It Ought To Be Called Lastline Security

Thinking about signing up with ADT or Firstline Security for your home? Think again.

We have Firstline, which is part of ADT. It ought to be called Lastline, because if something goes wrong with your system you won't be able to reach them.

Here's how it works. You call their toll-free number. They're based in Utah, so they're on Mountain time and they don't open their call center until 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. (It seems to us that if you're going to sell systems on the East Coast, you should have technical support that operates on Eastern time.)

In any event, if you call during their business hours you'll never get through to an agent. Instead, you get the recording that says all agents are busy. But unlike other call centers, you aren't told to wait for the next available agent; instead, you're asked to leave a message and they'll call you back.

Okay, the first time you think "how convenient, I don't have to hold for some indeterminate amount of time." But then, when are they going to call back? Are you going to be on telephone tag for days on end?

Well, it's worse. They just don't call back. We've called three times in the past three days and no one has yet called back.

Our advice: go with a company that has people, not an answering machine.