SSD Systems

We have had our security system with SSD Systems for over 25 years. I have only positive things to say about this company. We purchased our system outright and upgraded it two years ago. The system has more than paid for itself, twice, as two burglaries have been foiled. Two weeks ago, a burglar tried to break in through a kitchen window when no one was home. The alarm went off when the kitchen window was raised, the burglar fled, the alarm company received the alert, and called our home within approximately one minute. When no one answered, SSD proceeded to call our cell phones and our backup person, when they were not able to immediately reach us. Then they called the police, who met me at our home when I got the message and rushed back. The system and the monitoring worked perfectly. After the police checked everything out, one of them told me I should thank my alarm company because they saved me from suffering a big loss. Thank you, SSD! I would recommend this company to anyone. I can also state that we have had a number of false alarms (where one of us accidentally opens a door when the system is armed), and over the last few years, SSD has always called us quickly, I believe usually within a minute, perhaps two at the most. (Under a previous ownership, there was a period of time when the response was not as fast.) After our recent break-​in, we sought to eliminate some subtle vulnerabilities, and SSD staff was very helpful in listening to our needs and making recommendations to choose from. They also performed the necessary work within less than a week, and the cost of the upgrade was reasonable.

RIPOFF. 5 year contract and if you do not send a certified letter 90 days in advance another 5 years. And you lease the equipment but after 90 days you have to pay for repairs. They wanted 399 for a board on thier equipment and 49 for the battery it killed. And oh yea 150 to replace each. We just switched to ADT 49 a month instead of 98 a month. 1 year contract.

Be very careful with these guys or it could wind up costing you thousands. Like most security companies they leverage you into long-​term contracts, usually five years. That’s fair enough, I guess, but if you read the fine print, unless you send a certified letter to cancel the contract before the five years is up, it automatically renews for another five years! Opps! And in case you can’t use an alarm for the next five years, you have to buy out the contract for the entire amount. And another trick — if you add an option at some later time (cell backup, another zone) — the fine print says you just signed up for another five years… on the entire system!
Note also that crooks are almost never caught by the police responding to an alarm. Most robberies are now «smash and dash», where they’re in and out in a minute while the alarm sounds. The police told me it takes 5 – 10 minutes for the alarm companies to even call them (it took them 8 minutes to call me on our recent break in).
IMO you’re best off with an audible alarm and no monitoring — that way it’s only the burglars ripping you off.