ADT Reviews

We have an old house and got different things added on for 30 years, but our system works great. I am happy when I hear the Dixie. I had to go see who it is. I had to make sure I got clothes on, and it goes playing Dixie. My grandson has a home here, but what he does is he comes over to check our swimming pool. We've got a guest house and a swimming pool next to our house. So, he's always coming in and out and going that way. The whole back of our house is glass, so I have to really be careful that I'm not dancing to Dixie when the doors are being opened in my house. We probably have the most unique system in the whole world, simply because of the additions we've made on the house and that sort of thing.

We live in a village. It's pretty rural. If there was any reason for us to call, it would probably take 20 or 30 or an hour for someone to get here. We're really isolated. Many years ago, we had someone that actually was trying to come into our house while we were at church. That seemed to be the time that they knew we were gone. We've got a garage door that closes, and everything's push button, and that all takes care of everything. So, they really don't know how many vehicles we got or who's here and who's not. That offers security, too. But somebody tried to break in our house, and we're sitting two blocks away from our big church here.

So, since then, it's really made me more cautious that things can happen. I wear all this all gaudy jewelry, and most of it is fake, but needless to say, it doesn't matter if it is or not. A bank vault would be the answer for a lot of that. We take advantage of that, too. Needless to say, I am thrilled to death with the service that we have with ADT and all these doors we have that keep playing Dixie.

ADT is the best security I have. What I can do is arm the system with the garage door down and get in my car. My husband's usually around, but he does leave home sometime. I can raise the garage door, push a button, and park in my garage. I can get out safely. The light comes on in the garage, and then I get in my house and disarm the system. So, it doesn't matter about all the other doors. I couldn't imagine living without the security we have. I'm so grateful that I know that I have that security. It means a lot to me.

Choice said, "You can't cancel your current contract." I'm not even on contract anymore. "You can't quit ADT at what the price you're paying now and hook up with us a couple of days later and get ADT at our reduced prices." Because they quoted 59.99 for three years once the equipment was paid for, and it went down to 24.95. It's very nice prices. So I said, "Let me look into this."

The next day, I called ADT and the entry level guy who answered the phone said doing that sounded like a reasonable thing to do. I would expect Choice to say, yes, I could, and ADT to say, no, I couldn't, but it was reversed. So I asked him to get a second opinion and, rather than be the middleman, he forwarded me right on to a fellow named Jacob, who said he was at the corporate level. He was at least in a decision-making level and a level where he could access a lot of stuff to check things out.

He said, "We don't have a contract with Choice." So, I went on to cancel everything with Choice. They're out of the picture now. But he said we're still in the same conversation. I said, "I've been with you. I pay my bills, the whole bit. Any kind of incentive, loyalty, whatever discounts you can give me." He did not have a number for reducing my current payment, but he priced out if I upgraded and what that would entail.

I ran some numbers after I got off the phone with him and I priced it out for four years because I had to pay three years at 58 to pay for the equipment, and I could go down to their lesser price. I had to pay 58 plus 18. So the 18 would go away, and I would owe just 58. I priced it out and I was out $25 at the end of four years to be upgraded. I now had new stuff and I also don't know if my current price would have gone up in four years. It might well have. So let's call it a wash. But I would be upgraded. We started talking about upgrading and he said, "You got your smoke alarm and your carbon monoxide in 2019. They don't work anymore." I said, "What do you mean? They're blinking and you guys are charging me for the service." He said, "After five years, they're no good." I said, "You could have sent me a note."

Before I went with ADT, I bought one. This has got to be 15 years ago. I remember writing in red on the plastic at the top of the curve so I could see it when the expiration date was. There are no dates written on these two. So, I'm not protected. ADT could have sent an email. They should have that set up when they install something. They automatically send an email six months before it expires. I'm sitting here with a smoke alarm that doesn't work or is not effective and carbon monoxide. I told him at that point that I needed to clean up the Choice situation first, and I would get back to him. Choice was very honorable about it. They refunded me every penny within 24 hours. They probably just wanted to get rid of me. But that's why ADT has come up in the last couple of weeks.

I've always had very good experience with the techs or the agents that I spoke with. I have cellular failure issues with it that I called about one time, because it just beeps. ADT checked the system. Everything worked. So, I just live with the beep. It's okay. It works. I set it at night when I go to bed. I was gone in the summertime, and I turned my air conditioning off. But I love that a week before I was planning to come home, I could turn it on gradually. So, I didn't turn it on the day that I came home and had to drop it 20 degrees. I like being able to arm and disarm my system remotely.

I've had a couple of issues with it going off, and it shouldn't have but things happened. When I first got it, I tried to sneak out at the house in the morning before I fed my cats. I tried to sneak out to get a walk in. I did my walk, I came home, and there's a police car sitting in my neighborhood. I walked past and said, “Huh. Did I disarm that system? Probably not.” It happened another time when I went out to feed the cats in the morning. It was a couple years later. I was out in my yard and I heard the alarm going off. I ran like Usain Bolt trying to turn it off.

I called back and the woman said, "I'm with ADT. Your alarm went off.” I said, “Everything is fine. You don't need to call the police.” But she said, "We already have. I'll see if I can get them to cancel the call.” She was very pleasant. She made sure that I was okay.

I'm happy with the system. However, the billing needs improvement. Maybe they were so excited about whatever they're doing to the website. But I would like to have known ahead of time that I would be charged a bit more money. Two times in the years that I've been with them, they've raised my rate but have not notified me ahead of time. The first time it happened, I called. It was only $5, but I called. I said I didn't know it was going up. So, they dropped the $5 off. This last time, they had sent me several notices about the changes they were making to the MyADT website. I don't know what they were doing. I got my credit card bill, and my monthly fee had gone up $10. All they told me about was improvements to the website. I did the chat bot thing, and they dropped the $10 off. I said, "I don't like paying more for stuff, but I don't mind doing it if I know I'm gonna have to."

The thing is says, “We usually like to give our customers 30 days notice that it's gonna happen.” But I got no 30 days notice. I'm used to getting an email that tells me, "Your bill is ready to be charged, and it's gonna be this much money." A week and a half later, they charged it to my card. It tells me my bill is ready to be submitted a week and a half before. And it goes to my credit card. If they had done that this time, I would have said, "Crap. It's going up $10. Oh, well.” But they didn't notify me, and they've done that twice. I know that things go up. I know that things cost more.

The performance is amazing. Sometimes, I'm in the kitchen and I'm cooking, and it's not a fire. It's just smoke. The fact ADT calls me to make sure that we're okay first. Every time they call me, they reach out to my emergency contact as well. It's simultaneously, which is top tier for me. Because if I passed out, my emergency people will call me and say, "What's going on with you?” If they don't get me, they know to call ADT back and tell them to send someone to my home. That's above and beyond for me.

ADT makes me feel very safe. Long before they allowed people to conceal and carry, we had ADT as the police between police, and that is great. I believe that the people on my block and myself who have ADT have had less people try to vandalize our properties, even if we leave our garages open. I've left my garage open many times, but they see that I'm covered by ADT, so they assume that I have a camera. They assume that even though the garage is up, ADT is going to alert me, and they might end up getting locked in my garage. ADT is definitely the police in between the police. And it does put a little fear in criminals’ hearts.

I just recently changed over my system, and ADT has partnered with my insurance company. That is the smartest thing that any security system could do. You can get a contract for three years and they give you a discount because you're going the extra mile to take care of your home and that is very appreciated as a homeowner.

At one point, I fought with them every day. Some neighborhoods are overlooked. One of the techs came, and he started asking questions and found out a couple of things about me. People don't take pride in their homes. A lot of people feel bad because of the property tax, where you can't afford the minimum for the house. But that's not everybody's situation. The tech just gave me a bit of information. I had to fight with ADT a bit to get that for my home. As a loyal customer and someone who has been around for a long time, technical companies that sell phones, security systems, Geek Squad sometimes forget about the people who have been around for forever. And they are catering to people who just started. That's like giving your mistress more than you give your wife. Who does that in the beginning?

You're gonna give the mistress the house and you let the wife be in an apartment? That's not how you do. Technical companies do that a lot. Once they've already got you, they don't want to give you the discounts. You have to fight for the discounts. I understand that they need new business, but this old money. They feed into new money, and it's many systems out here on Amazon and SimpliSafe, and all of these people who don't give the quality service that ADT gives. But people will leave them for the one-time price of this or the one-time price for that. Being a homeowner, I have learned that it is better to be in a contract, and it is better to have a warranty than it is to not have a guarantee.

I've added Google cameras. They just came and changed out one of the cameras 'cause the old one was corroded as I live by the ocean. The Google cameras were a nice addition, although I have Ring cameras that are every bit as good as Google. Also, the Google cameras are not ideal. If I do a hard reset on the modem, which needs to be done once in a while, again, I have to go out on the ladders to do that.

To reboot the Ring cameras is pretty simple but the process to reboot the Google cameras and put a password in is tedious and time consuming. Every time that I have to reboot, like if I get a new modem, I have to go up on a ladder and push a button on the cameras. The gentleman that installed them for ADT took the little barcode that you scan with the camera. He didn't leave it for me, and that was horrible. Now I have to go up and the numbers that I need off the cameras to do it are really small. I have to use a magnifying glass to read them, and I'm on a ladder and a 69-year old with a hip implant.

Another thing that I don't like about ADT at this point is the maintenance contract that I got in 2011 is supposed to replace any parts and include labor. At first, they did that for years, but they unilaterally one sided decided to change that contract and that's unethical and immoral. I had to pay $59, which was a bargain, for the camera that I had replaced because they did recognize I had that contract. Now, I have to replace my own battery. Before, I could call, and a technician would come out and replace the battery to the alarm system. They did that multiple times. But they also decided they didn't have to do it any longer. They got cheap.

Over the years, they've made it harder to get ahold of someone to get help. An example of that is after the new camera was installed, I needed a little bit more help over the phone. But they're going to an AI system that was absolutely not even close to being ready to roll out, and it beat me to death trying to get to a technician. They can do all the advertising in the world, on TV, but if they got an AI system that beats you to death when you need help, they'll lose more customers over that than they will anything. It would draw out a call that should have taken 10 minutes into an hour, and that's not exaggeration. It's giving them a black eye that I don't think they have the vaguest idea, because the people that are making these decisions are not the people on the front line. It's their executive management.

Outside of those, I'm pretty satisfied. In general, the system works very well. The skill level of the ladies over the phone was off the charts, and so was the young gentleman that came to my house last time. They were patient and professional. They got the right answer the first time, not having to call back a second time. For the market value, I could get comparable equipment with comparable service from other companies for less money. Compared to other companies, ADT is the highest in the industry. But their equipment is giving me a service that I need.