I know I've mentioned it recently, but my husband and I just moved into our new home. We are extremely delighted about the office space, the home theater, and having an extra bedroom. But we quickly discovered that our phone reception was almost nonexistent. If Matt wants to work from home, which I'm assuming he does, given the fact that we now have a home office from which he can work, he needs reliable phone connectivity. So, we had to bite the bullet and go old-school and get a "land line". Fortunately, this is a pretty inexpensive adjustment.
My beef in this post is not with AT&T, although it puzzles me that I am receiving a "no service" message on my phone in an area so heavily populated. No, my beef isn't even with Comcast, who is now providing the home phone bundled with my internet, though I have plenty of other reason to fuss about Comcast. No, this is a warning to potential customers of ADT Security.
So, back to the home phone. See, we had to get a home phone, which means we had to get a new phone number. For FOUR DOLLARS A MONTH Comcast would ensure our number would remain unlisted. Yes, they actually want to charge a fee for that. Matt & I decided it wasn't worth the cost - after all, who uses a phone book anymore?? But it became evident that we were wrong not to pay the fee.
Enter ADT Security. Two days after our home phone was installed, we got a solicitation call from an ADT Security salesperson. My husband politely said we weren't interested and hung up. Within an hour, call #2 from ADT. Again, we aren't interested. This is day 5 with the new phone number. All but 18 of the calls listed on the phone's received call list are from ADT Security call centers across the country wanting for us to buy a security system. SEVENTEEN sales calls in 5 days. This doesn't include the half-dozen or so calls I haven't answered.
I tried to be polite at first. I even requested that my number be removed from their call list. But the calls keep coming. I just took one about 30 minutes ago. Their speech is always the same, and I always interrupt to tell them about this crazy saga - boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl buy house, boy and girl are harassed by relentless ADT sales people. And finally a sales person informed me of the problem. She said, "ADT call centers are not linked, so we have no way of knowing which call center has your number on the Do Not Call List."
So let me see if I understand this. You are one of the largest security companies in the country, and yet you can't tell if a customer in the Houston market has already said no seventeen times? And you're not concerned that your sales methods border on harassment? But I should trust you to monitor my home for theft, fire, carbon monoxide, etc? How can this possibly be a good idea?
The plot thickens. I signed up for the National Do Not Call Registry at www.donotcall.gov, but this process can take weeks to take effect! Is there no help for consumers - or I guess, in my case, a non-consumer - who do not want to be the target of dozens of cold calls that only result in unkind words and harsh tones followed by the deafening slam of the phone??
I told the most recent caller that not only did I not now want ADT, I didn't want it 17 calls ago, and I won't want it in the future. In fact, I told her, I would recommend that my friends not seek ADT as their security provider. I would not in any way support a company that felt it was okay to pester people in their own homes, or that was so disorganized that they were unaware as to who had been called and declined! Worse yet, what if I had told that first caller that I would love for them to come out and set me up with a security system and then I got 16 more calls wanting to know if I would be interested in their "secure monitoring"?!? Can you say awkward?
I don't do this very often, but I will do it now. I highly encourage anyone who might be considering a security system to consider this: how secure can you really feel when the company that supposedly has your back doesn't even know if they have it or not?
PS - we have gone another route for our security needs and I'm happy to say that our new system works great, without the harassment. :)
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