ADT - cowboys

M

MartynFrancis

Member
 Norwich
Any of you guys had the please of dealing with ADT? Been with them for my alarm for the past few years and in my experience they are the biggest bunch of cowboys I've dealt with.its never really worked properly, giving false alerts on a regular basis. It got to a point after many many visits from them to put it right they would change the system.
My wife had to work from home those days when they visited but obviously couldn't work when they were here and she has quite a high profiled job of which she is very busy. After we got bored of the visits we made a complaint after being very patient and they gave us 2 months free. Not really worth it and didn't really make up for the lost work time, but it was better than nothing. They admitted fault and changed the system.
New system works lovely so far, but just sent me through an invoice for £1400 which we had agreed with them would cost nothing, and no ties to a new contract!!!
How can one company get it wrong so much!?! Called them to be told the invoicing dept closes at 5 so I have to call back tomorrow. Having not agreed to any payment to make their alarm work (that I pay monthly for anyway) I am finding it unbelievable that they can make a comedy of errors that they consistently get wron. They admitted that the service they've provided was unacceptable, and that a new system (and many holes in my walls which is another issue all together!) needed to be installed, but I am lost for words!

I guess I'm just venting about these idiots, but has anyone else had a crap experience with them?
 
Standard answer from Chris lol.

ADT are useless. I have heard of many people, including the elderly that were sold an all singing and dancing system that doesn't work, and they are still paying the monthly dd for. The brother in law had one fitted after a burglary and it never worked correctly. He cancelled his dd in protest and they slapped him with a ccj, that I later got removed on his behalf as they had breached their contract first.

Overpriced rubbish, sold on the basis of fear.

Mike
 
They are useless, my wife is going to call them tomorrow as I'm steaming about it. If I treated my customers like that I'd be out of business very quickly! It should be an administrative error, but that being said if I had a customer where things have gone wrong, and I accept that sometimes things do happen and go wrong, but If i had a customer where something goes wrong you double and triple check to make sure that problem has been sorted and resolved.
Maybe I'm just old school customer service orientated, but this boils my piss!
 
We've had ours in the house since we brought it, 6 years now. Only two issues we have had is it going off occasionally on really windy days, but that might be the cats the go mental in the weather and end up climbing the curtains.... The other issue is mostly due to us forgetting to arrange a service and the batteries in the sensors going dead. The engineers we have down here have both been really good, one of them I would see in the gym in the morning and even when we created a fault by changing the landline, they didn't charge us. I suppose like all services, it really all can depend on who you speak with.
 
I should have checked out reviews on them before we took it out a few years ago. Trust pilot - 1 out of 5, and I think that's only due to you not being able to score a zero!
 
I 've worked in the Security Business for nearly 30 years and ADT were my compititors for years before I sold my business.
Known in the trade as ADT = All Dumb Tossers and they'll fix it Any Day Tomorrow !
 
Sounds like all my luck went on my dealings with ADT! Wish it had gone to the lottery instead :wink:
 
from my research the likes of ADT, and these other monitored systems literally are selling average hardware and charge a fortune to "monitor" it....

the Off the shelf top level stuff like YALE wireless systems do Exactly the same, with the same certification levels and often with much easier user interfaces, for 600 quid!!.. they even take pictures and call 3 numbers and alert of a break it. Iv had the yale setup now for 6 months and its been faultless, NEVER false alarms , i then spend the change on some really top level security lighting....
 
Maybe controversial to state but personally my belief is that prevention is better than cure, which is why i chose to invest in super strong locks on all the windows and doors and some movement-activated security lights at my place in the UK rather than a naff expensive alarm system.
There have been 2 attempted break-ins at the weakest point on the house, the side window which is secluded and hidden. It has steel bars on it but both times the burglars failed to remove them as theyre literally anchored through the wall at multiple points.
I was tempted to get a system after the first attempt but decided just to beef up a couple of vulnerable areas.
I'm also lucky that family regularly visit to check it and my mum loves doing the garden.
For extra piece of mind i have several ip cams set up with movement-activated recording so i can see the filthy feral moggies shagging and shitting all over the gardens. Meh.
Personally i think alarm systems are pointless as ur neighbours, people on the street dont bat an eyelid and by the time ur home security guards arrive the burglars have scarpered!

Edit: multiple spellin mistakes. Thoroughly slovenly!
 
Chris_D said:
Personally i think alarm systems are pointless as ur neighbours, people on the street dont bat an eyelid and by the time ur home security guards arrive the burglars have scarpered!
Click to expand...

I would disagree sorry Chris. Over 20 years I've experienced two attempted break-ins personally. Once when we were having building work done and the extension was being knocked through, so vulnerable. The alarm sounded, i jumped out of bed and saw a lad running off up the road. I went down stairs and the temporary board had been removed. As soon as the alarm sounded he legged it. Had it not he would have had a good poke around.

A second time (5am new years morning) the alarm went off. I went down stairs and there was a boot mark on the window sill. Someone had tried to get in the utility room and as soon as a limb came through the window the alarm went so he'd abandoned his attempt.

The main issue is people dont set alarms at night. Only when they go out. Now, would you rather come home to find you've been burgled or wake up and find you've been burgled whilst alseep ???

I installed alarms (and CCTV) professionally for many years and they do work. My advice would be to use a smaller company where you get personal service and continuity in Engineers. I could ramble on for paragraphs, but the larger companies have Install teams and service teams. The install engineers crash it in for an early finish, knowing that the service teams will pick up the issues afterwards. No accountability.

If you use a smaller company where often its the same engineer and revisits are costly, you will get a far better quality install. They are also trying to build business and take pride in the install rather than, just fulfil targets and whack cables all round skirtings and door frames ! You wouldn't see a cable on my installs. :D

If you were looking to burgle a house, would you pick the one with the alarm box or without ???
 
I believe in a "bit of both" I've upgraded all of my locks at home to the Garrison Mul-T-Lock, all keyed alike whereas when we moved i there were SIX different keys for the doors etc, now there is just one. Coupled with the fact that they are anti bump/snap, and I have changed the door hardware to "level 2" fittings, that coupled with a std, wired alarm with dialler, LED floodlights to the side and rear, and the CCTV that's about to be installed (when I get time) means, (I hope) that any opportunist burglar would spot the external locks etc and "move on"

We have had a spate of burglaries in the early morning hours, up to around 6am, in both occupied and empty houses on our estate recently, and I do believe that a lot of it is opportunist. I for one am a bit obsessive regarding security, and as I'm last home, I have my ritual of double checking that all of the doors are closed and locked, and that the windows are all securely shut. I think it's quite easy, in this age of "multipoint" locking doors to actually leave one unlocked accidentally, and that's all it needs. Common sense also costs nothing, such as moving the Volvo and the van right up against the garage, that I do every night.

Coupled with the fact that our home is pretty much occupied 24/7, and then there are the dogs.. 1 Rottweiler that is soft as sh1te, but menacing in the extreme if you don't know her, 1 Husky that's mad as a hatter, and little Dexter - Oh, and the Wife..

Just don't mention my proposed gates...

Chris_D said:
Personally i think alarm systems are pointless as ur neighbours, people on the street dont bat an eyelid and by the time ur home security guards arrive the burglars have scarpered!
Click to expand...

Luckily, we have great friends/neighbours. On the odd occasion someone has set the alarm incorrectly, and the dogs had activated it, I have had a phone call from my opposing neighbour at the same time as the dialler, which is a feat in itself, as he was out, and received the call from his step-daughter who was at home, and relayed the fact that our alarm was sounding.

Number5 said:
The main issue is people dont set alarms at night. Only when they go out. Now, would you rather come home to find you've been burgled or wake up and find you've been burgled whilst alseep ???
Click to expand...

I agree, I know lots of people who don't set theirs at night - What is the point?? As long as the zones are setup correctly, it should be on, I know ours is, every night without fail.

Mike
 
Well, today I had a very grovelled phone call that ADT sincerely apologies for an error resulting in the invoice and that in all honesty they don't even know where that £1400 came from! Oh dear ADT.
Waiting for the letter to say it was an error, then I'm going to see what they're going to do for me for continuously buggering up!
 
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