ADT security system

[Antonia]

A house we purchased already has an ADT security system installed. It is not currently active, but I am thinking about having it activated. I have never had an alarm system before.
About how much do any of you pay for ADT and is it a good system? Pros? Cons?

I'm an empty nester and DH sometimes travels out of town and I am home alone. In my old house I was never fearful, but now I am in a larger house and I am nearer to a road that all manner of people travel. In fact, two years ago a serial killer used that road alot and I think that is what makes me fearful living near it. The killer is no longer a threat - dead - but hey you can't be too careful I guess and this house already has a sytem -it is just not activated.

 

[mouseforcemom]

I think it depends on what all they have on the system when it was installed, but the base price per month is around $35. If you have motion sensors, glass break sensors, back up cell phone on the system (in case your phone line is cut) the price goes up b/c the monitoring goes up. Best thing to do is call ADT with your service address and have them look up what all is involved with the system and go from there.

 

[momof1princess]

i've had ADT for over 10 years, and i pay $88.71 every 3 months. i consider it a very small price to pay for my peace of mind.

 

[Antonia]

I will call them but would still like to hear ADT pros and cons from DISers who use or who have used ADT.

 

[Carlyzmom]

I pay $98 every 3 months. I have nothing bad to say about ADT. They are always on top of every alarm that has gone off. I mean, RIGHT AWAY. They call the second it goes off. We have had a couple of malfunctions (our system is probably 15 years old) and they come promptly and fix the problem. I have been very happy with the service overall.
I would not be without it. I have 2 small kids and it gives me peace of mind that at night, nobody will get in my house without me knowing it!

 

[momof1princess]

sorry, OP, i can't think of any cons to ADT. our system has always functioned perfectly and we've had no issues with customer service or support, and as i stated in my PP, the system is over 10 years old.

 

[stevenpensacola]

we were in the same boat...bought a house which had an alarm system installed. Still had the alarm company placard in yard.

We do not pay to have the system monitored, but we do use the alarm system. We set it when we go to bed, and when we leave the house. We live in a neighborhood, so we're surrounded by neighbors who will hear the siren when it goes off.

"They" say that just having the alarm company sign in your yard is a big deterrent.

If our house was more isolated, I would have the system monitored.

 

[bicker]

We pay $99.45 per quarter. They have the best reputation, in and this day-and-age of insider transgression, although there are no guarantees, there is some value in paying a premium for the one that is most likely to take the most care.

 

[simba20]

How do you set your alarm to be used,w ithout being signed up with the company as a PP mentioned.

We too bought a house with an alarm system, but haven't signed up with anyone.

 

[DrCavin]

How do you set your alarm to be used,w ithout being signed up with the company as a PP mentioned.

We too bought a house with an alarm system, but haven't signed up with anyone.

The alarm will go off & will probably call the monitoring company. What they will do when they see you don't have a contract is an interesting question. The monitoring company I had said they would still contact you & call the police/fire.

 

[tvguy]

I will call them but would still like to hear ADT pros and cons from DISers who use or who have used ADT.

My mom had ADT put her system in and monitor it, works fine. She has since dropped monitoring. Issue here is, the sheriff will not respond to a burglar alarm call from an alarm company due to budget cuts. They WILL respond to a 9-1-1 call from inside a house, or from a neighboring house. So monitoring here is a waste of time, but having an alarm isn't.

I just replaced may alarm system, and I don't have monitoring either...while I don't own a gun.....but all my neighbors do, and they'd have any burglar at gun point if my alarm went off far faster than an alarm company could even dial my local sheriff.

Also, Broadview bought out ADT this summer. I got a bid from Broadview/ADT and they plan to use the ADT name, but discontinue ADT's business practices. Broadview feels there is great value in the ADT name, but feels ADT's business practices suck.

 

[simba20]

The alarm will go off & will probably call the monitoring company. What they will do when they see you don't have a contract is an interesting question. The monitoring company I had said they would still contact you & call the police/fire.

Not true. When we bought said house, we came in the day we closed to start cleaning the house and the alarm went off on us twice. I had to push every button known to man to get the thing to turn off. No one called (ummm, we didn't have phone service to the house yet) and no one came by.

 

[scrdofbugs]

We have used Brinks now Broaview for 11 years. We pay $33 a month for monitoring. We live in the country and it helps me feel safer. I use it night and day.

 

[DrCavin]

Not true. When we bought said house, we came in the day we closed to start cleaning the house and the alarm went off on us twice. I had to push every button known to man to get the thing to turn off. No one called (ummm, we didn't have phone service to the house yet) and no one came by.

No phone service, the monitoring company could not be reached.

 

[barkley]

give your insurance company a call, we got a break on ours when we had protection one.


we lived in a newer development and the adt/protection one carriers seemed split about 50/50 so i imagine adt was pretty good. i don't know if adt offers it, but with protection one a big selling point was that if a break in occured and they either did'nt dispatch as they were contracted to, or, there was a system failure that caused the alarm not to activate and/or notify the company-the company would pay your homeowner's insurance deductable.

 

[barkley]

we were in the same boat...bought a house which had an alarm system installed. Still had the alarm company placard in yard.

We do not pay to have the system monitored, but we do use the alarm system. We set it when we go to bed, and when we leave the house. We live in a neighborhood, so we're surrounded by neighbors who will hear the siren when it goes off.

"They" say that just having the alarm company sign in your yard is a big deterrent.

If our house was more isolated, I would have the system monitored.

when we sold our home i took the alarm company metal sign with us. i figured if the new owners set up service the company would give them a new free sign, while i could use the old one as a deterrent until we decided if we wanted to install at our new home.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

We have ADT and I have been very happy with our service. As a matter of fact, I was paying somewhere around 38.00 a month or something like that and I read on the budget board about someone calling to move their business to a cheaper company and they gave them a break on their monthly bill. I thought it was worth a try so I also called an they lowered my bill to 29.00 a month.

I have always been happy with the customer service. I had a problem with it going off for no reason and they sent someone right out and replaced a back up battery free of charge. I thought that was nice.

Also, if you need new signs or stickers you can call them and they will send some new ones to you. You can do that once a year.

 

[LisaR]

The alarm will go off & will probably call the monitoring company. What they will do when they see you don't have a contract is an interesting question. The monitoring company I had said they would still contact you & call the police/fire.

This is not true. If you have a system that is not monitored by ADT, the alarm and all the door and window chimes will still function but ADT will NOT call under any circumstances. We used our system this way for 6 years and set off our alarm multiple times. You must pay for the monitoring services for them to call you or the police.

You can set the alarm when you go out for the day but if it goes off, it is either going to continue to sound or a neighbor is going to get ticked enough and call the police for you. If that happens and there aren't any signs of a break-in, the police in some counties can charge you for coming out to your home.

My suggest if you want to use it without the monitoring is to just set the alarm when you are in for the night. It will most certainly wake you up and if it was a false alarm, you can quickly turn it off before it drives everyone crazy.

 

[bicker]

My ADT alarm automatically shuts off after a certain amount of time.

I had a bunch of false alarms early-on, and the police said that next time I'd be fined (but right after that I had ADT change out a motion detector for a glass-break detector and we had no more fals alarms).

 

[stevenpensacola]

I took the phone wires loose from my alarm modem.