ADT Security Services, Inc

We decided that we needed an alarm system due to a recent break in in our neighborhood. We got bids from 4 companies. ADT was by far the highest pressure and least value. I called them because they offer a deal with my insurance company, USAA that includes a 2 year monitoring agreement (most companies require a 3 year agreement). The salesperson gave me her sales pitch then started giving me the hard sell - trying to get me to sign right away despite the fact that I told her that we were entertaining bids from other companies. She also pulled what appeared to be a bait and switch - showing me the USAA system but then saying they had a great deal "but only until the end of the month" on an "all in one" system that really was inferior in quality and actually came out to be about the same price as the USAA quoted system. After she left she pestered me with numerous phone calls even after I left her a voice mail saying we went with a different company! She even called me at work! I honestly don't know how a company like this can stay in business. Maybe there are people that respond to the "hard sell" but I'm not one of them

Switch and bait technique. Salesperson promised and sighned contracty for $450, Installer said it is not going to work unless i pay additional $950, ADT refuses refund. Would not have used company if honest price was disclosed initially

After our house was burglarized, we decided to get an alarm system. We got quotes from both both ADT and Brinks (now Broadview). One of their representatives came out and helped design a system for our house, and pros/cons of additional things I was interested in. We were interested in a fully wired system (no batteries, no wireless junk that could be interfered with), and the installers were able to put in this system over about 7-8 hours of work. Everything was installed and looks great. We are very happy with the system so far, but do note you have to sign up for a 3 year contract (which was typical of most alarm companies).

It went very well. Tim arrived on time, was very thorough and extremely helpful. He took the time to carefully explain and review how the system operated. Very well done. Thank you Tim.

The rep showed up on time, recognized the fact that the job would be complicated, brought in additional help and did the job in one day. The alarms on the doors are not visible and none of the walls or ceilings show any evidence of the work.

I saw a commercial advertising "$99 for a complete home alarm system." This is definitely a "bait and switch", as that $99 price only gets you the most basic alarm for a smaller residence. We have a 2 story home and the price was definitely not $99. It actually turned out to be $250-- negotiated down because of a competitive bid that I received from another alarm company. The installation was OK (installer was a bit messy and didn't completely clean up after himself), and the system worked fine. Did not have an issue for 2 years. My nightmare started when discussing the contract with the sales rep (Mike Coleman). The contract states that it is a 3-year contract, and I told him that while I intend to be in the area for over 3 years, my company may relocate me prior to 3 years. I asked Mike if that would be a problem, and he said that it wouldn't be (this ended up not being the case!). So to protect myself and not just take the sales rep's word for it, I wrote on the contract that "the contract can be terminated if there is a job relocation." We BOTH then signed the bottom of the contract, and I felt like I was covered in the event of a relocation. Well, at 2 years, I was in fact relocated by my company and I called Broadview to cancel the contract. To my surprise, they refused to cancel the contract. The 800# referred me to the local office to discuss it with them, so I called Mike Coleman twice and left a detailed message, and he didn't have the courtesy to call me back. So I called the Branch Sales Manager, and he then spoke to the Sales Rep. Mike the Sales Rep had the nerve to tell his sales manager that he never said that it wouldn't be a problem to terminate the contract prior to 3 years, and that I must have written-in the part of "termination of contract in the event of a job relocation" on the contract after he had already signed it!!! What?!! These contracts are in triplicate, and the sales rep takes the signed contract with him! The Sales Manager gave all of the benefit of the doubt to his Sales Rep (that refused to call me back to talk to me), and when I asked to be released from the contract, he refused. After many phone calls and letters to Broadview corporate, much wasted time and energy, as well as the use of an attorney, Broadview's corporate office finally released me from the contract. Bottomline is that I feel like these guys will say anything to get you in their clutches and have you sign the contract. Once you sign, they make it EXTREMELY difficult to get out of the contract-- even after the initial 3 years. This is not the type of company I ever want to do business with again. Clearly "the customer is always right" is nowhere near their thinking, as evidenced by the ridiculous rationalizing of the situation by the Sales Rep, and by the Sales Manager (Corey Sauerwein) that was not willing to do the right thing. Instead, he just took the sales rep's word for it. I want to be clear, this was not a "misunderstanding." I remember the sales rep sitting across from my dining room table telling me that the termination of the contract "wouldn't be a problem." I'm just thankful for the corporate office for hearing me out, and they finally did the right thing after much back and forth. This is the only reason why I didn't give an overall rating of "F." Beware of these home security system contracts!

The price I got quoted on the internet was the price that I paid, which was good. It took the employee a little longer than I thought it should just to alarm the front door. He was very clean and neat and he did do a good job.

Other than a bit of confusion as to the time the install would be done, it went fine. The work was completed by two techs in about 4 hours. They did the work efficiently, left no mess, etc. We ended up adding an additional motion detector at the suggestion of the tech doing the install (which accounted for a slight increase in cost over the original price).

OUTSTANDING! Joe, the security and sales associate gave a very informative description of the Brink's system. A complete no pressure pitch. He answered questions completely and covered everything that I wanted to know. He even offered suggestions about things I hadn't considered. Joe made suggestions that will work well with regards to our eldest child's occasional sleepwalking episodes. He really took the time to make sure we got the system we needed. Tim, the installer, took the time to call us on a Sunday to let us know of an opening in the schedule that would move our install date up a week! He was here 15 minutes ahead of schedule and worked through the day to get our system installed. He paid attention to the little details, like leaving an extra length of wire in an unfinished basement room so we'll have options to move that sensor if need be when we finish off that room. After giving a very thorough explanation of the system and how it works, Tim left nothing behind except a very nicely installed alarm system. No pieces of wires, clips, or little piles of sawdust were left for me to clean up. He took the time to replace items that he had to move out of the way to install the system. I simply could not have been more impressed with how Brinks handled us from my first call to the office until Tim pulled out of the driveway after finishing the install. 100% thoroughly pleased.

Both the rep and the installer were professional and answered my questions. The installer, working alone, got the entire house set up in about six hours. He made suggestions to make the security design more efficient. His work was professional and he cleaned up after himself thoroughly.

I have leased the security system and it is an ongoing system. We have a monthly lease payment. I had used it at my previous business and that s how I know about it. I have been using it for probably 20 years. When they come to fix something, they don't fix it right the first time. The last time they came to fix a small piece of their equipment, they messed our telephone line. The person who came for the initial installation didn t know what he was doing and didn t take advice. The person was cocky, inexperienced and poorly trained installer. He didn t do what he was instructed to do and the final outcome was inferior. The system not an ordinary system, it is certified and has a high functionality. It is a UL system and has to work according to the UL standards.

After using ADT for our alarm services for 12 years, we are very frustrated with ADT and we are moving on primarily due the last few years of working with ADT and a recent experience when our smoke alarm went off. Our fireplace flue was not completely open (our fault) and enough smoke entered the house to cause the alarm to go off. After managing the smoke/fireplace situation We tried unsuccessfully to turn off the alarm, so i grabbed my ADT card with our security code and emergency phone number and called. About ten minutes had passed at this point. The phone number listed on the card had been disconnected (yes I dialed it correctly twice), so I looked up the number on the web, worked through the automated menu and then was ... once I reached the emergency number ... put on hold for quite a while, all the time with the alarm blaring in the background. At some point about 13-14 minutes since the alarm started to sound, I finally got someone on the phone at ADT who thought I was at a different location. Once she figured out where I was, I kept asking her for directions as to how to shut off the alarm, and the only response she could offer was that "well, you have to wait for the smoke to clear out and then it will shut off by itself." She could not explain to me how to shut off the siren or disable the system temporarily. Completely unhelpful and argumentative at times. Then it dawned on us that no one from ADT ever called us when the alarm went off, even though it had been going off for 10 minutes when I finally tried calling them. That is completely unacceptable, as is being put on hold when you call the emergency number. When we first started using ADT, the service seemed to be pretty good and they were responsive. Lately, in my opinion, their service level has dropped substantially and they have lost that all-important sense of trust that we need to have with the firm that supplies our alarm services. To have a security company put you on hold when you are urgently trying to reach them, and for them to not be able to answer simple questions about the system and for them to start to argue with the client in a stressful situation is not the type of company I want to send money to. We are shopping for a different service on Angies List today, but I thought I'd start by saying why we are leaving ADT in the near future.

The serviceman/technician was excellent. The price was what I expected, although they did convince me to take an added "service contract" for $5 extra monthly, so that any service calls or repairs would be at no additional cost.

Well pleased with initial discussion of my needs and giving me a good idea of the costs. The installation went well and although there was a lot of work involved, extra help was brought in and they finished in a day.

The system is hooked up to one of the doors and it has a motion sensor in the hall. We had some valuables in the house so we decided it would be a good investment to have. The experience with them was fine. We haven't had any problems. They came on time and did the work right.

Excellent customer service. We have used Brinks for our last two homes. They have quality service professionals and installers. Very professional in our home and did custom wiring for us. They had no problem switching out options and choices, without changing the cost of monitoring. Brinks has always responded to any questions, alarms, and tests from our home. Having Brinks monitor us makes us feel safer, along with our dogs.

Our sales rep, Marquis Powell, was great. He was knowledgeable and professional in explaining the Brinks security system. We thought the quote was reasonable. The installation went OK. The installer placed the security control panel right next to an unfinished window frame. He did have to return to move the security control panel. Otherwise, we have had no problems with the Brinks system.

We didn't use them but will when we revisit this service.

The installer, Gordon, arrived on time and worked efficiently. I was disappointed by the mess he left. He left three piles of debris from reinstalling alarm systems on the walls. After installing our system, he seemed in a hurry to leave. He spent very little time with me going over the ins and outs of the system. After he left and I went through the paperwork he let me. I found a document (IQ Certification Program - Installation Quality Checklist) that the technician was supposed to have gone over with me. He signed off on it, but never went over it with me. I was so disappointed. I immediately called Brinks Customer Service. They told me someone from the home office would contact me within three days. Sure enough, two days later, a supervisor phoned me and apologized for the problems I had. He assured me that this is not the usual customer treatment. He answered all of my questions regarding the security system and then offered me a credit on my account for all of the problems.

It was a thorough installation and presentation by the installer and sales person. We chose this company over a few other ones we looked at because of the walk through thorough explanation.

I would say it went quite well. The whole process took a day to get completed. They explained everything out to us carefully and how to arm various zones of the home.

From the quote to the end of the installation, it was a very professional job. The quote was honest and priced appropriately. The installation was excellent! Nik was here at 7:40am, took a half hour for lunch, and left at 5:39pm. Job done. I could not tell where or how he ran the wires, and I did have some interesting challenges for him. A second installer, Steve, came at noon, and also worked until 5:30pm. These were two of the hardest working guys I have ever seen, and thoroughly professional. If you have a system installed, ask for Nik. You won't be disappointed. The alarm system works flawlessly.

They were very professional and prompt. They were on time and very friendly. I would recommend them to others and I would use them again if I needed there services. They do the continuing monitoring on our home security.

Our home was broken into on a Thursday for the second time in six months. I had a Brinks system in my previous home. We purchased this home in August of 2004 and did not install a system because it's in a perfectly nice area. I called Brinks on Friday morning and Brian came out and met with us on Friday afternoon. He treated us as if we were just now moving into our new house and gave us the premium system for free. Even better, they scheduled the installation the following Monday and put us on a list in case there was a cancellation on Saturday. There was a cancellation and the service tech came out around 11:00 on Saturday morning and was done installing around 5:00. The tech (I can't remember his name - maybe Troy?) installed the system and you'd never know he'd been there except for the security panel on the wall. He was miserable as he is allergic to cats and we have two - but he didn't let it interfere with his work. Brink's monthly monitoring requires a contract and may be a little more expensive than the others, but we were very pleased with the service, and felt more comfortable going with a recognizable brand. Additionally, I had talked to security system folks at the Home Show in March. I misplaced the card I got from Brink's but when I located them on Angie's List and called and gave my last name, Brian said "I talked to a xxxx at the home show"- nice to be remembered.

Jeff Steeno, the sales rep, told us that the Brinks technician would be able to install a wireless system in our home while 2 other sales reps from different companies told us that wouldn't be possible. Jeff did a great job explaining how the system would be installed and the different features available. The installation technician, Nik, did a a great job and was friendly and professional. We were very impressed with the attention to detail in running the wires. The components of the wireless system are unobtrusive and I am amazed at how they were able to get wires to run from our mostly finished basement up to the first floor. After doing some research we were really hoping to be able to obtain a hardwired system and Brinks did a great job! The price looks higher than some as we paid for the first year of monitoring and also added a monitored smoke detector.