We have always used a smaller independent local security company wherever we have moved to. Find them by word of mouth or driving around the neighborhood looking at the "protected by" signs. Usually 2-3 will show up as the main players in that local area and you can then interview those.

ADT seems to be all about making sales and offering promotions ...

We have had ADT for 25+ years. No problems and our rates have not risen significantly, other than when we upgraded (wireless, fire, etc.). It is still very reasonable. We used a small local business that is an ADT provider. We are somewhat rural and in our local police department is quite complimentary of ADT. Because of where we are located and where our police/fire/ambulance are located, it is pretty important to have a service that provides quick response.

Fwiw, Dh used to be a cop and he considers security companies useless. Security systems with an alarm that makes noise are useful according to him.

crl, I think we are talking about the same thing? In the suburbs, when one says security company it is a business that installs, services and monitors complete home alarm systems that include loud alarms and calls to the police if the homeowners don't answer the check up call when the alarm is set off. Also if an intruder got in, set off the alarm and had a gun on us, when the alarm company calls to check up, we would give an incorrect password, which would be a signal to send an immediate silent police response to investigate. The security company monitors the actual alarm, they do not patrol the property or respond themselves. Why would this be useless?

We've been using ADT for 20 years & recently updated to a wireless system that we can arm & disarm from our smartphones. It also allows us to moniter activity while we are out of town. For example, we were recently gone for 2 weeks. We armed our system & the disarmed it the day our cleaning lady was there. We could see what time she left our home & armed the system after her departure. We haven't had any attempted break-ins although one if our close neighbor's home was broken into. No complaints after 20 years & we really like the new system.

We have ADT at both of our houses (we have a vacation home). We haven't had one problem with them. It's been maybe 7-8 years at our primary home and maybe 5 at the beach house. The system we have at the beach house also lets us know if the basement gets wet, if the temp. drops below a certain number, and if the power goes out, which is helpful when we can't be there.

You are correct Chispa. I will respectfully disagree with crl (her husband actually), although I'm sure he knows what he is talking about in his area. We are in the "country" so to speak. Our system does make noise - so neighbors would know something is going on. Although I worry about what it would do to my poor dog's hearing. Ours has gone off once (due to owner error, ahem) and the police were there pretty quickly. The fire protection was important to us also since there are days when we are both at work and "the pup" is in the house.

Here is our experience. Many years ago, in our first home, we were broken into. I pulled into the garage (downstairs), started up the stairs and saw door between floors open. I went out of the house was going to look in the back door and saw it was busted. Ran to my car and left. When police came, they determined the robbers had been going through gifts under the Christmas tree and had left in a hurry - apparently I interupted them. We know they had at least one loaded gun, as they took one from our bedroom. The very next day (Christmas Eve!) we had a system installed. We were more isolated in that house, although we did have a neighbor within sight. A few months later, someone again breaks into our house, by climbing and getting in a second level window (our bedroom). This time, when they walked out of the bedroom, the motion detector got them. They left. We moved, and had alarm installed in house #2. Three years later we finally find a site to build and that is the house we are in now. We have had ADT in all 3 houses. Thankfully in house #2 and house #3, there have been no issues. I KNOW it was to our advantage in house #1 - second break-in - to have an alarm system.

Romy, the wireless is great!

I do want to add that there is a locally owned security company that gets RAVE reviews. At this point with good service with ADT, I'm not willing to change over. However, if anything changes, we would go with that company.

chipsa, nope not talking about the same thing. Dh's view is that an alarm system that makes noise is useful. But the ongoing service from a company to call the police or fire department is not worthwhile. I don't make a big point of talking about this topic, but every cop it has come up with when I was around has said the same thing. Ymmv.

Oh, honey.

We've had ADT for 12 years in our old home, so when we moved recently, it only made sense to call ADT and have them set up our new home for monitoring as well. The security equipment was already in place, and the very nice account rep who came to our new home to meet with us and inspect the new system assured us that it could be used. She was perfectly lovely, aside from looking at my Union Jack tattoo and saying, "So, do you take a lot of flak for your confederate flag tattoo?" Gah. (I wanted to ask her if she didn't get out much, but I refrained.)

Following her visit, a tech showed up at the house mid-afternoon a day or so later to install a piece of equipment that would enable the system to be monitored wirelessly should our landline be cut, and to completely activate everything. The first thing he did was ask to use our bathroom. I know it sounds heartless to admit that this bugged me; after all, people have bodily functions that must be dealt with, and this man was no exception. But I was alone in the house with him, and it DID skeeve me out a bit. I didn't say no to him though. Anyway, he was there for awhile and then he called a second tech. The second tech came out, and they were both there for HOURS. Finally, one of the guys handed me his phone and said his manager wanted to speak with me. I didn't really understand exactly why I was told that they couldn't use our existing keypads, but the manager said they would need to install their own keypads and that they'd "eat most of the cost." They were going to charge us $25. I was so eager to get these guys out of my house that I agreed to that, and work proceeded. I did ask one of the techs to explain to me WHY our keypads couldn't be used, and he just smiled and said, "I really don't know for sure. I'm new." Finally, they wrapped up and gave me a brief tutorial on using the new keypads. We used the keypads with success Friday night and all day Saturday.

On Sunday, we had professional movers delivering a truckload of furniture from our old house to the new place. We met them there, and when I unlocked the front door and attempted to disarm the security system, it would NOT shut off. Over and over I input our 4-digit code until finally the alarm sounded. ADT called my mobile and I gave them our verbal password, and asked in desperation for them to help me turn the freakin', screaming alarm OFF. The woman I was speaking with me gave me several different codes to try, none of which worked. All the while, the alarm was shrieking and deafening us. This went on for the LONGEST time, until DH was finally able to disconnect a power source in a box that ADT had put in during the long-running installation session. This made the alarm stop sounding, but the system then REARMED, and we could not open the door. We were trapped in the house. All the while, the ADT rep was on the phone with me, and she HAD to have known how frustrated and anxious we were. I told her we had $200 an hour movers outside WAITING, and all told this cost us about 45 minutes due to their system freaking out. DH had to open our existing system box and pull plugs and wires to completely shut down EVERYTHING - a pretty cool little MacGyver trick, considering we didn't have a screwdriver in the house and couldn't go out to the garage to get one without the alarm sounding again. At one point I even told the phone rep that I realized none of this was HER fault, and that I appreciated her help but that I was about to cry from frustration. Not ONCE did she apologize for our situation. Perhaps they're trained not to admit fault. Her attitude stunk. It just STUNK.

I begged her to send a technician out immediately. She put me on hold, and finally came back and said the soonest someone could come out would be in eleven days. ELEVEN DAYS?!? Of course, I balked at this, so she said she'd put me through to Scheduling and that I "might have better luck" than she did. She apparently transferred me to the Bowels of Hell where I sat on hold for 20 minutes, and nobody ever picked up.

The following day I contacted the ADT account rep who had visited our home and told her that we expected them to send someone out to correct the issue right away, or else come and pull their junk from our house. She was duly mortified at our experience, and was absolutely wonderful to work with. Surprise, surprise - someone came out and fixed the problem that very day.

Were it not for the concern demonstrated by our account rep, we would not be with ADT anymore. We are not at all pleased with the unconcerned treatment we received on the day that our alarm malfunctioned, and were not especially pleased with the "I don't know, I'm new can I pee in your toilet" tech they sent to our house. Luckily, the tech they sent out to fix things was very knowledgeable and professional.

This NYTime article might be of some interest.

I have a camera system with very loud alarms inside cameras as well as outside. I can see everything going on at and in my home from wherever I am using my phone or tablets. I also have great neighbors and we watch each other's houses. We do have security patrols though the neighborhood, they are Constable department officers. The outside of the house is fully lit up.

The one time a guy tried to break in, he failed miserably because he was at a full glass door tinted, my husband was sitting right on the other side at his computer, 5 am. He watched the guy sneak past the wall of windows, to the glass door, then start trying to get the door locks open, not happening with 3 locks. My husband stood up ran towards the door, the guy finally saw him and took off running. My husband in hot pursuit. He got the truck make, model and part of the license plate. I was furious at him for going outside and chasing the guy. There could have been an accomplice. Get the gun first, call 911, wait for the police. The police were there almost instantly since they were in the subdivision. And with the description and information they caught the idiot trying it in another area just a little way away. But they told us the absolute best thing we could do was put as many exterior lights around the house as possible, the kind that come on at dusk and stay on not the motion sensor type. And we did! Plus all the cameras and alarms etc. Luckily no more attempts here.

We've had ADT for close to 25 years with no problems. We also leave lights on outside starting at dusk.

Oh my god auntjen! That's the kind of experience I really don't want!

It seems like all the rest of you are happy with ADT though. So, maybe isolated bad experiences but mostly OK? We're having two other companies come out to give us a quote too (local companies).

I'm not as concerned w/ burglars as I am w/ fire protection. The dogs are sometimes left home alone (one of the two is crated because he feels much happier there) and I want fire monitoring and a loud alarm b/c we are not in sight of any other houses where we are located (five acres). Burglary would annoy me but it's just stuff if they take it. The dogs are irreplaceable obviously and I want an immediate fire response. No one would see the house on fire to call the fire dept. until it was too late, if we did not have an alarm system.

I think I would call my Fire and Police Chiefs and ask which type of system they think works the best.

In our experience, the police department wasn't allowed to recommend specific companies (they did strongly recommend a dog, motion sensor lighting and any kind of sign advertising an alarm service.) We live just outside DC, on a busy street in the teardown neighborhood of a very expensive zip code. Because our house is neither new nor fancy, and because of all the car traffic and pedestrians from a nearby bike trail, we never imagined anyone would bother with us. But 5 years ago, after a rough night up and down the stairs with a sick 1yo, we came downstairs at 6am to find the TV in our living room missing. (My husband initially thought I had hidden it to keep our older child from watching too much TV!) There was other stuff missing: some other electronics, money, etc. And a tiny camera that I could barely find in the bowels of my big handbag, with the 1yo birthday photos that hadn't been downloaded. The police weren't terribly helpful; we had a child lock on a back door knob and couldn't swear that our nanny had locked it properly, so they kind of wrote us off as fools.They seemed to think that a break-in when the homeowners were obviously at home was a rare occasion and probably meant amateurs; I've since read of a number of others in our area including in our immediate neighborhood.

I could care less about the stuff, but I swear I still have PTSD from that experience - the idea that someone was in my house when I was rummaging around looking for Baby Tylenol still freaks me out. We interviewed a bunch of security companies after the break-in and opted to go with ADT. We have occasional issues, but we pay for a maintenance service with them and they are obligated to send someone out within 24 hrs (which my husband holds them to.) My peace of mind is the noise, as someone above said; we have sensors on all our windows and doors so it beeps a warning even if the system isn't "armed."

@beagles, talk to the companies and see how they can customize a system to suit your needs and your dogs. Our ADT installers were great, but I know there are lots of complaints online about them and there are obviously other companies that can probably do what you need. But ADT is definitely worth the time to interview, and see if they can design a system that works best for you.

In the past I did not think highly of home security systems. That changed when I had a house fire which started while I was at work and was reported to the fire department by someone driving by seeing smoke coming out the windows.

My 3 cats died in that fire. If only I had an alarm system...

To get an unofficial recommendation I asked my Fire Chief what system he had, that is who I will be using.

I think I will call the fire chief and police and see if they'll make an unofficial recommendation. my DH's cousin is a police officer, so I'm sure he can provide some insight too (don't know why I didn't think to ask him)!

We use a local firm.

DH is anti-motion sensors as he says the deer turn them on and off all night long. I wouldn't mind them, but my concern level in our area is pretty low.

ADT monitors our alarm system, but we used a local company for install. When we first got it, we accidentally tripped it and cops were knocking on our door within 3 minutes. They must have been patrolling because we are a good 15 minutes from town. It works, and I keep it off during the day when we are home. So far, so good.

Suzi - that is exactly our set-up and maybe why we have had such a good experience. The local company has been great to work with. I would say too it depends on your local police, the one time ours went off, the police were here quickly - and it was an error on our part. My grandparents/parents live in another county and before my grandmother went to assisted living she set her alarm off many times. She always thought she was seeing someone trying to break in - to either her house or my parents. The police handled it so well. They never ignored her alarm notifications. Instead, they would call my parents' phone and ask if there was a real need. They did come out a few times. I think they pretty much have to respond to the call in some manner - not ignore it. I know they talked to her the final time they came out (and us) and if they continued to get the alarm calls, they could charge for coming out. So there is alot that factors in, in my opinion and experience. Personally I would not be without one and it has certainly worked for us. And as mentioned, the fire protection!! Another plus is you should receive a discount on your homeowners insurance.

There is a very, very small chance of break-ins here. It is not conducive to burglars (very long hilly driveways, roving security, not near any cities or public transport. and police patrol the area very regularly - we always run into two very nice officers on our walks and I think they like coming here b/c we've seen them parked and taking smoke breaks often on some of the private roads.

My primary key concern is the fire monitoring.

Auntjen, what a story. Thank you for "Bowels of Hell."

@beaglesdoitbetter -- we switched to ADT from a locally owned company -- the old company farmed out their call center and dispatch to another firm. It was not until we signed up with the new firm and triggered our first false alarm did we realize just how fast the call center was -- they literally had us on the phone within a few seconds of the alarm. I think with scale comes certain abilities that might be useful if you are interesting primarily in monitoring.

I was told I think even by the sales rep that the sticker was the first and biggest deterrent, along with the audible alarm. Also, since we got motion sensitive lights we've had few to no threats, even has crime has risen in the neighborhood (as a nice neighborhood in an urban environment, we're seen crime on the rise to the point the PD and city council has acknowledged a problem)

Another thing I like about our new system are the water alarms. The very first night, the sump pump alarmed. Our chlorinator, which recycles at night, was splashing water that hit the sensor. It was an easy fix but I really like knowing that if we get water in our basement or underneath the frig, we will know immediately.

Anyone have experience with Alarm Detection Systems "ADS" based in Illinois? They have been highly recommended to me by public safety professionals.

https://www.adsalarm.com/Mobile/

https://www.adsalarm.com/

If all the thieves thought that all the house just had an annoying alarm and no direct link to a monitoring center, they would quickly realize that they had a fair amount of time to do a quick sweep of the house for goodies out in the open. If I set off the alarm accidentally, I get a call within 2-5 minutes. If I don't answer that call, they then send the police, who would be here in another 5 minutes, at the latest. I know my neighbors well, but they would probably not react to the alarm noise unless it was going on for 20+ minutes and annoying them.

My friend down the street had one of her pets get out and activate the alarms. She was called but was away, so they sent the police. She then called me to check if it was one of the pets. Before I even walked the few yards down to her house there were 6 police cars pulling up. I let them know who I was and that I had the code to silence the alarm, but was told to wait while they investigated. Monitored systems do work ... and the majority of false alarms are filtered out by the monitoring company and the police never hear about them, except for escaped dogs setting off motion sensors. Our Police do not assume anything is a false alarm and respond in the way that they were hired and paid to do.

We are in a relatively low crime area, but we do get targeted for break -ins during the day due to the availability of high value items in the homes. There is also easy access to highways. Luckily they seem to want to avoid homes with people in them.

We have had a lot of trade people, deliveries, etc in our home over the last few years and the other thing I do is have my alarm set to "chime" when any door is opened. Anybody who visits or works in our home knows that there is an alarm and it is engaged. Neighbors were robbed when they were having work done and not living in the house.

They stacked one magnet on top of another in order to make a magnetic contact to alarm a door, which stacking eventually caused it to fail. I would not let them send a technician until they agreed to fix it for free. But they lied. The free repair of a shoddy install was in June 2026, but they decided in September to charge me. Not their first time lying to me and after 16 years as a customer, it was the last straw. ADT failing to take responsibility for their shoddy work is common. Two people got murdered by Steven Van Keuren when 3 or 4 of ADT’s sensors failed. And ADT also hired a serial killer, Dennis Rader, to do alarm installs. Look it up. You would think the guy wearing an ADT hat can be trusted not to kill you.