ADT

I had to leave for work, and the technician asked me about payment. I told him I could give my credit card information over the phone when he had completed the re-wiring of the sensors. He told me he couldn’t take a credit card because there ‘could be a mistake made with the numbers’, and asked me to leave a check, with ‘VOID’ written on it. I did that.

At 11:02 am, I was called by the technician who told me he completed the job. He told me the total charge was $347. I told him I wanted a breakdown of the charge. He told me that the sensors were $2.97 per sensor, and there were 8 sensors. I asked him why he needed to replace the sensors, and he laughed, telling me that it needed to be done because the old ones didn’t work. He then proceeded to tell me that the first half hour was $107, and the rest of the time was $218. I told him $218 does not represent the other 1.5 hours he spent on site. He argued with me and told me that he was there for 3 hours, and that’s what the ‘thing’ says. I then told him I wasn’t giving my credit card information and he said he could use the check. I told him not to, and he said he would put the amount into ‘dispute’, and I could call ADT to figure out the final amount owed.

I was never told that sensors needed to be replaced, or about the cost of the sensors. The technician also never asked permission to replace the existing sensors. When we looked at the sensors—all of them had been installed on the outside of the windows. This was done without our permission or consent. Why didn’t the technician install the sensors inside the window frame, like it was done before? Issue has been escalated to ADT—but I still believe it’s important to share this review here.

I was also told I couldn't get discounts for the cameras I just purchased or my money I paid in advance for the year. Reason was because I moved so they bill me a termination letter that's the money I paid advance gone to and still billed 1200. Only because I decided to move. I called ADT service to be only transfer around. After so many attempts to get this issue fixed because I only moved and wanted service. I was told to redo everything. I thought ADT service was honest and good. Just to realize it only took money from me and not good at all. The camera only record for a good minute and have to wait for 4 min to start up again. It doesn't live stream and records everything only a good snapshot. I feel I wasted money and time with ADT service.

When I have asked representatives on their prices and packages, I received no definite answer to what I should be charged because what I have is "not one of the packages they provide." It has been 3 weeks since installing this system, and it has been nothing but a disappointment. Had I known it would be this bad, I would have shopped around to a different provider. They are supposed to be securing my house, and I can't trust that they can even do that. If I could get out of my contract, I definitely would.

It took me OVER A YEAR to finally get them to come out and fix the issue so that we have one account for the two buildings. I spend hours and hours on the phone with various customer service people. This is time I will never get back. Not to mention the collection calls (because I refused to pay for the account I didn't authorize). The local Manager, Jarod, is a JOKE... Promises to return phone calls and never does. I have never experienced such poor customer service in my entire life. After the two accounts were finally combined into one (14 months later), they said they would clear out the amount due on the account I had not authorized, but they never did, so the collection calls continued. I finally paid the bill out of complete frustration. If you have any other choices in your area DO NOT choose ADT. They are too big to care about their customers, and they don't.

I told the tech that I am a single mom who works full time and I am 100% on a budget every single week. I wanted an alarm system for that fact also, that it is just me and my daughter, I want to protect her and our home. He made some phone calls, came back and said that they could do $42.00 a month, 2 months free service, and $300 in gift cards. I reluctantly agreed because at this point he had already installed this panel on my wall, I had already taken time off work to meet them at my house.

When everything was installed and completed, he had me sign some stuff, you know how they do this, you don't really have any idea what you're signing because it's on a tiny tablet and all there is is a signature line, but he is telling me what it all says, and it is everything that I stated above. I also specifically said, "I do not want this on auto draft." I used a credit card for the install that day and I do not want to pay my bill with a credit card. He said he got it all set up that way. This was all on January 16th.

On January 25th, I had a big payment come out of my credit card account, so I called. I spoke with a gentlemen that wasn't listening to what I was asking for, he kept telling me that he was setting my account up for paper bills which would charge me additional, and I kept telling him, "No I am not asking for that, I just want my card taken off file." He finally told me I would have to call ADT to do that, which I then told him I had just called and they sent me to Defenders. He was unhelpful and not willing to help with the very simple task I was asking him to do. I was not upset or angry, I was just trying to get my card off file and he ended up hanging up on me.

I immediately called back and asked to speak with a manager. I told this manager what had just happened and then expressed my concern that things were not set up correctly to begin with. She informed me that it was not, there was nothing in the file about 2 months free service, nothing about gift cards, the price was higher than what I was told and that my account was set up on auto draft.

At this point I feel like I was lied to just to get me into this service, which as an honest person, makes me feel scared to have a dishonest company protecting my home with my daughter in it. I told her, just cancel it, I don't like how this has all happened, I do not feel like I can trust this. She told me I would have to pay a few thousand dollars to cancel it, even though I had not even had it a week. I was not satisfied with the service I had gotten in that short amount of time, she would try to see what she could do to get the things I was told taken care of.

An hour into this 2nd phone call, she tells me I will get the $44 price monthly, that the original $42 wasn't even an option, but another tech would have to come back out to my house to have this changed. I was also suppose to get a refund of $105 back to my credit card and $300 in gift cards. So I thought this was going to be taken care of, she sent me an email with all of this info in it. The refund was suppose to have been back on the card within 7-15 business days, a tech was scheduled to come out to my house the following day, so I took another day off work to be at home to get this corrected. The tech assured me that this was not how they do business as I told him about the bad experience I had had thus far and assured me that the account would be corrected. I was hopeful he was telling the truth.

Fast forward 2+ weeks. I still had not received the refund so I call to see what the status was on that, I was told I would not get it until the 25th, which contradicted the email I had been sent saying 7-15 days. During this phone call I asked that a copy of my contract be sent to me because I did not have one yet. She said she would email it over. That was the end of that phone call. Still no contract.

Fast forward to Feb 22. I logged on to the website to see if I had a bill yet, because I wasn't sure when it would be due, and what do you know, I am being charged for services I DO NOT HAVE, $53.99. So I called again. I was told that the deposit would be there on the 25th of February and that they had changed my bill, that one was not correct and a new one would be sent out. I also asked again on this call about the contract and requested that it be sent again, she said they would email it over. They said I am still suppose to be getting the gift cards as well. Thinking that this was all the truth, I got off the phone.

February 28th, refund still not there, so I call again. I told them everything again, everything I had been told thus far by the multiple people I had spoke with. I was transferred to a "manager" and I expressed my concerns with the whole situation. This manager didn't really care that I had already been through the ringer with this company and told me that another tech would have to come out to the house to get it set up correctly because apparently the 2nd visit still was not correct.

I told him, I had already taken off work twice for this and you guys are expecting me to take off a 3rd day now in hopes that someone can finally figure out what they are doing? He was very rude and careless, which now I am upset because this is exhausting, having to call and tell this over and over again and be trusting a company to protect myself and my 3 year old daughter when I cannot even trust that my account is set up correctly and that they will refund me my money.

Also at this point, I am getting interest charges because I had been budgeting a refund to pay that, which still as of 3/1/19 I do not have. I offered ZERO compensation or compassion for that matter because I am having to deal with all of this. This "manager" was incredibly rude and careless for my situation. He hung up on me. In this conversation, I also asked for a copy of my contract and still have not received it.

Here's the deal. I have been repeatedly lied to. As an honest person, this is extremely unsettling to me. I do not feel like I am any safer now than I was a month ago, I do not trust that this dishonest company is protecting myself and my daughter, why would they when they do not care enough to charge someone the correct amount or issue a refund when they tell people they will. There is nothing about my whole experience that has been good or honest. I was lied to to get trapped into a contract to begin with. I have tried to get this handled, numerous times at that.

I get that each person on the phone is different and has no control of the previous person and I keep this in mind while speaking to them each time, trying my best to be patient while having to explain the nightmare of process to them, but what I do not understand is that seems to not be a set of standards to which this company operates. I am out of options at this point, I cannot get anyone to help and get it FINALLY corrected or just let me out of my contract. I have had to resort to social media and possible other options at this point because there is not a person within the company to step up and fix anything.

I called the customer service number, this too was useless, lady was rather rude, and told me if I want to cancel the service I must do so by tomorrow by fax only. Who has a fax machine these days. I will find some office supply who still has one and get it faxed tomorrow. She did let me know if I didn't I will our for three years of service. What ever happened to customer service and trying to please a customer. Unless you want poor service with bad attitude, do not call ADT

The mistake I made was that I should have denied the service even if were to lose the 100$. They were not transparent from the beginning, only after complete setup of equipments they revealed that we need to have a landline to avail the 29$ service and if not we have to pay 53$. They set up lot of equipments that I agreed to install for 600$ and told that they will provide a doorbell camera for free. At that point I didn’t have a wifi and hence they said they will come back to set it up. Today when a new technician came to set up the doorbell he mentioned I have to pay a 299$ one time fee to upgrade to a get that service. I was not informed of this cost upfront.

In addition to this, they promised a 300$ gift card since I was not happy before signing the contract. Later I realized that we had to get a gift certificate, take a money order for 5$ per 100$ gift card and mail the documents to MPell. We have mailed the documents and it’s been over 1 month and we haven't received the gift cards yet. Every time we call Customer service, we have to wait for hours to get resolutions or updates. During set up we were also told that if we were unhappy with service we can cancel it up to 6 months. But when we called the customer service, they mentioned that they can cancel service only if there is something wrong with equipment and they can’t fix it in 3 visits. Again these details were not provided to us.

My biggest complaint is that they were so caught up in selling the service and getting a customer sign up for contract, they were not clear on the conditions and transparent in explaining the costs and process involved while subscribing to that service. If I was informed of these in the beginning, I would have denied the service and not signed a 3 year contract. Please be careful when you get into sales call, make sure to take a day or two to think through and read the complete contract agreements before taking up this service. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what the salesperson say, once we sign the contract we have to live with it.

The agent then indicated that the person would have to verify the contract via e-mail - which my mother never did. Instead of simply releasing us from this sham "contract" they have insisted both times I talked to them that she has to fill out a fraud affidavit, which contains canned language that is not accurate for this situation and that requires my mother to certify that she will testify to a tribunal about what is in the affidavit. So I am left with the choice of potentially making my 85 year old mother go testify in order to get out of this sham contract or paying this awful, awful company a few hundred dollars that they aren't owed so that she can have peace of mind. Stay far, far away. ADT is shameful.

The full story is that I was under the impression that I had ADT in the past (when we didn't we had another company). He attempted to assist us in waiving the fee but was still insistent that we had to pay the camera fee which again I told him I didn't want to pay anything more than the initial installation fee upfront (which I had already paid of $99) and then the monthly fees. This man became aggressive, loud, and argumentative in front of my 3 1/2 year old. I was scared and had the phone in my had to call 911. This was a horrible experience and should never have happened.

This man was in my home. He had no right to speak to me the way he did in front on my 3 1/2 year old. This experience needs to be reviewed/investigated. To top it off he called a customer service agent to assist me in getting my $99 back and the agent was just as bad. By the time the tech was finally going to leave he told my 3 1/2 year old "I"m not sure why your mommy doesn't want to protect you." What is this? How is this allowed/tolerated.

A week later I logged in and it still said that I owed $1035.46 and that it was going to be taken out of my checking account. I called again and again. I was assured that the money would not be drafted from my checking. The money was drafted from my checking account. I immediately called ADT and complained. I was told that I would see my money back in my checking account within 3 days. 10 days later I still do not have my money back. I just called again today and was told there was a 15 day hold put on the refund. Why? Why would ADT put a hold on my refund for a huge mistake that they made? Now I have been promised that I will see the money in 3 more days. I've had it with ADT. After this contract is up I will never use ADT ever again.

My issue with the company is that they sell 24 hour monitoring products and when your systems go down, which is to protect your business, you can't get anyone out for 24 - 48 hours or greater depending on the tech availability. I have requested to have a meeting with the head of service in my area and of course have heard NOTHING. This whole service model for a commercial account is ridiculous. I have already invested in my system, but if you are looking for a commercial surveillance system, look for a company that can get your system up and running in a timely manner and a company that will give you an emergency service call option. These systems are too expensive and too important for the viability of a company. Choose wisely.

The next day he called me to ask me if the church has two accounts or two panels. Because the system was showing that we have two accounts. I told him that for 16 years we only have one account. He said that they needed to send a technician to verify that information. Next day the tech. came, and verified that we only have one panel and one account. He even mentioned that looks like the paperwork got mix-up and we have been charged for two accounts for a long time, and that ADT will do us right by returning the money that was overpaid for whatever time we were overcharged (16 years) since ADT is a company of integrity.

Today I received a message from ADT that they will replace our panel for free and combine the alarms for free because we been a very loyal customer. I ask what will happen with the money that was overpaid and he said that he does not know anything about that. He was told to do the panels for free because we were good customer. I explained to the Commercial Specialist that the church appreciates the good faith on the free panel, but the alarms and the overpaid funds are two different transactions.

I ask him to please give me a Management POC he said that he can only give me his email, because he is never there anyway. It's been a week and nobody has contacted me to apologize or even explained what happened, and why we were overcharged. I'm hoping that ADT with a revenue over $4 billion dollars is not trying to do harm to a nonprofit Christian church.

Customer satisfaction means nothing to them as this contract company loves to boast how they have been ADT's contractor since 1998. All you get is a runaaround. Managers never available. You not allowed to have names or numbers. I went back to ADT and still so far nothing. Which why would expect anything different? They already have my money and me for 3 yrs! DON'T DO IT PEOPLE. FIND YOURSELF AN HONEST HOME SECURITY COMPANY! I can only hope that they actually respond like they claim to if I ever need them.

The fifth person, who stated he was the highest level manager who would take a live phone call, said there was nothing he could do and we would be assessed the fee... It's just the way it is. I explained the situation, that the decision on my part was not malicious and it was a job opportunity of a lifetime. He said there was nothing he could so unless it was a military deployment. I advised it wasn't military related and ADT doesn't provide service where I am moving to. He said since I was making an "at will" decision to move, they would hold me to my contract and charge me a $900 fee. I am very saddened that ADT has taken such a harsh stance with regard to this matter. If ADT services the area I was moving to, I would gladly transfer the service. When I return to the USA from job assignment in two years, ADT WILL NOT be me on my list of security service providers.

I called customer service and they could not find my account by the account number or the address. As it turns out, the new owner initiated service when he moved in. I asked the customer service guy about that and he said that I was obligated by contract until the 19th b/c they required 30-days notice. So basically, for about 3 weeks, ADT is getting paid double. I realize that legally they are probably correct, but from a customer service standpoint, they are wrong. I am searching for a security system for my business and my new home and there is no way I will use ADT.

So a couple days go by and I say to myself... How hard is it to set this stuff up? And I attempted to install the camera. As I watched videos on ADT and learned about the technology things were looking up. But then...I noticed my Link device was offline. I didn't know it at the time but soon discovered when I called ADT tech support that my system was not working/being monitored by ADT! What the hell am I paying for? I called Defenders again later that week and was heavy on canceling already but talked with someone @ Defenders who seemed to care. After a 45 min chat he was going to get me a $100 Gift Card and then throw in a sensor for the window that was missed. BTW: the window that was missed needs two sensors so on top of the almost $1000 I'd now have to pay more. So he promised someone would be out Saturday (again) to finish up though he could not give a time.

So I waited all day Saturday... You guessed it. No one showed up. So now I have wasted 2 Saturdays (or actually 3 Saturdays if you include the 1st night when the install wasn't done right) and all my phone calls to ADT and Defenders. Oh they are quick to take your credit card for the installation fee and equipment but to do what they agree to do... Not so much. Needless to say I'm done. I consider myself reasonable and patient. But after wasting my time waiting to show up... I might as well stay home and guard my home myself. ADT and Defenders sure don't give a damn too.

We brought the batteries and did get them in. I called a week later since we had another notice. Our batteries were low and was told we had several low batteries. I asked to have someone come out and do them since one was supposed to be in the key pad per the representative. She stated we would only pay for the travel time not the batteries. We had to reschedule due to -4 temps. When I called and spoke to the person coming out to reschedule he stated we would have to pay for the batteries. Since then we had the batteries replaced that person did not charge us for the batteries.

2 days later another battery went out I called and was told that if I went through MYADT they may not charge me for batteries. I finally spoke to a representative today she stated that it is up to the person you talk with if they will charge you for your batteries. What kind of policy is that either you do or you don't. The representative should have no control over that decision. It should be a policy either batteries are free or not. This is very concerning and extremely frustrating and depending on who you get you may or may not get better customer service. Please get this under control. I feel a security company should not leave it up to their employees but have set guidelines that are enforced. This escalated to someone who did not provide me her name but stated this was the process.

Come 2019 and we called ADT to put our monitoring on “hold” (as we are moving soon). We were informed ADT doesn’t do “holds” – and also (surprise!) we’re still on a new 3 year contract! I demanded proof, and ADT emailed a document we never saw or reviewed – that was signed by… the ADT sales agent. Only. The agent signed her own name on the “Customer” blank -- right underneath where it stated in red ink on the form, “Signature MUST match Customer’s name above.” The agent’s name was also helpfully printed above her signature.

When I pointed this out to ADT, an “account manager” claimed it did not matter what the signature “looks like” because it is an “electronic signature.” And that, “A signed contract exists, and you signed it from your own email account for the installer.” Apparently ADT would have us believe that a) we “electronically signed” a document, b) while in the presence of the ADT installer, and c) using our own home computer and email account to both receive and send back the document, and d) signing the sales agent’s name, not ours.

I expressed surprise that ADT installers now depend on customers booting up their own home computers to “electronically sign” a document, while they stood by waiting. Obviously if we were to sign anything they would simply have us sign something on an tablet (as in 2013), an electronic pad, or a paper contract. We archive all our emails too – and there was nothing electronically received or sent by us during that entire time. There was just no sense or logic to any of this -- but nobody at ADT was listening. To the contrary, ADT then charged us for another month’s “monitoring” -- and simultaneously placed a $780 “termination fee” on our account. Wow! I truly cannot believe this is how ADT treats its customers. Just… Crazy.