Who Do You Have?

Updated on January 09, 2008
A.G. asks from Westminster, CA
25 answers

We currently use ADT and have for about 8 years but it just dawned on me that they don't call when our alarm system has been set off by accident. I understand they don't respond to alarms that are shut off within a certain amount of time...2 minutes. I don't know if I like that or feel safe.

What can I do next?

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So What Happened?

We're going to have a couple of companies come out for estimates, thanks for the help.

Regarding ADT, we are registered with our police department, they've been out a couple of times over the years because of bad wind storms that set off our alarm while we were on vacation. ADT had responded to a couple of false alarms in the first couple of years which was great. However, in the past year we've had quite a few house guests staying with us and they accidentally set off the alarm about 3 times. I was able to get it shut off rather quickly so didn't think anything about ADT not calling. But then I started to think about it, what if it was some sort of emergency and the alarm was stopped not by us. A call might be important at that moment. So, now that we're moving I figured I should look into a different company or I can ask ADT to help us figure this problem out.
Thanks again for your input.

Featured Answers

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P.A.

answers from Houston on

I have had Protection One for about 14 years. They have always been very responsive and they are reasonably priced. Maybe give them a call. Good Luck!!!

1 mom found this helpful
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L.C.

answers from Dallas on

We have Killen Alarm. They are great. They even installed a motion sensor and extra keypad for nothing. We pay $16.00 a month and they call every single time the alarm is set off.

1 mom found this helpful
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V.S.

answers from San Antonio on

We have ADT, if the alarm goes off at all they call withen a minute. Maybe you need to call their customer service dept......

1 mom found this helpful

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C.H.

answers from Houston on

Good afternoon!

Ok so I used to work as a dispatcher for an alar company and it is true..we are told to disregard alarms that are turned off within a certain amount of time. Now, if you do not feel safe what you can do is call your alarm company and request that your house or your cell or whoever be called everytime it is activated. The dispatch center recieves evry signal from your alarm and they can note your account that you need to be called on EVERY alarm trip. The only thing is (and you probably already know this) is that if you do not answer the phone or o not give teh correct password the police dept will be called and depending on how many false alarms your household has on record they may or may not ticket you or charge you a fee. Another thing is that in the case of a false alarm that has been dispatched and you try to call and cancel PD, some counties require alarm permits and if you do not have an alarm permit they will not cancel dispatch and eventually ticket you. They try and get you for everything!! lol! Anyway, hope my advice was helpful! Good LuCK!

...C.

1 mom found this helpful
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C.G.

answers from Dallas on

I use brinks and have a lady who works there. She can set you up with free installation a 199.00 value. Its 30.00 a month but SO worth it!!! We were on vacation in Okalhoma and someone broke in, i had told them before i left that we were leaving and so they called the police first then us and then called us back to let us know everything was okay. Message me if you want her number or any other mom who wants it.
Its free installation all you have is your next months bill! It includes 2 key pads, motion and two door sensors and one window sensors. You can purchase additional equipment if would like. I live out in the country so they cant offer the fire service to me, but they do offer smoke/fire service in the security system.

1 mom found this helpful
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E.S.

answers from Dallas on

I have ADT, but noticed that the 2 min rule only applies to when the alarm is not turned off by the authorized code. We have a "distress Code" as well, so that if there is a problem---they alert the authorities immediately. If the alarm goes off and doesn't receive the proper code, they dispatch the police... Good Luck with your search

1 mom found this helpful
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B.P.

answers from Houston on

We have brinks and they call for EVERY single alarm. I don't think I would like it if they did not call in an alarm reset in 2 mintues. That would bother me.

1 mom found this helpful
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K.M.

answers from San Antonio on

We lived in our house for about 3 years before a friend of ours figured out that they guy with ADT never hooked the phone line to the alarm. Our alarm had never gone off for more than a few seconds so I never thought anything about the alarm company not calling. Have you performed a test with the alarm company to see if they are actually getting the signal? ADT reimbursed us for 3 years of service. We then switched to our local service which is GVTC and they call immediately when it goes off, however my neighbors went off while they were out of town, we got a call from the security company and I waited 30 minutes for the Comal County police to show up and then I had to leave. That is not very reassuring.

My husband travels a lot and I was quite sick when I found out that we were not as safe as I thought we were with our alarm not even being connected to the phone line.

K.

1 mom found this helpful
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H.R.

answers from Dallas on

We have Brinks too. LOVE THEM!!!!

1 mom found this helpful
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N.M.

answers from Houston on

Hello! I don't think I would feel safe with that either. We have On Duty. They call even if its turned off right away... which I feel bad about sometimes, but it makes me feel safer. Their tech guys are awesome. I have no complaints about the company. Good Luck!

1 mom found this helpful
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E.W.

answers from Dallas on

We have brinks and have been pleased with them. I know that with brinks if you accidentally set off the alarm they will not call you within a certain time frame UNLESS you don't hit cancel. If you accidentally set it off and you put in your code but don't hit cancel they assume you maybe in distress and call. The alarm will still turn off but you will get a call from brinks. If you do hit cancel they assume all is well. I guess that if an intruder makes you turn off your alarm brinks assumes they don't know the "cancel" secret. You may see if ADT is the same

1 mom found this helpful
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H.W.

answers from San Antonio on

security one is great! my mom used to have them (she lives with us now) and when my kids were over there and accidently opened the doors when it was on they were calling just as quick as we could get the thing turned off. plus the owner lives locally around san antonio, its locally owned which is always a bog plus for me.

1 mom found this helpful
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H.

answers from Dallas on

I have ADT as well..and noticed the same thing! I've had ADT for years, and the used to immediately call when it was set off, but that changed. I've set my alarm off by accident, and actually had to call them to ask why they didn't call!! They said they don't call unless the alarm goes off for 2 minutes. By then, anything could happen. I'm thinking about changing too!

1 mom found this helpful
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M.H.

answers from Dallas on

Protection One. They call when you set off the alarm by accident and they are nice about it!

1 mom found this helpful
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S.M.

answers from Dallas on

I too have Brinks and agree with everything the other moms said about them. I have the smoke alarm as well. One time I put a plate of nuts on a hot burner (didn't know it was hot) and they burned and made the smoke alarm go off. The fire department was there before I got off the phone with Brinks to tell them to cancel! I couldn't believe how fast they were!! Granted, the fire station is only a half mile from my house, but Brinks called them before they called me. Been with them for 6 years and no problems. We have the window glass break sensors instead of motion detectors (we have cats) and they work great. I broke a glass in the sink and the glass break sensor went off. I even cracked an ice cube tray too close to one and that made the sensor go off- nice to know they work.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.N.

answers from Dallas on

Well I work for a security monitoring place as a operator that monitors alarms. There are a lot of customers that set their alarm off then disarm them within 2 minutes. There is no way with a a large company that has hundreds of thousands of accounts that an operator can call on every alarm that goes off, because the fact is that most of the customers just simply forget to turn it off or they had their hands full and just took too long to turn it off. Now late at night the operator will have a faster response time when burglary activity increases, but in the middle of the day the operator is going to wait 2 minutes then if no valid code is received the operator will take action. If you would like to contact me feel free I can answer most security questions as far as the policies go in alarm handling. If you want to be called every time you make a mistake then go with a smaller company that doesn't have very many customers because they will have nothing else to do but call on every single signal you send in to them.

1 mom found this helpful
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R.B.

answers from Dallas on

Call ADT and have them walk you through setting up a "distress code". When setting up our system we were able to choose a phoney code that would shut off the alarm's external siren but alert the monitoring station that there was indeed a problem (maybe being forced to disarm the alarm by an intruder). There are so many accidental alarm calls that they have to draw the line somewhere. And to be honest, the time it takes for them to call you... wait for an answer or no answer... then alert the authorities and relay the information could be shortened if needed by using this "distress code" and not waiting on a call by the monitoring station. It cuts out precious seconds by immeidately alerting the monitoring station so they can call the authorities directly and alert them that a distress code was used and to proceed with caution. It would also give the intruder a false sense of time being on their side with the alarm appearing to be disarmed. I prefer the distress code method.

1 mom found this helpful
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A.V.

answers from Dallas on

WOW ! I've had ADT for 22 years (11 in Mesquite and 11 in Plano) our Alarm has gone off twice and police have come to our house both times. We are registered with police Dept. We test alarm system with ADT once a year, they want us to test every 3 months but we never do. Sorry your having bad experience with ADT ... we are happy with them.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.F.

answers from Dallas on

We use Monitronics. They have been great and they call every single time our alarm goes off. We had it happen the other night at 3:30 a.m. and I was so scared because my four year old son and I were home alone and they even stayed on the phone with me until the police arrived. It ended up being a false alarm, but they were still very nice and understanding. Here is their website: http://www.monitronics.com/. We've had them for six years now.

1 mom found this helpful
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A.S.

answers from Houston on

Brinks, absolutely ! They call you about 2 minutes after your alarm is set off unless you hit CANCEL, which means it was accidental. Of course if an intruder forces you to put in your code, your security is the fact that Brinks will call and if there is no response from you, they call the cops ( all this within 5 minutes). This happened to me one time while I was rushing out to work and I set the alarm but couldn't get out of the house before it went off, so i put in my code but forgot to hit cancel, i went on my way only to have my husband call my cell phone saying brinks called him when they couldn't reach anyone on the home phone and were sending the cops out to check our house. I quickly called them to put a halt on it 'cos i guess we have to pay the county if the cops go for a check.

We've been using Brinks for about 5 years now and they haven't failed us once, prompt calls, courteous customer service etc.

1 mom found this helpful
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D.S.

answers from Dallas on

I have a great company! Martin Security Systems. I have used them for my office and for my home for over 14 years. Great service and very thorough! Between my daughter and my staff, we have set off our alarms quite frequently and they always seem to call within seconds of it being set off. The owner is Greg Martin and his phone number is ###-###-####. Good luck!

Sandy

1 mom found this helpful
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K.F.

answers from Dallas on

We use Smith Thompson (www.smiththompson.com)and have been very pleased. They are very responsive, have a low monthly fee ($16.95), and require no contract. I highly recommend them! Hope that helps!

1 mom found this helpful
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J.L.

answers from Dallas on

We used to have ADT, too, and switched for the very reason you are thinking about switching--so much can happen in 2 minutes--plus we were paying about $30 a month--for what?

Anyway, we switched to Smith Thompson (a metroplex-based business) about 4 years ago and have been VERY happy with them(www.smiththompson.com). They are very responsive when the instant alarm sounds, have a low monthly fee ($16.95), and they don't require a contract.

Good luck in your search!

1 mom found this helpful

K.M.

answers from Dallas on

A.L.

I had the exact same problem with ADT that you are having...and it is a bit un-nerving....especially when yo have a husband that travels and a baby. We switched serviced to DFW Security Advisors....and let me tell you they are johnny on the spot with those phone calls! Tust me...I have done my share of accidentals. Tony Freeman is the rep that set me up. He is so nice, and knowledable..his number is ###-###-####. You can tell Him K. Moon sent ya, and he will give you a free key fob or something special! I am a Realtor and I hear alot about the different security companies, and in my book this one is still small enough to care about you, and they truly have been nothing but exceptional with my service....as well as many of my clients too!

Blessings

K.

1 mom found this helpful
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A.C.

answers from Dallas on

I don't think any alarm company will call if you turn off the alarm within maybe, 1-2 minutes. Have you heard about Smith Thompson ? It's a locally-operated alarm company & monthly fee is $16.95 plus tax. No contract. We have them for many years & very satisfied with the service. We have ADT before Smith, Smith handles problems/questions efficiently & professionally. ADT transfers your phone calls to different depts. & the outcome is you end-up with more puzzles & your questions not answered.
Smith Thompson's no : ###-###-####

A.C.

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