When we moved our business to Bezuidenhout's Valley we paid ADT several thousand rand to install a brand new alarm system at our warehouse premises. In March this year we made alterations to our warehouse and moved our offices out of the warehouse. It was then discovered that ADT had just joined our passives to existing wiring on the premises - now we know why there were so many false alarms. We required ADT to install passives in our new offices but we needed feedback from management because of the very poor initial installation (pointed out to the technician who visited our premises). The technician undertook to get management to contact us. To date we have had calls from 'ladies' phoning on behalf of the technical manager. They are unable to assist and always undertake to get the manager to contact us. Despite our having called several times the manager has still not contacted us. ADT takes their money every month for our armed response but are obviously not interested in our premises being safe and secure as nothing further has happened.

We should have realised that ADT was unreliable as they did not do the installation on the date booked but we had already paid .

This is an account of our experience with the home security service
provider ADT Security

We left for a two week holiday on the 8th December. That morning, we
changed all the batteries and tried to arm the system. We encountered
error signals and over the phone with ADT Security help desk, we tried
various things (including triggering the alarm at 7am in the morning)
which ultimately did not work so we asked them to send a technician.
They said that they needed to check the schedule and get back to us.
We did not receive a call and I had to call them again from the
airport to ask them to call my father-in-law to schedule an
appointment.

When we returned to Singapore on the 23rd December we were surprised
to see their technician at our house and were horrified to be told by
my father-in-law that the alarm had not been working for the whole
time that we were away. He told us that they had called and told him
that the earliest appointment would be the 22nd. He figured by that
time it would make more sense for them to come on the 23rd when we
were around.

ADT's technician announced that 2 out of the 4 batteries in the motion
sensors were weak even though we had changed them all on the day that
we had left.

We called the help line, got ourselves to customer service team leader -Azman.

We wanted to know

1. What did they think they were selling? If they are selling a
security service how could they knowingly leave the house unprotected
knowing that their system was down. How can their answer be that it
was First Come First Serve for technical issues?

2. We had emphasized that the house was going to be empty except for
the maid and there would be occasions when she would have to leave the
house unattended. It was very clear that there was nothing that
anybody in the house could have done to arm the system after spending
an hour on the phone with their help desk.

3. Why should we trust ADT with the security of our home when the
customer service could tell us that service and maintenance is only on
a first come first serve basis and that the earliest date could only
be the 22nd when we made the phone call on the 8th.

At this point Azman interjected and said that the appointment for the
22nd was not set on the 8th but on the 10th. Which meant that they did
not even get back to my father-in-law when they knew we had problems
that day.

As he could do little more than to mouth the usual
we-could-have-done-better lines, my wife asked him to get somebody who
could give her a proper account of how the lapse occurred and what is
being done to get back to her. Three days after her third phone call
to them, his superior called up, offered the same
'we-could-have-done-better' lines, missing the point of
'accountability' completely. When we ask them to write to us with a
report on the lapse, their answer was that they cannot 'write' to us
as a matter of policy. She went on to offer a waiver of 1 month
security fees. It is saddening that a company as big as ADT Security
obviously does not understand what is expected of a security service

1. On several occasions my house alarm went off and I am still waiting for the call centre to contact me.
2. On Saturday 13032010 my alarm went off at 18:30. The call centre contacted me and I drove to my house, investigated and drove back to my friends house. This took me 45 minutes during which time NO response vehicle was at my house. Almost two hours later, the call centre gave feedback that no access could be gained to my premises. AT 20 PAST ONE IN THE MORNING A VEHICLE STOPPED AND RANG MY BELL!!! He is just following up on the alarm that was activated! (I think that this action was out of spite because I told the call centre that I was NOT impressed with the service from ADT)
I THINK YOUR SERVICE IS ON THE DECLINE AND AT THIS STAGE IT IS PATHETIC!

Alarm receieved on 19 or 20 Feb 2010, we asked that a car be sent yet it never pitched up! We found out the next day that the guard had decided our 5ft 6inch gate was to high for him. This is despite our mother being home alone and despite the sales person saying the height of the gate shouldnt be a problem!
Guess what, it is a problem !! we havent got the service we are paying for & we havent had any response from Robert Hood at ADT.
Mr Hood, is always in management meetings, not at his desk or out of the office.
To crown it all, he must be the only person that doesnt have a cellphone! Either that or everyone is instructed not to give it out.
Seeing that he hasnt responded to numerous messages over the last 10 days, he must be a very busy person.
We are not very happy (to say the least), and we are less than happy at the response and attitude from ADT.

At just after midnight last night my alarm went off. I know what time it was because my neighbor was up late watching TV. ADT did not call me until after 2am. That's a full two hours. No one came to the house either.

What's the point paying for an armed response company that neither lets you know nor investigates the source of the alarm.