ORLANDO, Fla — An Orlando woman found out she was locked into a home security contract that she claims she never signed up for.
“We called them three times and told them this is not my signature,” said Katherine Allen.
That contract extension was with ADT Security, and it was for five years. Allen was frustrated because she believes someone with the company automatically extended their contract and ADT told her she would have to pay more than $1,000 if she wanted to cancel it.
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For Katherine Allen and her husband, at one time, hiring ADT for home security made sense.
She said, “My husband and I were doing traveling, and we wanted something to protect our apartment just in case.”
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When their 3-year contract ended in 2024, Allen knew payments continued to automatically come out of their account, but she believed it was on a month-to-month basis.
“I usually check on our bank account, and I kept seeing it come out and come out,” Allen told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.
With money tighter these days they decided to cancel service, but that turned out to be easier said than done. ADT informed them she signed the 60-month extension in 2024, locking her in for those 5-years. But Katherine Allen insists she didn’t sign anything.
Allen said, “We didn’t know anything about this 60-month extension.”
Jeff Deal asked, “And then you didn’t sign that electronically or anything?”
She answered, “No, no, never.”
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The signature on the paperwork is an electronic signature and looks nothing like Allen’s regular signature. She doesn’t recall ever doing any transactions with ADT since her husband signed them up the first time. So, she stopped allowing autopayments from her bank account. Then ADT started sending bills in the mail, demanding payment, and letting her know she could face “contract termination charges.” She said over the phone they told her the charge to cancel would be more than $1,000.
“And they didn’t care. They said we signed this extension. No, we did not,” she said.
ADT is “A” Rated by the Better Business Bureau but has more than 10,000 complaints in the last 3 years and nearly 3,900 in the last year. ADT’s customer review rating is just over 1 star out of 5 with the BBB.
Some customers, like Katherine Allen, claimed they somehow ended up in contracts with ADT they weren’t aware were signed. Others complained about how difficult ADT makes it to cancel, and some complained about continued billing even after they did cancel.
In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, earlier this year ADT agreed to pay more than $1.3 million dollars after the DOJ alleged the company imposed unlawful contract termination charges on at least 3,400 service members who received military relocation orders.
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After Action 9 questioned ADT about Allen’s contract concerns, it didn’t answer any questions about the electronic signature for the contract extension, but sent this statement:
After reviewing Ms. Allen’s account and confirming the terms of the agreement, our team offered to cancel the service and waive the remaining balance of the contract.
Allen let Action 9 know the account is now canceled and she’s thankful to have it behind her.
“We don’t need it because we’re senior citizens and we’re on a fixed income,” she said.
If you sign-up for a service like this, make sure you get a copy of the complete contract, not just the signature page, so you know the terms. If there’s a debate over an electronic signature, ask the company to send the electronic-signature audit trail and ask how they verified who actually signed that contract.
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