Holy cow has this place gone to the dogs. Trying to resolve a "trouble" code on my alarm that they can't identify and now I sit on hold even though THEY CALLED ME (press '1' to be connected to an operator). Thirteen minutes and counting I am sitting here waiting. Things have been progressively getting worse with them. I think they grew too fast and are now having serious challenges keeping up with the demand. Sixteen minutes...and counting... Hello, ADT? (I'm just going to keep updating this review until someone answers...) Twenty-five minutes...this guitar/piano hold music is starting to grate... Thirty-one minutes...I have to go shave... Forty-nine minutes...I think I fell asleep but it's okay...they still haven't picked up the phone. UNCLE...I give up. One hour on hold is absurd. read more

I truly regret signing a contract with this company. We were pitched a two-year contract by the sales person and while I'm at fault for not reading correctly, they gave me a 5-year contract. The mobile app stopped working after six months. Their website is terrible. Save your money and go with a more modern company. When I called to complain, I was told there was nothing they could do but that a supervisor would be in touch with me in 24-48 hours. Apparently they're fine with their sales people LYING to customers. Well, it's Monday and that was Thursday. By my estimation, that's at least 96 hours. I haven't even used Yelp in several years but I had to revise my account for this. Seriously, take your money ANYWHERE else. read more

The worst experience I have had in years. System keeps failing, they fail to show up for appointments and don't call, long wait time to get thru to customer service, and all the while they continue to take payments from my account. Unfortunately I did not read the fine print and I am stuck with this unless I pay them $1800. Do yourself a favor, do not use their services. Once you sign a contract, they make it impossible to cancel (you have to write a letter and wait 30 days for a response), they won't accept an email. Never mind the fact you are not getting what you paid for. As a small business owner, I am in and out of new home owners homes thousands of times each year. I am asked about security systems frequently. You can bet Ackerman will not be on the list. read more

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT sign a contract with them. Had the system for a month and it does not work yet. They have missed 3 appointments with NO call. I understand crap happens and techs get tied up. But to not call at all? Way to unprofessional. STILL waiting for someone from "loyalty" to call me. They want me to schedule ANOTHER 4 hour window of my life to have someone not show up. Not happening. I hate doing this, I am typically not a complainer, but this is nuts. I am in sales and I will tell you, if I had a customer this aggravated you can bet I would doing whatever I could to fix it. I have been waiting for a supervisor to call since first thing this morning. I will be contesting all CC charges until this is rectified. Contracts are 2 way streets, and they have not performed on their end. On another note, the poor folks that answer the phone are pleasant enough, but I assume they are getting blasted everyday. read more

Fantastic service , quick response, they have every security option you could want. Hate that ADT bought them last year read more

OMG ... please take this out of my house. We have only had Ackerman for 15 months. We use the App that Ackerman uses (Smartlink) to set the heating and cooling in our home (apart from Security the main reason for using Ackerman) - the App is not working and hasn't been for months. When we first asked about this no-one knew what we were talking about. A Technician came out (very nice young man) and he couldn't work it out, he said he'd call his Supervisor. That didn't happen until we called the main office (yet again - at the point I'm on first name terms with everyone). This has now been going on for 3 months - PASS THE BUCK. My next call is to Xfinity or JoeBlow down the Street because this is the end of the road with this home and Ackerman. read more

Absolutely the worse! My system has been going off since yesterday, spent three hours on hold yesterday-finally just asked to be put in queue for a call back, no call back. I put in a service request through their online help, nothing. I tried their text feature; I received a text that it was outside their normal business hours, and they will get back to me on Monday. On hold today for two hours, still on hold. I finally took the cover off, thinking that would prompt a call for cover tampering, nothing. It's obvious my system is not being monitored and can't get through to customer service. This is horrible! read more

Ackerman IS THE WORST COMPANY, do not use them! I waited out my contract, which did not include any warranty on the garbage security system they installed, and have been trying to cancel for 2 months now. They force you to mail them a paper in the mail in order to cancel, but they will never send you the form. When you call to ask what is happening with the cancellation, they claim to have no record that you even called and say they will start a new claim. read more

This company, while less costly than others, has POOR customer service. The sign out front got damaged by the wind and I requested a replacement. Did not happen. Tried two more times. Still nothing. Tried to cancel. Eventually I thought I had it cancelled! BUT they are STILL charging my credit card. 9 months later. Am going through the dispute process now. read more

Horrible customer service! I explained very carefully what I needed when I called for help but when a service tech showed up, he had no clue how to help. All I did was get a new router and needed the wifi updated. Then I called and they said someone would call me back shortly, they never did, and now days later I'm still waiting for them to call me. I have called several times to follow up and still no call back, that is why I'm writing this. ALSO when they installed my camera doorbell in the wrong spot, they were supposed to come back and fix the hole, they never did. Will follow up if this gets resolved, but as of now, I'd suggest you choose another company. read more

They have not cancelled my contract after months. They bounce me between customer loyalty And customer service. Customer loyalty says they will send someone to look at the system. The guy who was supposed to come says he is a sales guy and does not see a point in coming home. He says he will not talk to customer loyalty since he is in sales. Customer loyalty never follows up. Now I have harassing calls from their collections department. THIS OUTFIT IS UNPROFESSIONAL AND I WOULD ADVISE PEOPLE TO KEEP AWAY FROM THEM. I WOULD GIVE THEM A LOWER RATING IF I COULD. read more

I've REPEATEDLY tried to cancel this escalating-price service, and they claim to need a written request -- aren't their phone reps capable of such an easy solution? Do NOT sign on with these users -- they will constantly jack up your fees read more

I just bought a house a month ago and the previous owner had Ackerman security. My husband and I have both called Ackerman and asked them to please avise regarding the two massive mounts on our walls to be removed since the previous owner is gone and they basically said they couldn't help. Are you freaking kidding me? I own this house now and want these things gone. Can Ackerman please help? This is ridiculous read more

Just camera not working are records, didn't have it for one day .system was installed never work right .have wait almost a month for a service tech to come out. Send read more

After being a customer for Ackerman for 4 years, my wife and I decided to end our contract and find a more affordable security company. Luckily, this was not a difficult decision since every time we consulted with Ackerman Security, they charged us a service fee. We were amazed that we were charged fees for consultation in addition to the $40 monthly bill for monitoring. Every time we had a conversation with Ackerman customer service, it always turned into a long conversation and an unpleasant one. For example, the security system was installed at a wine bar, a business location, and it had a panic button. The panic button that Ackerman installed could only be used once; however, no one from Ackerman told us. Eighteen months after it was installed, we decided to test our entire alarm system because our neighborhood had an electrical outage for 24 hours. When we tested the panic button, the police came. It was great, except for the fact that we had to get a customer service rep to the bar and reinstall it. How much did that cost? About $180! Just absolutely ridiculous. That's an incredibly expensive cost for a small business that's just trying to take its due diligence and we weren't completely informed. When I requested to cancel their services on March 2020, I was told point black, "are you sure you want to cancel?" because if you do, you'll miss out on your great benefit of getting "200% CASH if you're burglarized" [this is a straight copy and paste from their email]. I still went on and canceled our account; my termination date was set for April 17th, at the end of my billing cycle. My transition plan was to use Ackerman Securities until the end of my billing cycle so I can install the replacement and have continuous security service. This is advice I recommend for everyone making a security monitoring transition. On April 14th, our business was burglarized, and Ackerman was still our security company. The motion detector and door entrance sensors did not alert the police of the crime; and though that's a huge issue in itself, it's not our main point. Hours after we were burglarized, we called Ackerman's customer service representatives and managers because we wanted my benefit. I have an email confirming and explaining how I would get paid in cash for the $2,000 of merchandise that was stolen from us. But Ackerman fought us against their own stated benefit. I was told that this was my benefit as a customer, and I was still their customer. We spent three days speaking with multiple tiers of the Ackerman management and they were confrontational and dismissive. They basically told us that we weren't valued as a customer since we were not using their services past the current billing cycle - never mind that we used their services for four years. Just to be clear, we had this conversation when I was still their client. Obviously, they did not provide me the 200% reimbursement. The Ackerman Securities company culture is toxic, all of their representatives are untrustworthy and deceptive. The entire time we worked with them, they were never provided took my interests and concern into account. I don't know how they keep customers when they are so confrontational about everything. And by the way, isn't the purpose of a business to serve customers? This is the worst security company on the books. As you can see, we had so many problems. If you use them as your security company, you should consider using a modern security solution like Ring, Nest or Simply Safe. If you're considering them as a security company, you shouldn't even waste your time. read more

I'm very disappointed. I have been a customer for a little over two years and didn't have any problems until I attempted to add services to my account. Payments never late because it's auto-deducted from my account. Sales rep came out to my house October 2nd or 3rd and told me I could add about $1500 worth of equipment to my account and it will cost me an additional $5-6 dollars. All I have to pay is a $99 fee and the first month of the increased rate. It came to about $146. The equipment included 2 indoor cameras, 2 outdoor cameras, a remote thermostat, and 2 window sensors. I was very pleased. The day of the install (Oct 7th) - the installer could not get the cameras to produce a live feed and after 3 HOURS of fiddling around he then tells me I need to have a faster internet speed in order to have the strength I need to produce a live feed. Makes sense, but of course the sales rep didn't tell me this nor did he inquire if I had what I needed to have a successful installation. I was definitely not willing to increase my internet speed so I asked him to cancel the install since I don't have the proper connection for the camera and cancel the thermostat thingy because I really have no need for that feature anyway. I did, however, tell him I would keep the 2 window sensors. A week and a half goes by and I see no refund nor partial refund in my account. I call Ackerman and tell them what happened and they say they just need the technician to turn in his paperwork to confirm what equipment was/wasn't installed and they will refund my money. It is now the end of October - almost a month since the initial scheduled install!! I HAVE CALLED THEM AT LEAST 5-6 TIMES and I'm continuously given the run around. They have to call the technician, supervisor, the manager, the director, the doctor, lawyer, and damn indian chief to get the green light to give me my money back! AND to top it off they treat you like YOU did something wrong! What the ?!?!?!? I'm am so disappointed in them and now after reading some of the other reviews on here I wish I had just left it alone and I'm definitely going to read my contract when I get home from the office so that I can cancel my service before they "auto-renew"! I just got off the phone with them again and AGAIN they promised a resolution in 24 hours. This is unacceptable. It's fine when you're paying your money religiously to them but when it comes to customer care and handling customer service issues - BEWARE! read more

I have been an Ackerman client for over 3 years, previously with ADT. The Ackerman monitoring is about half of what ADT charges. The monitoring service is no different. I have had service out two times in the past few years. Both times, the tech was out quickly. Both techs were previously with ADT, and knew what they were doing. read more

I've been very impressed with the service I've received. I'm surprised and saddened by the bad reviews, as Ackerman has been affordable, friendly and on top of things for me. Fela Reynolds and his associates are great. read more

Kevin Johnson from Frederick, MD is amazing! I highly recommend him to anyone in this area. I was referred by a co-worker. Kevin is very knowledgeable and isn't pushy; Will work with you to find the perfect affordable solution. He also works around your schedule and arrives promptly. Kevin can be reached at 443.270.6846. Don't forget to mention my name to get a great deal! read more

**Buyer Beware** We had Ackerman update a security system on a rental house we were moving into. THe agreement was for 3 years, we had a concern about that because we were only on a 2 year lease. We were assured by our sales person, Cecilia Angula-Cuzzi, that if we moved out of the Ackerman Security area that we would not be obligated for the full three years. The 2 year lease is up - and Ackerman is telling me that even though they do not service the area of a home we purchased, we still have to pay the remaining $500 + dollars. I despise being lied to. Stay away from this company. read more

I cancelled my contract with Ackerman Security before moving from Virginia to Florida in October 2019. I was told I would get a refund for the unused portion of 6-month advance payment I made in May following cancellation -- noting that I had been a customer since 2011. In January 2020, I called to inquire about the refund that Ackerman promised, but was told that there were no notes in the system that such a promise was made. Consequently, Ackerman refused to refund the unused portion of the payment I made. A bunch of crooks running a security system - pretty amazing. read more

The worst customer service ever. Truly regret having this service/contract. They put us on a 5-year contract we can't get out of. Ridiculous and awful system and service. PLEASE DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER ACKERMAN. read more

Did you know you can only cancel once a year? That's right! If you've been using the service for 7.5 years and move 4 months after your contract renews, you're on the hook for the whole year. I called to cancel my account, after emailing and leaving a message, and was told that you have to keep calling until someone answers. Then you have to snailmail documents in. Moreover, I was told that if I had wanted to cancel my account, I would have needed to tell them 60 days before my contract renewed - that would have been in October, 6 monthd before I knew I had to move! My only option is to force wor moved moves into my old place to take over my contract or get the service where I'm moving. I hope Simply Safe puts them out of business fast read more

We are trying to sell our house. We have a beeping alarm which we have been calling about for a month. The security system does not work because we receive an invalid alarm that a door is opened in our basement. Don't us them. Horrible service read more

Had a security system installed at the end of July by Ackerman. Initial cost to me was almost $900. Ended up getting the new Honeywell Lynx 5100 system (they charged $500 for the main system which online sells for $299. The commercials for them tout their low monitoring fee (starting at $18.95 a month) this is if you still want to live in the stone age (of alarms). Don't have a phone line close by or a home phone service? That is ok you need to buy an additional GSM Cellular Communicator for $280+ then you need to pay an additional $6 per month. Want to control your alarm from your wireless device? Boom, another $8 per month for their Total Connect Package. Their up-charge on the products they sell are insane too. They wanted to charge me $80 for an extra keyfob and then $90 for a trip charge to program it. Bought one online for $32 and installed it myself in 5 minutes. Want a smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector? $60-$80 online, they wanted $180+ installation. Want a secondary keypad for another room? $115 online, they want $270 + installation. While the system it self is really nice, I'm not sure how the company will pan out in the long run, the rep tricked my wife into signing a 3 year contract, but I had that changed to 2 years prior to getting the system installed. Ackerman Security is relatively new to the DC Metro area, but so far they have not shown me any reason why I should have chosen them over ADT or another security company. read more

THEY SUCK THEY SUCK THEY SUCK - need I say more?? I moved August of the previous year and have been trying to close the account and stop the charges working with customer DIS service. Have been unable to and finally closed the VISA account and have the credit card company trying to recover some of the money I could not. read more

we have sold our home, we no longer live there. We have called and emailed Ackerman numerous times about discontinuing service. The new folks in the house are apparently trying to set up their system, I am still getting alarm calls in the middle of the night from Ackerman. So after 2 week of back and forth we find out today that you have to request a cancellation form and fill it out and them return to them via US Postal Mail...... who the hell does that crap.....no-one in their right mind uses snail mail, get into the current technology. what a crock of crap. This Company sucks, gives you the run around had to talk to five people then get the oh you need to complete this form and return via USPS....... DO NOT USE THEM read more

You received the first letter. I know because you returned it to me and said you needed more information including account number which you included on the letter you sent me. It was all BS to continue engaging me and charging me when I wanted the relationship to end. read more

I've used Ackerman for about 5 years. All was fine until I moved. That's when they informed me of their 60 day cancellation policy, meaning that I ended up paying for two months of absolutely nothing. Although I will need a new monitoring system in about 30 days, they would not waive this outrageous fee. I would have given them a solid rating, but they decided to fleece me on the way out. I hope they learn from this mistake. read more

I had to write a follow up review because Brittany from Ackerman Customer Loyalty team reached out to me right away and resolved my complaint promptly. I was very impressed with the response from Brittany and her professionalism and how quickly she took care of my complaint. I am happy to see that she really cared for her companies reputation. I am giving them a three stars this time because of their Customer Loyalty Service. Thanks again Brittany, read more

I have been trying to cancel service since November and getting nothing but the runaround. Every time I call im supposed to talk to someone in loyalty. Nobody from that department ever picks up their phones. I have been with them since 2011. I never thought it is going to be so difficult to cancel services. read more

Scam Alert. I think Ackerman Security Systems (A.S.S.) makes their living from people paying off their contracts early. Read the reviews not only here but other sites as well. Had two (2) equipment failures in less than a year. It was less expensive to just pay off the contract. Their contract clearly states that they use "reconditioned equipment." I think that means they can take a piece of equipment from one home and stick in another. When it stops working, the client pays and pays and pays. The contract also states that damage due to lightning or 'acts of God' are the client's cost. Seems like they could blame anything on God and get away with it. The maximum repair payout, as per the contract, is $500. But that's each occurrence. A client could spend a small fortune on A.S.S. reconditioned equipment with no access to an independent tech. Another issue is terminating the contract when it's finished. Read the reviews, folks. Wish there were minus stars. I'd give them a minus ten (10). Avoid, avoid, avoid. Edit June 11, 2018: Please note following comment from Brittany W of A.S.S. Note that she gives me no link to contact the "retention department" when, in fact, my cancellation notice came from the "retention department". They already have my information. And my full contract payment for no service and no processing of bills. I had asked for a discount. I also offered to pay the difference between what I would have paid without a contract. So-called Customer Service said I had to pay the contract in full. I did. It was less expensive than constantly repairing a used and probably damaged system. They had sent a "consultant" who offered nothing more than higher monthly charges and a new three-year contract. Not a chance. Beware of 5-star ratings. read more

I had Ackerman for 6 years. Last year, I wanted to switch to a new system and called them to stop the service. I categorically told the person over the phone to disconnect the service and she mentioned that she will put me in touch with a sales rep. She did not disclose to me that my service has to remain in place for me to talk to Sales tech and did not disconnect the service. When I noticed the charges and called Ackerman, they refuse to refund the charges that were deducted from my account. Very dishonest and quite disappointing. Will not engage them further. I hope Yelp allowed me to give a negative rating which I could I have used. read more

Stay away from this company. Installed an outdated panel at my parents house, charged them a $30/month monitoring fee, but the outdated panel couldn't communicate with their own system, but they were still charging us a monitoring fee. Here we had this false sense of security, just to find out that the home wasn't even being protected for a service that we were paying for. When we brought the situation to their attention, a "Service Manager" was supposed to call back the following day. For over a month, I called them once per week, and was told every time that a "Service Manager" would call me back, and nobody bothered to call me. If that's what the management thinks of their customers, imagine what the rest of the company thinks about their customers. The situation has yet to be resolved, and the next time I call them, it will be to tell them that I'm switching to ADT. read more

Single handedly the worst security company I have ever encountered. The incompetent team that works in the loyalty division can't change my address after a year and a half of calls about the SAME issue. All alarms go off and get sent to my old location. I change credit cards and call to tell them I changed credit cards. They then proceed to process the old one instead of the newest. To add insult to injury after calling to fix their screw up AGAIN; they notify me that there was nothing documented about any prior concerns. Steer clear. Go with ANYONE else and you'll have the confidence that your house is protected. read more

I've had these guys since last November. I really don't have any complaints about the service. They did call me the two times that I accidentally set off the alarm, so I know they are montioring things on their end. The pricing is a bit different than other security systems. You have to buy the equipment upfront, but the trade-off is that the monthly monitoring fee is lower. I also think its pretty cool that I can add the smoke detector for another $200, but my monitoring fee will stay the same. I'll probably do that at some point. I deducted a star because of the salesman. What he signed me up for was not what I got. I got much, much less than was explained to me. He also (in hindsight) wasn't as knowledgeable about the different products as he seemed to be. I would have chosen other products that were more suitable for my situation if I had been given correct information (added another motion sensor, for example). read more

WARNING ALL NEW CUSTOMERS!! Don't sign-up with this company! I have a long history with Ackerman Security roughly about seven years, I've been loyal to a fault. Over the last two years, I have had so many complaints against this company from false alarms because of faulty equipment, to paying for technical support to come out to my home and never getting my service issues revolved. Once the fix one thing and add another piece of expensive equipment something else will go wrong. I've called them so many times to get situations resolved with promises to get a callback and never hearing from anyone. I'm still waiting for the loyalty department to call me back regarding my notice sent in January 2021 that I wanted to end my services but still being charged a monthly fee, plus I was told that I would have to pay for a service that they set-up for a technician to come out and I never requested it. I let the technician come in because the previous day at 1:30 AM I was awakened by my county police at my door because of a faulty alarm piece that triggered off and nobody even opened this door because everyone was sleep. This was about the 4th time police came to my house regarding this same door and this piece has caused my alarm to go off dozens of times. If it's not the battery dying and having to replace that for $40 it's another problem. Now they are trying to over charge me by still billing me for services I don't use and told me the only way they would let me out of my account I would have to pay for 3 months of services plus for the last piece of equipment that they installed in January 2020. I asked them to take the equipment out and they refused to contact me back or let me out of my non-existing contract. I had to go purchase security cameras for my home because I need security and I can't trust this company to provide it. I trust my neighbors to watch my home better then this company. Please, please find another company before choosing Ackerman because this company is only about being paid with no providing no service. read more

This is an awful company. I was sold this and told the online controls would work. After many visits and many no shows the last fellow who came to work on the system admitted that the app doesn't work and never did and recommended Honeywell even though he did not work for Honeywell. A total fraud and total scam. Run from this bogus company. read more

I notified your company on 9/24 that we were selling the residence at 8513 Shultz Rd. Clinton Md 20735 on 9/28. Curtis Brandon was to suspend the account for three months beginning 9/28. I have received no fewer than 60 calls for alarms at the house I no longer own. I have spoken to at least 3 people from your horrible loyalty department and 20 different call center employees and been assured my info was being removed that I would no longer receive anything to do with the above property. Yet as I write this I received 2 calls last night and 2 calls this AM while waiting for your horrific loyalty department to call me back! You are the worst company in the history of time when it comes to customer service. What do I need to do to be rid of your service and any need to ever deal with you all again?! I am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as well as posting this email on all social media platforms!! read more

I switched from ADT to Ackerman. The tech came out this morning on time and upgraded my service equipment free of charge. He was kind, courteous and professional the entire time he was in my house. Jesse (JC) helped me, he's the best! Call for him to do your install. You won't be disappointed. read more