Feeling scammed

Last month Sam and I were talking about getting a home security system. He says that he'll have more peace of mind about me being home alone while he's working nights. We've been getting the mailing ads for ADT, you know the ones that say "Get an $850 valued home security system for free with $99 installation". This is pretty much what prompted us to give a call to ADT.

We gave them a call and set up a time for the home consultation, who happened to be a husband and wife team who actually live fairly close by to us. They dropped by in the afternoon got right down to business, showing us all the fancy applications with video surveillance you can access by either IPad or the Kindle. We get up and do the walk through so she can make a diagram of all the windows and doors on the house and what kind of security applications we'll put on them. Yada-yada. Sit back down at the table and that's when the train hit. She starts adding up all this stuff, and I think it was for the most secure and high-tech surveillance which came out close to $1800. Say what?!

Sam and I said we're feeling more comfortable with something a little more basic. They recalculated and came up with a figure around $550 mark. Okay, a little better but not one thing was mentioned about the $99 install. We thanked them and said we'd have to discuss it more in depth and would let them know. Immediately after they left Sam is looking into other security companies and subject kind of drops.

Until the other day. I came home from work and found that on Monday next week, we'll be the proud new owners of a newly installed ADT home security system. As it turns out, Sam got another postcard looking flyer about the ADT system but not from ADT, rather an authorized dealer. They got to talking and found that we had originally went through ADT's corporate office which is more expensive. So all of our doors and windows are covered, plus a motion sensor and wireless keypad. Not sure what everything eventually came to but I'm guessing it was cheaper than what we were originally offered.

I guess I'll be waking up to a house alarm going off for a minute or so for a couple of mornings starting next week. Lovely!