house alarms - who do you use?

[Newhere2]

we are looking to install an alarm and adt seem good, are there others i should compare?

Please think again before signing up to ADT.

Our contract has stated for the last decade that we have been paying for an annual service of 2 CO2 monitors & 2 smoke detectors (The latter being linked to the fire station according to ADT contract.)

A dehumidifier caught fire directly under the smoke detector while my husband was asleep & we lost a lot of belongings & a lot of damage was caused.

The fire department were NOT contacted via the service we had paid for despite the company servicing everything just 3 weeks previously. A neighbour called the emergency services.

We were advised by ADT that despite the VERY recent maintenance check, this didn't mean the detectors were in full working order at the time of the incident.

We were also told by them that in order for them to repeat their maintenance service to investigate WHY the detectors (plural) failed to go off AND why the link wasnt connected AND why neither of these were picked up before that we would have to PAY for this!!!!

This alarm & fire "service" we calculated to cost us £5,000 over the last 10 years. We have gained nothing from them and every year without fail they increase their charges.

John Lewis were, in contrast, truly fantastic in helping us repair & replace goods & damage when really they had no obligation to.....unlike ADT.

Sorry - should add, JL sold us the dehum.

Watching with interest, doing the same and keen to hear recommendations.

wow that is awful!

Surely you must have some come back for the system not working? Or is their contract worded so strongly that they have protected themselves completely?

That's awful! My parents have ADT, they won't be pleased to hear this. What's the alternative though?

When in the UK, we had Guardian alarms. No problems, ever. This was nearly 10 years ago, though.

We use Town and Country who are local to us. Have had a couple of problems over the years but generally we are happy. It is also best to get locks and deterrents up to a high standard too!

Have a look for smaller local companies. Ours is done by a local bloke who fitted the alarm and comes and services it every year. No problems so far and considerably cheaper than ADT etc.

thanks pootlebug. Is it monitored?

We also use a small local company. Our alarm isn't linked to alert them if it goes off so we just pay £50 a year for servicing. They are lovely.

Ours rings me (and then a list of others if I don't answer) if it goes off. But having it routed to local police was also an option.

Servicing is £60+VAT I think.

Just to answer your question, I didn't take the issue any further as I was hospitalised for 4 months at the time due to ill health.

I use a local/regional company. It covers the two nearest provincial cities, and local towns and rural clients in about a 30 mile radius.

If you walk up the high street, look at the company names on the siren boxes. The utility and telecom companies may offer a package. Buy, don't rent, or they will take it away and cut the wires if you terminate your contract.

If you want one that the police will accept, it has to be maintained by an approved company to a recognised standard with two maintenance visits per year, so relatively expensive. Mine dials out to a monitoring company that can call the police. It is cheaper to get one that phones you and some trusted keyholders, and some DIY alarms do that at modest cost.

We use Watchdog. Came recommended by a friend who works with the police. We spent a lot of time researching & found that only this company where able to satisfy all our asks (there could be others but we couldn't find them!). We wanted a monitored service with alarm sensors for movement + perimeter. Plus we wanted a wired solution rather than wireless. Also needed a SIM based callout system in addition to the landline callout. We asked ADT & they couldn't do wired & dual line callout!
Watchdog did the wiring beautifully such that you can hardly notice it. I can't speak about the actual monitoring success as we've never had an incident. Overall we are very pleased with the solution & usability of the alarm - we use it every night & whenever we go out.