hopefully ADT/ Tyco does well
I am not talking about some broker hawking their wares. I am talking about the folks, in the financial world, (which is not your stock broker or your
401K manager) that have looked at the company (ADT) and their creative accounting practices, scandels, lawsuits, tax burden, etc. Hell, they are still dabbling with their 1999 books to explain why they didn't pay over $50 million in taxes that year. You said it best "Almost" everyone.....with the rest happy to make a couple of dollars on their stock now and then. The stock increase, in the recent past, has had to do with the break-up, which was suggested by who, the financial world who suggested they get rid of ADT, and was driven by who, the stock holders, and was finally, after 3 years, done by who, a new board of directors try to salvage it. Not being argumentative, but I do have dealings, since I am just down the street from the Tyco building in Boca, with several top ranking folks in that office, as well as, NJ. Were they lieing about what had been happening?I don't have to bash ADT. They have made their own bed, which is well documented. How many companies, can you name, that have had as many fines levied on them by different Attorney General's offices around the country as ADT. Name one company that has had to pay a single fine in excess of a million dollars to any single jursidiction. Can you name the jurisdiction that, after receiving and paying a fine for over $100,000, continued with the same practices until they were caught and received another fine in excess of $140,000. More money than brains, I guess, or is it a "we really don't give two hoots about your silly state laws or how much it costs us" attitude.
Local and regional companies don't support authorized dealership programs, allow unlicensed activity, within their programs, for personal gain, allow their state license to get suspended by ignoring state law, continue to violate state law and simply pay the fines when caught, shall I go on? You may be to far removed from what goes on in the streets, with ADT, to comment on these issues. I am not bashing ADT, just stating what is already out there. If you don't like the smell, don't open the can.
And they were using Moose and ITI products prior to that. They allowed their dealers to use a wide range of products, to include DSC, Caddix and FBI. You are talking to someone who worked with ADT folks here in Florida, Houston and San Antonio, TX, as well as, San Francisco in the late 80's. I did extensive work for ADT on their high end residential, for the two years after Hurricane Andrew, in the early 90's. I was close to the ADT people that opened and recruited for the dealership program, when it started, and was in close contact with their attorney in Boca during the demise of that same program, which included knowledge of the raiding of a dealers office with the Broward Sheriff's Office due to allegations of drugs and other illegal activities. Boy did that one stay quiet. I am not someone who is only guessing at what has happened to ADT over the last 20 years.
ADT uses EST, Bosch, DMP,
And I am removing a Focus system that was installed not more than three years ago in a commercial application. The clients ageement just expired.
Yes it is, however, the rest of the industry did not follow ADT's lead to this equipment as you suggested earlier.
What? Are you saying that dealers can't obtain this equipment? Come on! Any dealer can get any equipment they choose. I have been approached by many of these type companys to become a dealer for them, as have most other licensed companys.
Most of it was in recent history because they were previously using proprietary stuff for years. It wasn't until they started shutting down alot of their central locations, switching stations, etc. that they when more conventional. As fas as procedures go, that is irrelevant.
ADT also meets UL and DoD
OK
What you are missing is that ADT is ultimately responsible for all the crap that they allow their authorized dealers to do. It is irresponsible for a company to start, build, and profit from a program and than not accept any responsibility for the actions of the participants of the program. I can't tell you how many conversations I have had with the ADT attorney on this issue. In all fairness, he does send me a copy of the nasty gram he sends the dealer, when they get out of line, but the bottom line is that the dealer doesn't stop and ADT still funds the agreements. In other words ADT is not interested in enforceing their dealer contract as long as that dealer is producing. And......yes ADT corporate does have a higher price line but who drove that? The financial folks we talked about earlier and the accounting fiasco that ADT has themselves in. They couldn't continue with the "free" program or the $99 dollar program after that. It took a change of the Board to move in that direction. With their pricing, they don't write the amount of business they used to, so they continue to put the leads out to the authorized dealers whether they are conducting business illegally or not.
Ahhh.......It doesn't take me two to three weeks to get to a service call. That is a huge difference and I think most here, that are actually dealing with the end user, has come across this same end user concern. But, it is understandable. How many technicians does it take to service 5,000,000 customers in a timely fashion? You can call it being a victim of their own success but that isn't very comforting to the end user. You know this is a problem for them when they are on a mission to hire sub contract service techs. I get this call every couple of months, so I know it is happening.