ADT Security Services — Local services in Brisbane

I think ADT is fantastic at some key areas:

1. Backwards compatibility. If you have just purchased or started renting a place, and have old sensors in your home that you want to hook up a new system, pretty much everything works. They have software that basically translates the old setup to a "modern" front-end system. (And you get those sensors for free since they already exist, i.e. less up front cost for installation.)
2. Functionality. The system isn't "modern" by software standards. They run on Android 5, which was released in 2014. (At least the one I just got in January 2021 does.) But the system works seamlessly and provides all of the functionality you need, with a surprisingly easy UX.
3. First line defense. Listen, if you want to set up Blink cameras all over your property and pay to record HD video to the cloud, by all means, go ahead. (I love watching people's pets when they're away from home too.) But none of that is going to prevent an intruder from getting in your home. That's what I care about the most, keeping people out of my house who I don't want there. With sensors on all the doors and windows, and glass break sensors near every susceptible window, it's literally impossible to enter the home without setting off the alarm, which quickly alerts the police if not disabled. (And 99% of burglars can't disable it. And the 1% (or much less to be honest) that can aren't targeting you. If they are, you need a different level of security.) The cameras will indeed help you record evidence of whatever crime is committed on your property, which can then be used in court against the perpetrator. But wouldn't you rather spend your money and time and energy simply preventing anything from happening in the first place?
4. Integrated Smoke and CO detection. Really nice to have these all bundled together as these are absolute necessities.
5. Their mobile app (on a recent Android device, on the minimum) works perfectly. Again, it's not fancy. But it makes it very easy to do what you to do.

Is ADT fancy, super cutting edge tech? No. But they are extremely proficient at the core, most important user experience, i.e. making it easy for you to keep unwanted people from...

ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. Started a service with this company 6 months ago. We were trying to decide between them and Vivint and Fred (then manager) convinced us that although ADT is more expensive but we need to go with them cause they're going to use our already installed wires and we wouldn't need to go wireless. Obviously we were promised to get a full refund if not happy at any point. Took them 3 months and 8 visits to our house and they couldn't get the system work. We were getting false alarms every night and couldn't sleep. Could not arm the house for even one night. They ended up switching the sensors to wireless and still didn't work. We paid more than $2000 installation fee and finally in May they said that we need to discontinue the service and get a full refund under 6 month satisfaction guarantee cause they can not troubleshoot our system. Took them a month to send someone to remove the panels from our walls. It's August and I call them multiple times a week for the refund!!! They say someone cancelled our policy in a wrong way and they have to re-cancel to be able to refund us!!! I was on the phone with them for 6 hours (YES 6 hours) last week and they said they would sent our file to the local Branch. I asked them for a physical address where I can go and talk to someone and they said "google it" and hung up on me after 6 hours!!! Currently on hold again to get my $2000!!! Sent multiple emails to this alwaysthere joke and didn't hear back! STAY AWAY! I'm taking them...

I am extremely disappointed with our last service appointment. We had a service appointment prior to this one where the technicians installed a thermostat to connect with our heating, a camera, and smoke detectors. The technician said that we would need to call ADT again when we decide to install AC so they can configure the thermostat again. We were confused as to why we would need the assistance of ADT to reconfigure the thermostat after it was already set up, but we followed the instructions and I set another appointment once we installed AC. I specifically asked the lady over the phone when making the appointment if we would be charged again. She said no since we paid $1000 for the previous one. I was still not sure why we had to schedule this second appointment. Long behold the rep shows up for the second appointment and was sent to charge us $25 dollars for his visit. There was no configuration needed. It was a waste of time, a lot of confusion, and deceptive. I also called ADT after to dispute the charge and I was just passed from person to person with no help. $25 dollars isn't going to break the bank but it is the principle that we had to go through all this trouble to schedule an appointment that was completely unnecessary, told we wouldn't be charged and then in the end we...