Complaint Review: Direct Security Services ADT Security - Roeland Park Kansas

First of all, I worked for ADT in 2005, and if they only have 3 monitoring centers, they went through A LOT of trouble to have me believe there are 5. I know people who still work for ADT, and they don't know of any centers being shut down ever. Secondly, in my time as a sales rep, the hardest thing for me to get customers to understand is local security companies contracting monitoring services out to ADT - these are called ADT dealers. They sell you ADT's monitoring service, NOT the system. From the sounds of your complaint, Direct Security Services installed your system. Just because ADT monitors your system does not mean that they installed it. Therefore, since ADT did not install your system (Direct Security Services did), ADT does not have to honor ADT's guarantee. However, if you had purchased your system DIRECTLY from ADT (you would know this because the sales reps and techs would be represented appropriately by uniforms and such), they would in theory honor their guarantee. It's kind of like purchasing a cell phone from one of those little independantly owned shops in the mall. They can sell you the phone for a really good price, but they don't have the means to provide the actual phone service. That's when they have you sign a contract with Verizon or someone who can give you the service. There is no way Verizon can guarantee the product you purchased unless you bought a phone directly from a Verizon Wireless store. They only provide you with the phone service. Finally, ADT customer service was correct in telling you that they now have motion detectors that are not tripped by pets - HOWEVER, ADT did not sell or install the hardware. Who knows where Direct Security gets their hardware, but they don't have to get it from ADT. There are two types of motion detectors - ones that actually detect motion (which are basically obsolete at ADT now specifically because of false alarms by pets), and there are motion detectors that sense infrared heat. Pets, especially cats, can and will set off the older cheaper motion detectors, which is probably what your mom and pop security system installed for you. ADT's motion detectors do not detect pets unless they are big dogs that may give off as much heat as a small human. In this case, you would probably want to decide against the installation of any motions, and go for more window/door contacts or glass break detectors. I hate that you went through this. I know all too well from experience that the entire "ADT Authorized Dealer" bit is incredibly vague to customers and is not thoroughly explained by the dealer or ADT.

I have ADT at one home and was so impressed, I contacted them to install a system at our office. The salesman explained everything and yes motion detectors can be set off by small animals. They detect motion, not humans. The night after we had our office system installed, the alarm went off and ADT was on the phone with one of our employees immediately letting us know what was going on.

I have ADT at one home and was so impressed, I contacted them to install a system at our office. The salesman explained everything and yes motion detectors can be set off by small animals. They detect motion, not humans. The night after we had our office system installed, the alarm went off and ADT was on the phone with one of our employees immediately letting us know what was going on.

I have ADT at one home and was so impressed, I contacted them to install a system at our office. The salesman explained everything and yes motion detectors can be set off by small animals. They detect motion, not humans. The night after we had our office system installed, the alarm went off and ADT was on the phone with one of our employees immediately letting us know what was going on.

I have ADT at one home and was so impressed, I contacted them to install a system at our office. The salesman explained everything and yes motion detectors can be set off by small animals. They detect motion, not humans. The night after we had our office system installed, the alarm went off and ADT was on the phone with one of our employees immediately letting us know what was going on.

I know it's been a year since that last posting, but where are you getting your information Mike? ADT does indeed have 5 monitoring centers in the U.S.: Aurora, CO; Rochester, NY; Omaha, NE; Kansas City, MO; Jacksonville, FL Now, only Aurora, Rochester, and Kansas City are 24 hours, 365 days a year, but we do have 5 monitoring centers in the U.S. To Karen: The technicians who came to install your system may have been morons, but there is supposedly a way to program the motion detectors so they don't recognize anything under 100 lbs, which covers a lot of species of dogs. I say supposedly because I'm not an installer, however there are quarterly videos created and distributed to all ADT employees, and one of them two years ago mentioned this new service for households with dogs where the programming I mentioned would allow dogs to walk around the house without tripping the alarm. Of course, if your dogs are geniuses and open doors, you're S.O.L.

Response to Idiot or ADT paid Liar! Everything you said is false or lies. ADT is down to 3 Call Center's in the U.S. Check your facts the Atlanta Central Station was axed by ADT cheapskate's to save $$$. ADT is nothing but a Greedy group of liars that could care less about the customer or employee. Some history: At one time before TYCO bought out ADT they cared about customer's etc, Offered a decent product could offer some protection. At one time adt offered monitoring in almost every state, which provided both excellent installation & monitoring service. As ADT grew someone thought to save money lets close some centers to cut corners! Over the years ADT was down to a handful of sites that monitored the 1 million plus accounts, the result is PISS POOR response times & delayed response to alarm activations. I know of many times of people being attacked, raped, killed waiting for adt to respond and call to see if everything is "alright". If you have a million account's and maybe 30 dispatcher's responding to alarm's your in TROUBLE! This statement about not being monitored in your own state because of upset employee's or theft, You need educated on what each state laws & codes are for monitoring alarms! Go to your state health dept to start, all dispatcher's are required to have a little something called a BACKGROUND CHECK. This is usually a FBI criminal history etc. If there is anyone with felonies or anything bad they cannot work in a Central Station. Go check you facts ADT only care's about money. The customer means nothing!!!

The reason ADT uses dispatch centers in another state are for safety reasons. First, there are 5 state of the art monitoring facilities in the U.S. and 1 in Canada. If one facility goes down, you are automatically rerouted to one of the other facilities. A local company can't do that - if their facility is down and you have a fire or break-in...oh well. Next, you are NEVER monitored by a facility in your own state because those employees have access to addresses, passwords, alarm codes, and credit card information. If one of these employees is fired, out of anger, they could simply find your home and break in without triggering an alarm. With local companies, an ex-employee could very well be your next door neighbor. Finally, have you ever heard of fiber optics? If an alarm is triggered, chances are that the police and/or fire will be dispatched through the quick connection by fiber optics quicker than you can find your telephone, dial 911, get someone on the line, and give them your address. By the way, 911 does not always respond immediately to a phone call - I have had several experiences where I either got a busy signal or the phone rang 7-8 times before someone answered. In a panic situation, you don't have time to wait like that.

The television ads by one security company (I can't remember which one) are absolutely hilarious. An alarm is triggered in the ad, then the resident is shown speaking to the alarm company on the phone. "I'll notify the police at once" says the alarm guy. Seems like a lot of wasted time and effort to talk to an alarm staff member in another state who will THEN "call the police" in your city. . I think I'd prefer to just dial 911 and bypass all the expense and particularly the delay. . Most LOCAL security companies can often dispatch their own personnel as well as summon the police. The "big players" in the 'security' business? Yeah-probably hundreds of miles away. Oh wait: they can CALL your local police. Such a service and sense of 'security'. NOT!