{"id":358191,"date":"2026-07-30T23:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358191\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T23:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:27:27","slug":"orlando-woman-fights-adt-over-unsigned-5-year-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358191\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando woman fights ADT over unsigned 5-year contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla \u2014 An Orlando woman found out she was locked into a home security contract that she claims she never signed up for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe called them three times and told them this is not my signature,\u201d said Katherine Allen.<\/p>\n

That contract extension was with ADT Security, and it was for five years. Allen was frustrated because she believes someone with the company automatically extended their contract and ADT told her she would have to pay more than $1,000 if she wanted to cancel it.<\/p>\n

Do you have a consumer complaint or need help from Jeff Deal and Action 9? Click the banner below to submit a tip.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

For Katherine Allen and her husband, at one time, hiring ADT for home security made sense.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cMy husband and I were doing traveling, and we wanted something to protect our apartment just in case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents warned about popular squishy toy trend<\/a><\/p>\n

When their 3-year contract ended in 2024, Allen knew payments continued to automatically come out of their account, but she believed it was on a month-to-month basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI usually check on our bank account, and I kept seeing it come out and come out,\u201d Allen told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.<\/p>\n

With money tighter these days they decided to cancel service, but that turned out to be easier said than done. ADT informed them she signed the 60-month extension in 2024, locking her in for those 5-years. But Katherine Allen insists she didn\u2019t sign anything. <\/p>\n

Allen said, \u201cWe didn\u2019t know anything about this 60-month extension.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Deal asked, \u201cAnd then you didn\u2019t sign that electronically or anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

She answered, \u201cNo, no, never.\u201d<\/p>\n

A FedEx truck hit her car. Her claim was still denied<\/a><\/p>\n

The signature on the paperwork is an electronic signature and looks nothing like Allen\u2019s regular signature. She doesn\u2019t recall ever doing any transactions with ADT since her husband signed them up the first time. So, she stopped allowing autopayments from her bank account. Then ADT started sending bills in the mail, demanding payment, and letting her know she could face \u201ccontract termination charges.\u201d She said over the phone they told her the charge to cancel would be more than $1,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they didn\u2019t care. They said we signed this extension. No, we did not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

ADT is \u201cA\u201d Rated by the Better Business Bureau but has more than 10,000 complaints in the last 3 years and nearly 3,900 in the last year. ADT\u2019s customer review rating is just over 1 star out of 5 with the BBB.<\/p>\n

Some customers, like Katherine Allen, claimed they somehow ended up in contracts with ADT they weren\u2019t aware were signed. Others complained about how difficult ADT makes it to cancel, and some complained about continued billing even after they did cancel.<\/p>\n

In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, earlier this year ADT agreed to pay more than $1.3 million dollars after the DOJ alleged the company imposed unlawful contract termination charges on at least 3,400 service members who received military relocation orders.<\/p>\n

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After Action 9 questioned ADT about Allen\u2019s contract concerns, it didn\u2019t answer any questions about the electronic signature for the contract extension, but sent this statement:<\/p>\n

After reviewing Ms. Allen\u2019s account and confirming the terms of the agreement, our team offered to cancel the service and waive the remaining balance of the contract.<\/p>\n

Allen let Action 9 know the account is now canceled and she\u2019s thankful to have it behind her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need it because we\u2019re senior citizens and we\u2019re on a fixed income,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

If you sign-up for a service like this, make sure you get a copy of the complete contract, not just the signature page, so you know the terms. If there\u2019s a debate over an electronic signature, ask the company to send the electronic-signature audit trail and ask how they verified who actually signed that contract.<\/p>\n

MORE WFTV ACTION 9 STORIES<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla \u2014 An Orlando woman found out she was locked into a home security contract that she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[146112,146110,146108,95817,48609,11817,146109,1060,146111,45972,1061,7175,634,115,139,141,140,1045],"class_list":["post-358191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-action_nine","tag-adt","tag-adt_security","tag-allen","tag-better_business_bureau","tag-catherine","tag-catherine_allen","tag-channel_9","tag-department_of_justice","tag-doj","tag-eyewitness","tag-jeff_deal","tag-local","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}