ADT Security Services — Local services in Austin

Absolutely horrific experiences with this company - to the point we've already cancelled our contract and are STILL dealing with issues.  Here is a summary of everything that has gone wrong:

We moved to a new residence in August 2019.  As prior ADT customers, we signed a new 3-year agreement with ADT, purchasing an upgraded service with a bunch of high-end equipment.  At that time, and by way signing a new agreement, we obviously intended to cancel service at our old residence. Problems started early - equipment was failing constantly.  We had techs over constantly to visit our home in the span of 6 months to fix equipment that was having faulty triggers (usually overnight). We kept receiving calls from ADT (again, middle of the night) for alarms going off at our old address.  We informed ADT MULTIPLE TIMES that we moved.  Each time, ADT assured us that they updated the account, but we spent months thereafter receiving calls about the old address. After our FOURTH attempt, it turns out the ADT representative cancelled our current address, so we lost service entirely. Come to find out, ALL THE WHILE, we are being DOUBLE CHARGED by ADT.  It appears they never cancelled the first contract. By this point, we had had enough.  We spoke with multiple ADT reps to voice our concerns, and ADT eventually agreed to let us out of our contract for $289, which we paid.  We still had a balance on the contract of $264.24 from the double charging.   We asked the representative to apply the credit owed to me for the  overpayment BEFORE we closed out the account, but because it was after 5pm that day, she demanded that I had to call back the next day to collect that refund and that I must pay the $289 immediately if I wanted to agree to the compromised deal.  So we obliged. Relying on the information that our account was closed, we then signed a contract with a new security company. Since cancelling, we've called back 6 times to get the $264 refund, and each representative and their managers agree it should be fixed, but it keeps getting denied by processing. The reason it keeps getting denied is because if they open the account back up to process it, supposedly the full contract cancellation balance would apply. I really wanted the representative to apply the refund BEFORE closing out the account, but we didn't because of her decision. Because of that decision, the ADT representatives at the call center and processing cannot fix this issue. We then received an email today that not only was our request for refund denied, but that we owe ADT $1,605.01, which will be going to collections.

I have NEVER experienced anything so ridiculous.  How can ADT be trusted with home security when they can't even get billing and customer service right?  This has been going on for months with no resolution.  If this is wrongfully sent to collections, we will have no choice but to take legal action...

Extremely Disappointed After a Year of Frustration:

We’ve been ADT customers for over a year, and unfortunately, our experience has been nothing short of a nightmare. Despite having our router just a few feet away from their devices, we've had constant issues with connectivity across multiple components: cameras, door lock, garage door, and thermostat.

Our door lock broke early on, and when we called for help, no one over the phone could provide a solution. We had to figure it out and fix it ourselves. Later, all our connected devices—including cameras, garage door, and thermostat—disconnected. We reached out to customer service multiple times, both over the phone and in person, but kept getting brushed off. Eventually, we managed to get the cameras and garage door working again on our own, but the thermostat remained disconnected for months.

We called multiple times every month trying to get the thermostat issue resolved. ADT finally agreed to send a technician—at our cost. The technician told us the problem was with the AC unit and not the thermostat. That visit cost us over $100 and solved nothing. When the actual AC technician came out, they confirmed there was nothing wrong with the AC or thermostat—the issue was the connection to ADT’s own panel.

ADT then sent another tech, who thankfully didn't charge us—but instead of fixing the issue, they completely reset the AC system, turning off the airflow and causing it to blow hot air. They left without noticing anything was wrong, and we only realized it an hour later. We had to call the AC technician back again, and pay to have the AC system reset.

When we asked ADT to reimburse us for this error caused by their technician, they said the most they could offer was $30. We were left to pay a $93 bill for a mistake that was entirely theirs. We were told to call a specific manager at a specific time—but when we called, we were told that wasn’t even possible. There was “no way” for us to get in direct contact with the manager. We were told someone would call us back within 48–72 business hours. We followed up the next Monday. Still nothing. We are still waiting to be reimbursed.

This experience has been exhausting. We’ve spent so much time, energy, and our own money trying to get devices that ADT installed and promised to maintain working properly. Instead, we’ve ended up doing the troubleshooting and coordination ourselves, with little support or accountability from ADT.

At this point, we would love nothing more than to rip out every ADT device from our home and return them. Their service has been unreliable, unresponsive, and incredibly frustrating. We deeply regret ever...

I had my vehicle gone through in my driveway and the police showed up after because the vehicle door was left open. There were cops in front of my house, in my driveway, shining lights in my cars, at my house, multiple SUVs pulling up, cops all over my yard, ringing my doorbell, etc. I went to review the footage and my camera caught NONE of it happening anout 10 feet in front of the camera, going on for 25-30 minutes, in addition to the original person on my property going through my vehicle. I was disturbed by this and set an appointment with ADT. First tech showed up and my partner recognized him as a tech who had previously come out and likes to condescendingly talk over me and interrupt. He proceeds to do so while making excuses for the equipment before even actually looking into the issue. I ended up getting so frustrated I ended up yelling at him about how rude he was being and asked him to leave. Dispatch tells me they can send someone out that same day between 12-5... then clarified they’d have to do that range if I wanted an appointment. So I had to stay home all day and at 5:30 I called to see where my tech was and I was told he could probably be there by SEVEN. Apparently, they overbook the techs so badly they rarely even make it to the last appointment. So I stayed home all day for absolutely no reason, besides presumably having my time wasted. We rescheduled for the following week. The tech did not text prior to arrival per protocol. He was much better mannered but explained the equipment might actually not be able to pick up someone breaking into my vehicle and an entire circus of police running around 19 feet in front of it. I mean, why would I need my security camera to be able to do that?? He then proceeded to replace my doorbell camera, leaving screws in half inch anchor holes in the stone so that now the doorbell doesn’t work because it was hanging by a tiny wire which it’s not longer connected to. Prior to this, it was already failing to record people actually ringing the doorbell. But now it’s sitting on my dresser so who knows how long it’ll be until I can get an overbooked tech back out to do another mediocre job with mediocre equipment with a...