ADT Security Loses Another Authorized Dealer after Absorbing Brink’s/Broadview

It’s been a tough road for ADT Security after they bought Brink’s/Broadview. The assimilation has been rocky, with rumors of widespread firings, and plenty of unhappy customer reviews from folks who were spoiled by the legendary Brink’s excellence in customer service – then came ADT customer service, which can be spotty at best. And now there’s a report that ADT has lost another top Brink’s authorized dealer:

Guardian Protection Services announced it has added a second top former Brink’s/Broadview dealer to its roster of authorized Guardian dealers. Signing on the new dealer is a part of a plan by Guardian to grow its national footprint. SafeTec Security, the second-largest Brinks/Broadview dealer, is now part of Guardian’s Authorized Dealer Program, said Hank Groff, national director of the program for Guardian. SafeTec is headquartered in Columbus, Ga.

Not the First Loss for ADT

I originally wrote about ADT swallowing Brink’sback in September, and have been following the purchase since then: it’s not every day that the #1 company in an industry buys #2. And as you may remember from my post on the ADT Authorized Dealer program, ADT depends on its nationwide network of dealers to create roughly 300,000 new residential accounts every year, about half of ADT’s total new home alarm accounts. Losing these large dealers that were meant to come with the Brink’s acquisition is bad news for ADT. And this latest defection follow another high-profile ADT loss, also covered here:

Just five months ago, Guardian also announced that the third-largest Brink’s/Broadview dealer had become a Guardian dealer. The announcement about Southern Alarm, based in Richmond Hills, Ga., was made Aug. 26. Groff told Security Systems News that Guardian is very pleased to be able to partner with two of the top five dealers that Brink’s/Broadview had.

Who’s Next?

Will more dealers follow the lead of these two in abandoning ADT’s program for another company? Probably. Remember, many of these Brink’s dealers used to work with ADT – and left for one reason or another. These days there are more authorized dealer programs out there for them to join. Dealers acquired with the Brink’s transaction can choose to leave ADT when their contracts expire. There are some legal experts who question whether ADT can even hold the Brink’s dealers to those contracts, because of the name change from Brink’s to Broadview just prior to the ADT acquisition. In the meantime, my sources tell me that for many of the former Brink’s dealers, the search for a “new home” continues.

What’s the Impact on FrontPoint?

The following comments from a previous post still hold true.

When it comes to dealers, FrontPoint is happily removed from the fray, as a “next-generation” service provider. Both ADT and Broadview (and their dealers) were “old school,” focusing on traditional, less reliable security. In fact, neither ADT nor Broadview considered safer cellular monitoring a priority, and interactive monitoring like that already offered by FrontPoint (including video, home automation, and mobile apps) was not even on the radar: we’ve been providing these smarter alarm features for over three years. ADT only recently announced its new Pulse product offering, and the jury is still out on how well they will support it (here is an update on pricing and other aspects of Pulse, since you can’t find anything on ADT’s web site!).

Stay tuned here more news from the alarm industry – and please let us know if there are topics you want us to cover. We aim to be topical, timely, and informative. Part of being ranked as the #1 provider for interactive, wireless home security in the US comes from knowing the competition – and staying several steps ahead.