ADT Security Services

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.

I purchased the ADT 350Mhz computer back in April of 1999. Not only did I recieve a cheap built computer, but the Pentium II processor installed was re-called and I never recieved anything concerning it. When my computer finally died, the repair shop told me, they nolonger made those processors or the mini boards which where installed. I refused to pay for the computer, and there financing company is still billing me for over $2100.

My daughter had ADT in stall an alarm system in her hopme several years ago. She opted to add the fir protection into
the contract.

Today her house caught on fire. She did not receive a call from ADT per her service.

After the fire was extinguished the Fire Marshall said the fire started in ADT panel.

12/11/08 we find that we have been overpaying for our residential home security service at $40.99 per month. I called ADT to console service and was told that it will cost me around $280.00 to resolve our contract obligations. This was news to me where I had a 2-year contract with Firstline Security that had expired prior to the sale of my security services being sold by Firstline to ADT without my consent. The only reason I was aware of the change of service providers was a letter from ADT welcoming me to ADT and promising a welcome package that never came. I called First line to see if this was a scam and they confirmed the sale of service. On 12/11/08 while talking to the ADT Service Consolation dept. Rep. I requested a copy of the alleged contract and was told it will be sent right out to me. Well it never came but ADT has been able to send a new Invoice to be paid! The only thing that was good about this call I made was that I was able to procure a new service rate of $24.00 per month. This can only highlight the fact that ADT has collected two years of funds in one year. Buyer Beware!

ADT/Absolute Security Service Complaint and Cancellation

11/11/2008

- Contractor shows up to install System.

- Contractor does not have proper equipment – has to leave and return
with correct panel.

- Contractor does not install motion detector where Customer requests it.

- Contractor leaves old panel box downstairs along with old backup battery for Customer to clean up along old panel and other wiring debris.

- Contractor does not completely test system and has to return again later same day to relocate bedroom sliding door sensor to ensure alarm activates upon opening.

11/14/2008

- Contractor returns to relocate motion sensor to customer-requested location.

- Contractor does not patch holes left by drilling into wall where sensor was first installed.

- No testing further done.

12/10/ 2008

- Customer notices alarm keypad beeping spontaneously without any doors or windows opening.

- Customer calls ADT to inform them of issue.

- ADT/Absolute Security schedules appointment for Friday 12/12/2008.

- Customer requests call from technician prior to arriving to perform repair.

12/12/2008

- Customer stays home from work and Contractor arrives at approximately 8AM unannounced – No phone call received prior to arrival as requested

- Contractor leaves work vehicle idling outside customer residence positioned illegally at curb facing oncoming traffic.

- Contractor dismisses customer concerns regarding possible defective panel and relocates 2 windows sensors. Does not cut away old sensor housing.

- Contractor calls his office using Customer phone to describe problem as sensors at windows needing relocating and leaves premises telling Customer to “Keep in Touch”.

- Customer again expresses concerns of possible defective of panel to Contractor colleague/supervisor when asked if Customer was satisfied with work performed by Contractor.

12/12/2008

- At approximately 7:40 PM, Customer receives call from other resident of Customer home (Expectant Mother) stating that Police have arrived due to alarm sounding and her believing intruder may be present.

- Customer informs other resident that Contractor had been on premises earlier same day to attempt to correct deficient system – obvious at this point without success.

- Customer calls ADT to express distress of expectant mother and to inform ADT of unacceptable “service” of Contractor and expressly requests that different technician be dispatched ASAP to correct problem.

12/15/2008

- Contracting Company calls Customer to inform him that technician will be at customer residence on 12/16/2008 “between 5 PM and 6 PM”.

- Customer again expressly informs Contracting Company that a different technician should be dispatched.

12/16/2008

- 5:45 PM – Customer Receives call from Contracting Company that technician is “running a little late” and that he will be arriving sometime after the scheduled appointment time.

- Customer explains that if the technician can not arrive at agreed-upon appointment time then technician should not arrive at all.

- Customer hangs up and calls ADT to cancel “service”.

- 6:43 PM – Original technician (Not different one as requested by Customer) leaves message stating that he is on Customer premises.

I have been happy with ADT until now, We got new French doors installed, the installer told me he pushed the wire back up in the baseboard, and all that adt would have to do in splice into the wire. Well when adt I called ATD I was told they would be out between 12 and 5pm, at 430 the installer called and said he was going to be late and if i wanted to reschedule, i told him no. he came about 630, and said that since he can't see the wire, that I need to take the trim off and find the wire myself and he would come back, when I questioned him on this he told me that he was trying to save me money and if he had to get in crawl space above ceiling that it would take 2 - 3 hours to find wire/re wire and he insured me that it was going to cost a few hundred dollars, 85 for fist 30 min and 25 for every 15 min after that. well he left, i poped off the trim in about 1 min found the wire. and then i tried to call adt and reschedule for tomorrow, nope i got 2 days, they operator called the adt guy and he said he was to far away and it was near the end of my shift, and when i asked him about that before he left he said he has plenty of work for the rest of the night, and that he was not trying to save time or anything but save me hundreds of dollars, yea ADT SUCKS

We recently had ADT installed. We have not used our alarm, have never put in armed mode and have not even picked out a security code for alarm box panel. Today at approx. 8:30 AM two fire trucks, an ambulance and the police arrived outside our house. Just as the fireman were about to crash through our gate, I came out - in my bathrobe - to stop them. Neighbors gathered while I had to explain to numerous authorities that nothing was wrong and that our alarm wasn't even armed. After waiting on phone for about 20 minutes to get through to a live operator at ADT, we were finally connected to an ADT employee who suggested it was our fault that this had happened. This incident was clearly a major glitch on ADT's part for which they have no apology. Are we now to expect a bill from the fire dept and police for for responding to five alarm emergency at our house? We are finished with ADT and I emailed them to cancel our contract. I worry that this may not be so easy to do.

Approx. 5 years agi I bought the home we are living in now. I have a wireless system in my home.
The key pad previouly to this one was about 25 years old. I have been after ADT to get a new key pad. And on Monday 11/10/08 ADT installed a new one I paid $167.00. I have been going back and forth with the sales rep his name is (Chris) in Holbrook, NY office. to make a long story short. I asked him since I came in the home as a new owner I should have an upgrade. He has been very rude, arragant. and not willing to cooperate with anything. When the ADT guy let my home on Monday, I started to get problems with senser 16 in my kitchen. I called back and complaint. they sent another ADT tech to my home he said the sensor was bad, which was not and he changed it. He left again I had problems. I called again and complaint. They sent the original guy that came on Monday 11/10/08 back to my home. He said that he did the programing wrong. He spoke to the supervisor (Chris) and the answer he gave me was we can't keep on coming back here. we will be charged. Why do I need to be charged for somethign that ADT is not instaling correct? My next step is to go down to Consumers Affairs and make my complaint.

Adt has assigned my account and credit card info to defender security without my premmision and have withdrawal monies from my account with out premission. I have called adt and they said I don't have a contract with them to call defender security I did and they said they would refund monies still waiting now they took out monies again I have to stop payment at the bank which cost me extra and at this time I can't afford it but I was trusting the company to stop taking my money.
Lena hamilton any help would be apperiated.

I have tried unsuccessfully for the last 4 months to have ADT correct my bill. I was billed twice for the installation. ADT collections calls me almost every day. Each time, I tell them the exact same story. I have faxed a copy of the installation agreement and the contract that states what the charge should be. I cannot get it corrected, yet I have been told it is being corrected. They leave messages almost daily, and I return their calls almost daily. I am sick to death of ADT.