Menu
ADT Security Services

ADT Security Services review: adt - checks in the mail... 6

A
Author of the review
12:00 am EDT
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

In September of 2006, I received an expired ADT refund check. By the time I received this check (which was sent to the wrong address by ADT) it was no longer valid, so I proceeded to contact ADT to discuss the re-issuance of this check. I was advised that I would need to send the check back to ADT, and upon receipt, would be issued a new check. I scanned a copy of the check and proceeded to send it back to ADT. After a few months, I felt as if I had waited long enough for the check, and proceeded to contact ADT to follow up on the missing check. Upon speaking to ADT, I was advised that the check had not been sent out, but that a new check would be sent immediately, and would be received within 7 to 10 business days. Still having some faith in "the system", I waited a while for the check, thinking that ADT's processing department(s) were just slow. After months with no check, I contacted ADT again, inquiring about the status of the check.

This time, I was told the check had not been sent, but was assured that it would be sent immediately, and that I could expect a check within 7 to 10 business days (yes, I'm a sucker). Again, I waited for the check, which I never received, and contacted ADT again. This time (April 23 - nearly 8 months since my original request for a $100 check re-issue), I was told that ADT Kansas City would have to handle the check issuance. The folks at ADT Kansas City told me that they didn't know anything about it, and that it would have to be issued by the refunds department. At this point, I requested to speak to the Service Coordinator of the Kansas City ADT (who has been the only competent and helpful person I've met at ADT in the last 6 months). She began wandering through the web of lies woven by ADT and seemed to discover what I had known all along - ADT was trying to screw me out of 100 bucks. She was able to contact one lady who claimed the check had been sent to Missouri collections, and that there was nothing I could do except logon to the Missour Unclaimed Property website. This was not true, as the monies owed by ADT were not listed on the Missouri website. Gerry found another person to contact, and conferenced me in on the phone call. This person (I believe in a tax or refund department), told us that the check had been sent to Missouri unclaimed property as well. I refused to believe that this was the case, and proceeded to call the state of Missouri to discuss my dilemma. I was told by the State Treasurer's office that assets are not typically sent to collections until they have been inactive/unclaimed for more than 5 years. In my case, it had been less than a year since the refund had expired, so I began to doubt the story I had been told by ADT. I proceeded to inquire about the unclaimed property process, and was told that most large companies submit a "batch" of assets to unclaimed property each fall, around October or November.

In 2006, ADT had submitted approximately 5000 assets on their unclaimed report, which were manually inserted into the unclaimed property databases by the end of January, 2007. After finding this information, I obtained the contact information for ADT and their refund/tax department, Pamela Runkler (sp?). I then spoke to Gerry (ADT - KC), and told her that I did not believe the money had already been sent to Missouri, but that I suspected it was somewhere at ADT. I gave Pamela's phone number to Gerry, but Gerry never received a response from Pamela. On the morning of Tuesday, April 24th, and appx 10:00 AM CDT, I received a call from Nancy Dollmeyer in the refunds department. The refunds department is who started this web of lies in September, yet I was forced to enter their vicious circle of deceit again. This time, I was told that I should have received a letter from Legal on my initial request, which would have to be returned to ADT before a check would be re-issued. I advised that I had never received a letter, nor had I ever been told by the Refunds department that I had to do anything except wait for the check. This time around, Nancy told me that I would have send a form into the Tax Deparment, requesting that they release the funds (which were placed in queue for release to Missouri Unclaimed Property in November of 2007), so rather than simply sending me my 100 bucks, they told me that I would have to buy a stamp, send them a form, and then wait up to 60 days for my money. If (this is a huge "if") they truly do what they say, I may actually have my 100 bucks by the end of June, 2007.

Now, if this is how a company treats a small matter (such as a $100 refund), imagine how they handle the rest of their business. I would trust the security of my home and my family to a herd of cattle before placing my trust in the bumbling idiots at ADT.

6 comments
Add a comment
B
B
Brinks Customer in Vancouver
,
Oct 18, 2008 3:13 am EDT

Brinks is horrible - check the complaints on Brinks. Alternatives to either of these?

A
A
A. A.
,
Sep 17, 2008 9:58 pm EDT

I have had ADT system in my home since April of 08' and I must say It is the worst experience that I have ever had with an alarm company. I switch from Brinks Security to Adt because I was getting security cameras in my home and I thought that since I was getting the security cameras that I had to go with the Alarm system also to make the cameras work correctly, atleast that was the way it was explained to me. Of course I have had to go back to the best BRINKS HOME SECURITY. I will never leave a safe and protected security company again to go into a war zone because that is how I feel the whole entire time of being an ADT customer. Please listen BRINKS HOME SECURITY IS THE BEST.

A.A.

D
D
donna bitensky
,
Mar 09, 2008 10:13 am EDT

ADT is a complete rip-off. For almost 3 years I was letting them take auto-matic withdrawals for an alarm and monitering service from my business account. Needless to say, come time to get that read-out, there is none. Seems the alarm could be set - but there was NO connection to the police station or their system, which was what they were charging me for. When I found this out, I was furious. Paying for a service that was NOT there.

They sent out two service people, each could not hook it up. Funny, the system was basically there when I took over the lease from another tenant. The second service person did such a bad job, that he ruined the wires to my phone and computer service. So my retail business had NO PHONE and NO INTERNET.

I told them they needed to un-do what they had done, and I was FINISHED with them. I wanted my refund for the 2.5 years. That came about two months later.

But surprise - a few months ago - they started withdrawing money from my account again. I was supposed to receive another refund from them - that has not happened. Instead, they took more money out. I keep getting promises from people over there that they will NOT take any more money from my account. For me to purchase new checks, contact all the other people that use the account, get new cards, will take an enormous amount of time, and cost me a lot of money.

They claim that they have NO ACCOUNT for me. Precisely. So how do they continue to steal from me?

My next step is to hire an attorney and charge them for costs.

Donna B./ DellArteLLC

J
J
John Occhiuto
,
Feb 21, 2008 11:41 pm EST

My wife and I recently had an ADT wireless system installed in our new home, three o'clock in the morning (the same evening) the alarm goes off, blows out the key pad, and no one calls to see if we are safe or to tell us how to shut the system off. My wife and three children had to endure that horrible alarm for over a half an hour. The next day we call for service and had to wait a week to have some come in? The key pad was not wired correctly and shorted out the system. It took another two weeks with constant phone calls to get someone in to replace that key paid yet they had the nerve to send us a bill for the first months service. They finally fixed the problem, now, a month later the new key pad is not working. When I called ADT they said I didn't have a service contract and to have someone come in to look at the problem it would cost us $160.00 plus an additional charge of $35.00 an hour to fix it? Why would I pay to have someone fix a system that has given us nothing but trouble from the first day? We are thinking of bringing legal action against ADT and want them to remove the system from our home. How safe can you feel with a company that only cares about the bottom line? We no longer have faith in ADT and do not feel protected by them.

J
J
Janice Garner
,
Dec 17, 2007 8:40 pm EST

My wireless ADT system was installed Oct. 30, 2007. The installer failed to program time to get out the door, before the alarm detects you. Several calls to cell phone about alarm going off. I've been paying for monitoring for 2 months now, 99% of the time, the alarm was not set, due to having to deal with the calls about the alarm going off. Now it's Dec. 17th & finally that has been fixed. My sister had to go to my house with her cell phone & take instruction from the installer (who didn't want to come back) on how to program that into the system.

Bigger complaint is the rebate referral program. My sister referred me, & we were using a rebate cpn that came in the mail with her ADT bill. She was to get $100 & a solar lighted ADT sign for referring me. I was to get the same. Several phone calls & she hasn't been able to get information on why we haven't gotten anything.

After checking our records at ADT, now they are telling us we didn't use the correct installers, in order to get the rebates. Guess who sent the installers... ADT.

A
A
AUDREY PURINGTON
,
Sep 14, 2007 6:09 pm EDT

I WAS SOLD A COMPLETE WIRELESS ALARM SYSTEM WITH SMOKE DETECTORS FROM ADT. IT WAS TO BE INSTALL THAT WEEKEND, (IM SURE YOU KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING) NEEDLESS TO SAY IT WAS TWO WEEKS LATTER AT THEIR CONVIENCE AT 9:30 AT NIGHT NOT A WEEKEND AS I WAS PROMISED, NOT A GOOD EXPERIENCE. THAT FOLLOWING WEEKEND SOMEONE WAS HERE SERVICING THE UNIT (BAD BATTERIES) I HAD A LEAST 10 SERVICE CALLS THE FIRST THIRTY DAYS OF THE SYSTEM INSTALLED. NOW WORKING ON YEAR 2007, I HAVE HAD SERERAL SERVICE CALLS, ONE BEING A SAFETY RECALL, TO ONE OF THE WIRELESS SMOKE DETECTORS, SERVICING TECH NOW ADVISES ME HE DOESNT KNOW WHICH ONE IS RECALLED SO HE WILL JUST REPLACE THEM BOTH, OKAY? TO MY NOT SO SUPRISED ONE IS HARD WIRED AND ONE IS NOT SO WAS THE RECALL COMPLETED? THEN 20 MINUTES AFTER HE LEAVES I GET A FRIENDLY WARNING TELLING ME MY SMOKE DETECTOR IS NOT WORKING? AND OF COURSE THE TYPICAL I CARE CALL FROM ADT ADVISING ME ONE OF THE DETECTORS IS SETTING A CODE? I ASKED WHICH ONE THE TECH WAS JUST HERE I WAS ADVISED IM NOT SURE ? I WAS LIVID THEY SENT ANOTHER SERVICE MAN BACK THAT DAY ( A TOTAL OF 7 HOURS WAITING FOR SERVICE TECHS ON MY ONLY DAY OFF) NOW I HAVE HAD APP 10 SERVICE CALLS THIS YEAR, I HAVE HAD THE KEY PAD REPLACED, AND HAD TO RESCHEDULE BECAUSE CONCERN STILL WAS NOT CORRECTED, THEY SENT IN A SENIOR TECH VERY NICE GENTLEMAN TO DEAL WITH, HE HAS NOW REPLACED 12VAC TRANSFORMER, RELOCATED RECIEVER, ANOTHER SERVICE CALL REPLACED RECIEVER AND 2 KEYLESS FOBS, SAME DAY APP 30 MINUTES LATTER ANOTHER FRIENDLY REMINDER BEEP TELLING ME THERE IS A CONCERN (FC) ANOTHER VISIT 1 WEEK LATTER NOW TECH REPLACES ALARM CONTROLLER, SAME DAY ZONE 15 BEEPS I CALL ADT THEY TELL ME TO REPLACE BATTERY I HAVE NOW I HAVE TO MISS WORK MONDAY TO GET ZONE 15 FIXED AT THER CONVIENCE AGAIN AND DID I TELL YOU THE BATTERY DID NOT FIX IT AND THE PERSON I CALLED THIS EVENING AT ADT CALLED ME "DUDE" .WHEN WILL MY SYSTEM BE HASSEL FREE DO WE CALL ANOTHER ALARM COMPANY FOR A BACK UP FOR WHEN THIS ONE FAILS ONCE THE SYSTEM IS "FIXED" AGAIN. I HAVE SPENT SO MANY OFF DAYS GETTING THIS SYSTEM CORRECTED AND IT IS STILL FAILING, I KNOW THIS SYSTEM IS A LEMON, ME THE LITTLE GUY WILL BE YOU KNOW WHAT ONCE MORE WHILE THE BIG GUY GETS THE KISS. I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK AND CONTRACT ENDED WITH THIS COMPANY WHAT CAN I DO TO GET THIS RESOLVED?