ADT Security Services review: Months of confusion and unanswered questions

As an ADT Home Security customer for nearly two years, I wanted to share my personal experience in hopes that it helps others understand what I’ve encountered.

I entered into two separate five-year agreements with ADT Home Security: one for my home security monitoring service and a separate retail installment agreement for my home security equipment. At this time, both agreements still have nearly three years remaining on their original terms.

About a year ago, I filed my active Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Approximately six months ago, the outstanding balance for my home security equipment was added to my Chapter 13 case, and ADT was listed as an unsecured creditor for that equipment balance. My understanding is that ADT received notice of my Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and I have never been told otherwise.

From that point forward, my experience has been that the billing and collection efforts related to the equipment balance have never stopped. From the time ADT was added as an unsecured creditor through today, I continue to receive bills, invoices, and other communications regarding the equipment balance while trying to understand how that balance is being handled.

From the beginning, I made it clear that I wanted to continue my ADT Home Security monitoring service. That has never been the issue for me. Throughout this entire process, my monitoring payments have remained current.

Over the following months, I repeatedly received communications stating that ADT’s bankruptcy department was reviewing my account. I documented everything and continued asking questions because I genuinely wanted to understand what was happening.

During those communications, ADT’s attorney identified that there were two separate contracts at issue: a service contract for monitoring and a separate retail installment contract for the equipment. That confirmed my understanding of how my account had been established and reinforced why my questions continued to focus on the equipment balance.

During this same period, I lost access to my ADT mobile app and my online ADT billing portal. No one explained why those services became unavailable, which only added to my confusion as I tried to understand the status of my account.

After months of communication, I was eventually told that the reason ADT did not dispute my Chapter 13 bankruptcy was because my account was current when the bankruptcy was filed. From my perspective, that explanation raised even more questions because there was still an outstanding equipment balance of nearly $3,000 prior to the filing of my chapter 13 case. I continued asking questions because I wanted to understand the basis for what I was being told, but my questions were have not been answered.

As the discussions continued, I was presented with a proposal that, as I understood it, would waive the remaining equipment balance if I agreed to enter into a new 60-month monitoring agreement, however, I was not shown the new 60-month contract when the agreement was offered. My understanding was that this new agreement would have to be entered into outside of my active Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan. From my perspective, this was difficult to understand because I already have an existing five-year monitoring agreement with nearly three years remaining. Before considering that proposal, I wanted the opportunity to review the actual agreement, not simply a summary of it.

Several weeks have now passed, and despite requesting the proposed agreement for review, I still have not received the actual new proposed 60-month monitoring contract.

Around this same time, ADT stopped automatically drafting my monthly monitoring payment from my bank account. Because I wanted to keep my monitoring service current, I manually submitted the payment myself. Despite doing so, I later received another notice stating that my account was more than four months past due and warning of a possible interruption of monitored security service. This is especially confusing because my monitoring payments have remained current throughout this process, and I have consistently communicated my desire to continue my monitoring service.

Looking back over the past several months, what has been most frustrating has not simply been the account itself. It has been the overall customer experience. I have documented everything, asked respectful questions, and genuinely tried to understand what was happening. Instead, I often feel like I am piecing together information from emails, billing notices, account access issues, and ongoing communications while continuing to seek answers to the same questions, yet my questions remain unanswered.

My hope in sharing my experience is to provide other consumers with insight into what I have experienced and to encourage anyone facing a similar situation to document everything, keep copies of all communications, and ask questions until they understand what is happening with their account.