directly. ADT had an opportunity to right a really wrong situation and gain back a level of integrity and trust with me. Instead, they just cost themselves the opportunity at over $120K in installation business, plus ongoing security monitoring fees. I hope Mr. Bennett and his crew of head-nodding, excuse-making colleagues help explain that lost opportunity to the higher-ups there at ADT.