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From: Message Author
Date: Thursday, 30-Nov-06 12:22:51 CST

Business Info

ADT Security Systems Triad Area North Carolina

I brought a house which already had an ADT security system installed (so no actual written contract). I called ADT and had the system activated so that I could use it and changed the service to my name (still no written contract). I've been religiously setting the alarm every workday morning and disarming it when I came home from work. ADT has been billing me twice a year for monitoring for >7 years. Three weeks ago, someone broke into my house. I came home and found the door open and the alarm sounding. The alarm was still sounding when the police arrived and checked the house. I finally shut off the alarm when the officer informed me that the house was clear. He checked and told me that the police department had not been notified of a break-in at my house by ADT. I called ADT on my phone and asked why they hadn't called me and the police when the burglar broke into my house. ADT informed me that they didn't have a signal from my house that day and that it must be either the phone company's fault or a problem with my system. Here's where it gets fun. The phone was working just fine as I informed them because I was talking to them on it. They told me that it must be a problem with my system. ADT also told me that they only check the system once a month to insure that it's working and that their last check (~4 days earlier) showed no problem. None-the-less they insisted that my system was now faulty and that since I didn't have a service contract with them that I would need to pay (a lot!) for a technician to come out and repair the system. This would be the system with the alarm that was sounding when I got home but was now, according to them, broken because they didn't have a signal from it. How strange that after more than 7 years of getting a signal that the system should have broken down just days or less before a burglar broke into my home. Makes me wonder if they were ever monitoring my home. I escalated my call upwards and finally got a manager who told me that I needed to talk to the area sales manager during business hours, of course. So I called the next day while waiting for a local handyman to repair and replace my outside door. Strangely enough the sales manager was in-training or so his assistant informed me. She stated that she couldn't do anything to help me but that she would give the sales manager my message and have him call me back. It's been 3 weeks now of daily calls on my part with no response other than Mr. """" is in training still but I'm sure that he'll contact you when he gets out of class. My twice a year bill will be arriving in January but ADT won't get any more money out of me. I'm buying a new security system on-line that I'll self install and which will be programmed to call me directly if it's tripped by a burglar (as well as sounding an alarm). Not as much peace of mind (especially for times when I'm out of town) but based on this experience I no longer believe that monitoring does any good at all.