ADT

I was really committed to getting a system. The reps were okay but I was pretty disappointed at the clarity of everything. They kept making it this huge deal where I would be getting $1,300 in equipment. The prices online were not fairly represented and the sales rep didn't represent the cost on installment day. He said, “We're gonna charge your card $100 right now. And if you like it, that's it. If you don't like it, you can send the guy away. We’ll leave as friends. We'll refund your card $100.” He didn't mention that it was gonna be another $3,000 to install the equipment. There were a lot of pre-work that the sales rep should have done. There should have been some prices provided beforehand.

When our installer came out, he tried giving us $4,000 worth of equipment. $1,300 credit really isn't worth much when it's $4,000. We still got to pull $3,000 out of pocket. It wasn't communicated that there was gonna be such an upfront fee especially when they made such a big deal out of having so much money off. We were very surprised. It was funny too. I had already been looking at the sensors because I was curious about what they look like. I did my research. The prices were not disclosed. XFINITY would say, “It’d be $600.” Ring’s security system said, “The upfront cost is $200.” ADT just said, “Zero upfront costs.” So hearing it was going to be $4,000, I was like “Yo, hold on a minute.” But ADT was very transparent about being in a contract for 36 months, which I was fine with.

There were also a lot of things in there that we didn’t need. I didn't need fire or three more carbon monoxide and smoke detectors because I already had those in the house. I didn’t need all the indoor cameras. We cut some of the things out. I do not need a front and back door sign. The system itself is loud enough. In the end, the price eventually came down.

This situation was 1,000% the sales rep’s fault for not clearly communicating and also ADT’s fault for not actually putting on the website what the actual cost of the items were going to be. What I went with cost me $600 to $1,700 even after that so-called $1300 equipment cost. We pulled $17,000 out of our savings account for settlement day two weeks ago. $1,700 is kind of a lot of money. Other people would have been more pissed off for the company not being upfront. Some people who maybe didn't have the resources would have definitely sent some away, not having known the upfront cost of the system. The company seriously needs to be transparent with upfront costs.

We're also having a problem with the cameras for whatever reason. The installer had been back three times and was not able to get them hooked up. I was a little surprised. There are also some feedback to the operations team. I'm an operations manager for hotels. I understand problems happen. But if they have an appointment, they need to be very transparent about that. They said it was between 2:00 and 4:00. The sales rep did not tell me that it was going to take eight hours to install. My appointment was between 2:00 and 4:00 PM.

The installer did not show up until 4:30 and he left a little after 11:00. We weren't even moving into the house yet. There was no Wi-Fi and there was no bed. I was not sleeping there. I had work the next day at 6:00 AM. It was 11 PM and the installer hadn't even activated the outdoor cameras. That was crazy. He was going to install another indoor camera. But I said, “Eighty-six the indoor camera. I actually don't want it after all. Come back and hook up the outdoor cameras when we get Wi-Fi.” I'm overall satisfied with the equipment. It's good and our installer was awesome. I'm still very happy with the end goal but it was was the most transparent experience. And I was exhausted. It was a long day.

In talking to the person on the phone about the system, I was told that someone would come out and tell me specifically what happened. But a person showed up in my house with things to install the system in my house. He was assuming that the system was sold to us already. We were assuming that the person was coming to tell us about the system. You don't show up at someone's house with your equipment to install in their house. That needs to be perfectly clear upfront with the person before you have met. Fortunately, we were able to talk and we decided to install the system. If it had not been for the technician, we would have told him to leave. But he was a good person and he did a good job.

Upon installing the system, the camera that we have on the garage and the volume for the sound for it, we can barely hear it when we do that. Then the additional thing that we found that since we wanted two cameras, it would cause our internet to go up. So I’m now waiting for the phone company to bring me a new router and increase my upload speed tremendously. Then when we turn the panel that's in the kitchen on, we don't quite understand what the red light and green lights are. We haven't been able to find an answer in the literature we've gone through. So I assume it takes us a few days to determine whether or not this system is going to be something that will wow us.

The initial contact needs to be seamless. You need to really say that this is what you're getting here and not have those questions later. ADT should also evaluate people that are buying cameras. They should evaluate the internet experience and say that upfront before you get to the point where you put it down on paper. It's a considerable expense to update the internet you’re having. When we had it, it was going to end up adding about $30 to my internet cost per month. By the time I put that into the formula, the 60 I'd be paying for the security system and add another 32 would far exceed what I was paying before.

One of the things that need to be included in the presentations especially if people start to talk about cameras and they have internet service. My service has an upload one and a download one. The upload on my service is 4.7, where you should buy a camera that's going to require two-point something of upload capacity even to operate. But we were gonna buy two cameras and to do that, it would take all the capacity for my internet. With what I do at home with my internet, I can't have it down because of cameras. So I called the telephone company to find out what it would cost and their rep started to quote numbers to me and I was blown away. But the person put most of the system in the house already when I found out that it was going to be an additional cost. So I was not gonna have him take the equipment out and leave. But it was not something that made me feel really good about it. I come close to feel like I have been taken advantage of there.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't know that things were going to cost as much, but even if I called and said something, ADT wasn't going to give me equipment that cost $1,500 for nothing. That man could have come all the way out here, started setting up stuff, talking to us and then when he came to say, "Well, this is how much it is," I could have looked at him and said, "I wasn't told that. I don't have $1,500." He would have had to leave with nothing. He would have also lost all his time, probably his commission or service call and then had to go on to his next one.

I have three payments of over $500, which I wasn't expecting. That had nothing to do with the installer though. The guy was great. He was here when he said he was going to be. It took about the amount of time that he told me it was going to take. He explained to me everything he was doing before he did it. He gave me options on the different places to put the cameras. He asked me and my husband of what we thought as far as input on where he was going to put the cameras or what our needs were, which was really big. I didn't want him just to come in and put them where he wanted. I had an idea of where I wanted things and then he told me whether they would work or not. The guy knew exactly what he was doing and he was very pleasant and professional. He explained everything thoroughly and he gave me a brochure. He also gave me a number to call him back if I had any questions or problems.

I like the features the system has, but I wish the panel board had something other than just a blue display. My other system had different pictures that was displayed. Also, our home is in a secluded area and I like the service of the camera because I can check my camera inside or outside. I travel many weeks out of the year into different states and countries. I need to be able to look and see that my home is being protected when it needs to be protected, so I appreciate the service. However, if the situation gets to where I don't feel comfortable or I'm not getting the coverage that I want, then I would find something else. I switched from another company that I had been with for almost nine years to come to ADT.

I still have a contract with the other company and I'm still paying it, but I left them because I wasn't getting the service and quality that I was expecting to get or was promised. When I called the other company on more than one occasion, I had to wait over 20 minutes to get assistance and that's not acceptable. My husband and I are up an age and that wait could have been detrimental. I could have had something happen, especially now, when you've got COVID and someone stops breathing. If I hit a panic alarm and nobody responds to me, that was not going to work. Somebody could have come in and taken all the stuff, and I would have not been able to do something. If I'm paying for a service, I expect it to be there.

The money was there so we could use it for equipment and it would be under no obligation. I would pay a small fee and then, we could decide that day. If I didn't want it, there was no money out of pocket and if I did, we would proceed. I hesitantly still didn't wanna do it. I still wasn't in the frame of mind to do it for various reasons but I was there in that area. I almost canceled it but I allowed the young man to come and he discussed with me what all could be done. It took me quite a while to decide. I didn't want a contract at all but knew that I needed some security there.

Based on what the representative went over with me and the way he was listening, he seemed genuinely concerned about what my concerns were and my reasons for needing it there. I discussed it with my husband who wasn't there and we thought that it would be better to go this route instead of with SimpliSafe. ADT has the legal provisions to put up cameras on a property if you had an interior one. The rep educated me on some things and that day I decided to do it because I needed the security there at that property and needed some smoke alarms and things like that tied in. But I would've liked to have known that the rep was a contractor and not with ADT at that time. He has since told me that they have bought that company. So, they are a part of it. Still, I would have liked more upfront transparency as to that.

I wanted a panel that you could see. I was with another company at my other house and with Vivint, you could see everything on that panel. I wanted that because my mom is there and she's older. So, using phones and tablets were not gonna be suitable. If you put in a camera, you wanna be able to see who's coming up the driveway not only with your phone. Also, my mom called me and she had some issues on what we thought were going on and things weren't registering on my phone. It took the rep a week to go back there and I didn't like that because sometimes you need these things to be taken care of right away. My husband and I are military and we were gone, and I can't leave that location all the time. I dealt with it that week but I needed some quickness to resolve my concerns.

Overall, the experience was good. 12 years ago, I was with ADT at that house and the experience was horrible, which was why I never wanted to go back with ADT again. They kept offering and I explained that I had terrible customer service when I had them before. They were so unfriendly that it makes you not wanna even call them for anything. They assured me that the customer service is not like that anymore so that prompted me to try them again. On my first experience, I didn't recommend ADT to anybody but my new experience all these years later has been positive. I would recommend on my new experience.

The salesman said that they were giving the system for free. All I had to do was to do what I wanted inside the house and they could do the cameras once they got the house done. I didn't get a labor bill to install the alarm system and I did get the system for free. I was freaking out and when I got done, I told my neighbors to call ADT and grab their special. My house is secured. I'd walk in the house and then I'd go for the panel really quickly. I love this system. I need security especially with this epidemic and I have them.

Now, this is the problem. The salesman told me that if he put cameras on the house, he would put ADT in a liability. He couldn't put ADT cameras. So I asked what he would recommend and he told me to go to any hardware store and pick the best system that I could possibly afford. Then I would have to make an appointment and they would send a guy over and hook it up for me. I also told him that I didn't have internet service so he told me to specifically ask for a system that could be connected without WiFi internet. So I bought the best system at Home Depot and it was called Night Owl. I then called and they transferred me to this woman. The lady set up an appointment to have a technician come to my house. She also asked if I bought the system that I wanted because I told them that I didn't have internet WiFi and that was what I bought. It was a four-camera with some kind of monitor that didn't need WiFi internet.

Now, the guy, Michael, showed up and he said that they would only deal with ADT equipment. I shouldn't have bought the cameras. He told me that no technician was gonna show up and hook up the system that I got and that I should call the ADT office immediately. So there was a misunderstanding here. I got the right system but the salesman that I spoke to lied to me. Michael is an excellent employee. I learned something knowledgeable and he didn't finger point or anything. He said that I should've gone with the ADT cameras when they came over the house to put in the system. He also confirmed that I did get the system for free.

I called ADT and they told me that they wouldn't hook up anything from any store that didn't have their name on it. They said that I had been mishandled and they would take care of it for me. I had been on the phone trying to figure out why I had to pay for the internet. I gotta pay for a monthly payment that went from 28 to like $70 a month.

What knocked me off my feet was that Michael said that he could send a guy over and hook up the system. The technician would come over and hook up for cameras as quickly as possible because they saw that I needed it because of the tampering and robberies that I had. But it would be for 1,800. Another guy said 2,000. The cheapest one to hook up the cameras for my house within the next couple of days was $1,500. I almost keeled over. I was made to feel good that I didn't owe $4,000 for the system inside the house. But now, I would need $2,000 for a guy to come over to put ADT cameras. I need to get my cameras in the house but I can't afford $1,800 or $2,200.