Anyone use ADT for home security

[CaminoKlng71]

I'm looking at getting a home security system. So far spoke with Protect America and ADT. Protect America was cheaper but no one came to look at the house and the sales guy was a serious *****. ADT came out and looked at the house, was very courteous and their prices seemed pretty competitive. The reviews on Yelp are pretty poor, my suspicion is that no one reviews these type of services unless something is going wrong, if everything is great you ideally have no contact with them.
Have any of you guys used or do use ADT? If so, what are your feelings?

 

[underpressure02]

The thing I did not like about ADT is they want to lock you into a 3 year contract and even if you sell your house you are still responsible for that if the new owner does not want to have security or use ADT. They then try and sell you and say well in your new home you can just use ADT and have a system installed. I had a private security/camera company "take over" my adt system and change it to it called their call center and also my cell phone when the alarm is triggered. He was a lot cheaper and a lot more knowledgeable on the system.

When I first bought my home I tried to go with ADT and they had 5 different installers come out to try and get the cell back up to work and couldn't and the people they sent didn't even show up in ADT vans and a few looked like people I did not want walking around my house especially setting up an alarm system. After they couldn't get it to work I decided to go the route posted above.

 

[matty d]

We had ADT for a year - mainly because the system came with our new home. When we started up, the installation person tried to sell us a whole bunch of other stuff.

After a while we didnt want to pay monthly fees, so we scrapped the service. We have a schnauzer to remind us who is coming to our front door so thats OK for now.

 

[gte718p]

ADT generally has horrible reviews for high pressure sales and less then stellar service. I built my alarm with parts from homesecuritystore. The upfront was a little more but Monitering is only $4.50 a month with no contract. We only have it monitored when we are traveling.

If you are a little computer savvy you can do all the things ADT can do cheaper and better. The actual alarm is easy. The only hassle (for me at least) was setting up the connection with the Internet for remote control of the house and remote viewing of cameras.

I'm about to upgrade. It's amazing the things you can do these days with the zwave protocols.

 

[theoldwizard1]

IMHO, "monitored" systems are a huge waste of money. Sure they can call the police/fire, but are they really going to get there fast enough ?

Start with outside lights on motion detectors on all sides. Better yet, LED lights that light up the sides of the house from dusk to dawn.

Then add a DIY interior motion detector system connected to a couple of sirens and lights both inside and out. Most of these system can now call you and play a recorded message as to what fault has been detected.

 

[Zippercat]

If AT&T covers your market with their new Digital Life system, check it out. They only require a 2 year contract and monitored plans start at $29/month. We just had it installed and are pleased with it so far.

 

[Bunchgrass]

We live out in the country so we just leave the doors unlocked so the burglars don't break a window when the steal our stuff. Actually never had a problem but I do know if ADT doesn't quit calling my cell phone with robo calls, they're gonna need a security system 'cause Ghandi's back and he's mad!

 

[Bobdog]

I've had ADT for going on 15 years.

Couple times the alarm has been set off, the cops show up, so I suppose they are doing their job.

That having been said, read the fine print. My contract was up 13 years ago, but it self renews and you have to jump though a bunch of hoops to end it. They will also put you in collections so fast it'll make your head spin if you miss a payment or two, or get into a contract dispute with them.

 

[theoldwizard1]

We live out in the country so we just leave the doors unlocked so the burglars don't break a window when the steal our stuff.

Same as my buddy, and he isn't that far "out in the country". I walk through the garage and into the house and "announce" myself ! Barns open too. I don;t think the barn cats will bother humans !

 

[softailgarage]

Call Guardian. We had ADT and it was nothing but problems, so many we shut it down. One day the Guardian Rep. was in the neighborhood, saw our sign, came in a gave us a way better deal. Installed sensors on the doors and windows that ADT missed and installed a much better panel, with more features. They even re-located the CO2 alarm that I had mounted too high, very courteous, did a followup a month later, I'm real happy.
Just a side note; the ADT panel would randomly set off an alarm that was much like a smoke detector, usually at around 2 or 3am. The first time it happened I couldn't shut it off, so I called them (they should have called me) and told the girl I was going to pull the battery, because she couldn't shut it off or tell me how. She got all pissy and told me if I touched anything in the panel she would bill me $600.00. Told her to kiss my ***, pulled the battery and called a supervisor the following day. That was the beginning of the end for ADT.

 

[chicken89]

when i worked dispatch for a state police post, i would get a call every day fro ADT. it never failed...
them: hi, i'm xxxxx from ADT
me: you have the wrong number
them: how do you know what i'm calling about
me: i don't, but i know that us being a STATE POLICE AGENCY, we do not respond to calls from ADT, you need the local police, their number is ***-***-xxxx. and oh yeah, why is it that when you call us every day about an alarm going off, you always get the same response "this is not the number you need to call", but yet you still call us?
them; i'm sorry, we'll update the number

one week, i was in dispatch every day, got a call every day, and on saturday, i got called 3 times.

 

[Plombob]

ADT came with a house we bought. I continued the contract, but then discovered that another company had better reviews and was MUCH cheaper. Had to jump through hoops to cancel the contract even though I was in the 3 day window. Interestingly, the new company did not have to change out any gear, they used the ADT alarm.

 

[SOHC-CAT]

I use vector security much better and cheaper than ADT! Will never use ADT again

 

[djjsr]

I had ADT on my house in California for 8 years with no problems. I had ADT installed in my business here in Illinois and no problems so far for a few years.

HOWEVER, the ADT sales guy was pretty much a jackass and not as knowledgeable about his products as I thought he should be.