ADT Door Contracts - poor advice given

[NDG Elecs]

Hi All, been a while since been on. Life very hectic.. Hope all are well.. Anyway..

Very regular customer tied into an exorbitant ADT contract. Last time she called them out was to A) remove magnetic door contact from door and B) return and refit contact on new door.. Cost +£1000.00 yes over a grand..!

Situation now is old warped door in cellar. Gap between wired contact and the secondary contact is only 7mm at most but alarm won't set. Wedged a bit of wood to keep the door tighter and alarm is now on.

Is the non-wired part of an ADT door contact ok to remove and put a spacer underneath...? The wired part will upset the tamper and cost silly silly money I would think.
There is no secondary wireless tamper I may not realise is there...

Thoughts appreciated.. Ta.
[automerge]1572995505[/automerge]
This is the proximity key if that helps at all...

And anyone who can give a surefire answer gets half of the callout fee - I will charge a mere £600!!!
[automerge]1572995784[/automerge]

Hi All, been a while since been on. Life very hectic.. Hope all are well.. Anyway..

Very regular customer tied into an exorbitant ADT contract. Last time she called them out was to A) remove magnetic door contact from door and B) return and refit contact on new door.. Cost +£1000.00 yes over a grand..!

Situation now is old warped door in cellar. Gap between wired contact and the secondary contact is only 7mm at most but alarm won't set. Wedged a bit of wood to keep the door tighter and alarm is now on.

Is the non-wired part of an ADT door contact ok to remove and put a spacer underneath...? The wired part will upset the tamper and cost silly silly money I would think.
There is no secondary wireless tamper I may not realise is there...

Thoughts appreciated.. Ta.
[automerge]1572995505[/automerge]
This is the proximity key if that helps at all...

And anyone who can give a surefire answer gets half of the callout fee - I will charge a mere £600!!!

I did put a photo on but it has disappeared with the 'posts merged' malarkey...

Proximity is a tiny green tag with an almost WiFi symbol.. approx 23mm by 19mm ish!! I guess that won't help though and the prox keys are the prox keys...

 

[telectrix]

the part on the door is just a magnet.

 

[buzzlightyear]

3.3 mi away
Magnetic Contact Slim Flush
£1.28
Toolstation
Put a door contact like this if the. magntic is surfaced.

 

[NDG Elecs]

Thanks.. I knew it was really!! Just had this vision of ADT using some secondary wireless tamper in their kit just to be bar stewards!! Didn't want to unscrew the cover and have them charging the customer silly money...

Also the mere seven millimetre gap is a bit on the harsh side..I thought they would be good for 10mm minimum...

 

[snowhead]

Just for extra reassurance , it's from a U.S site, but ADT is ADT;

How Do I Replace My ADT Door Sensor's Magnet? - Alarm Grid

Replacing an ADT door sensor magnet is as simple as finding a compatible new magnet, taking the old magnet off the door and putting the new one in place. If you are just replacing the magnet, no programming changes will need to be made at the panel. Learn more about door sensor magnets.

www.alarmgrid.com

 

[Pete999]

Just for extra reassurance , it's from a U.S site, but ADT is ADT;

How Do I Replace My ADT Door Sensor's Magnet? - Alarm Grid

Replacing an ADT door sensor magnet is as simple as finding a compatible new magnet, taking the old magnet off the door and putting the new one in place. If you are just replacing the magnet, no programming changes will need to be made at the panel. Learn more about door sensor magnets.

www.alarmgrid.com

Speak to camerabloke he used to work for ADT "Alf a Days Training" as he used to call them

 

[littlespark]

Isn’t there an engineers code to disable the tamper? Then you can do what you like.
If it’s one of those monitored systems, there must be a way without calling ADT themselves at that price.

 

[telectrix]

Thanks.. I knew it was really!! Just had this vision of ADT using some secondary wireless tamper in their kit just to be bar stewards!! Didn't want to unscrew the cover and have them charging the customer silly money...

Also the mere seven millimetre gap is a bit on the harsh side..I thought they would be good for 10mm minimum...

magnets can lose some of their strength over time. you can get bigger ones to overcome the gap. even chang the contact for a heavy dut one. ( that's with surface mount ones. if it's a flush in the door type, you could replace with heavy duty surface type.as long as you leave the tamper circuit intact ( this may include resistor/s ), you'll get no trouble. )

 

[buzzlightyear]

all pubs will be on red care so if the tamper goes off then it will go back to the moderating station .with out the enginners code then you can not open the panal.

 

[NDG Elecs]

All sorted, a spacer has been put in behind it. It was a big old magnet in there though - must have been a good 16mm thick. The plastic casing on it is also really oversized compared to 'standard' door contacts, which is what made me wonder if there was something else within it.
Thanks for everyone's help. I'm glad that the customer only has to pay my reasonable fee rather than the offensive prices they would charge.. and the Alf a Days Training sounds about right, there were three ADT lads on my 2330 and they were useless.. utterly useless!

 

[freddo]

I don't know why they are so disliked!?

 

[KWCFC]

For the prices that ADT charge you might aswell tell the customer to get another alarm company to maintain their alarm.

The ADT alarm will be locked so no one else can maintain it but by the time the different alarm company has charged to come in, rip out the old panel and fit their own stuff they will probably still be saving money in the long run.

The alarm company I work for just charges a £55 callout for each visit when a customer gets new doors. So £110 max...

 

[freddo]

Depends on the panel, but the one in my photo I was able to reset the codes and do the required zone and bell alterations without much effort.

 

[NDG Elecs]

For the prices that ADT charge you might aswell tell the customer to get another alarm company to maintain their alarm.

The ADT alarm will be locked so no one else can maintain it but by the time the different alarm company has charged to come in, rip out the old panel and fit their own stuff they will probably still be saving money in the long run.

The alarm company I work for just charges a £55 callout for each visit when a customer gets new doors. So £110 max...

They are changing to a local company as soon as they can. They got charged over £1000 for a very simple job through ADT that required two visits each less than an hour. She queried the bill but they would not budge and she ended up paying it. She really dislikes them passionately now (to put it mildly!)... Her other business premises has a fully monitored system installed by a local company where they charge a fair rate and they are spot on to deal with..

 

[buzzlightyear]

the trouble about big companys like and did two charge the customer for the prilvage for them installing their alarm in the property .so if the alarm goes off in the pub the police are called and they get a call the pubs alarm gone off.