ADT - The alarming story

[Rich 2]

Well, back in October 2007, we had ADT in to supply and install a monitored alarm system for us... So I figured what the heck, lets tell you all how I got on with them to-date so far.

So, the sales pitch....

Well, the sales guy was pretty neat, super friendly and didnt give any reason to worry, he was smart and tidy, but did go on to explain all his life's woe's and troubles with his family, which you kind of listen to just to be polite and squeeze a bit of discount from if you can get them on your side.

Told him I'd dealt with many companies who had screwed everything up previously and was VERY aprehensive that something will get screwed up by them during the install, but the sales guy was very "re-assuring" as they are....

So, the sales guy gets the alarm system out aand shows me all the functions and features, the remotes and panick alarms etc, all very impressive stuff as you would expect from ADT

So we sign up, as we had requested anyway, and after the sales guy fills in a ton of forms, he ask's me to sign the dotted line.

Once signed and agreed, we had abrew, and chated for a bit, and all was good, install was scheduled for the following week instead of the 2 weeks he initially scheduled, and we didnt squeeze any discount, but I did get some extra

[Rich 2]

So, the story continues...

Since the sales pitch, ADT were VERY pronto in carrying out the install (Less than 1 week) and the installer guy turned up nice and early as promised.

However, being pre-informed of our oak flooring, and the requirement for dust-sheets and over-shoes, he turned up non the wiser to this with no dust sheets and no over shoes

When questioned about this, he didnt know anything about it

Anyway, I let him get on with the install and left him to it (Along with a cuppa to get him started)

Upon installing the shock sensor to our kitchen window, I did tell the guy to go VERY easy on the window frame so as not to go right through the frame, but alas, he was far too heavy on the drill, and sure enough, he went right through the window frame to the outside

............... Later that day, job finished...

All installed, we then had a ton of foms, and police info to fill in etc etc, and after some detailed instruction on how the alarm system works, off he went.

So, I go round and check out what he has been doing, only to find that everywhere the guy had drilled holes in the walls, he didnt even bother to clean up, he just left all the piles of dirt from the drilling exactly where it all fell.

He didnt ask for anything to clean it up with and I had made the assumption that he would clean up as he said he would...

Well, needless to say, I gave the sales guy a ring to let him know and left it with him to get back to me...

More later...

[geordie_man 1]

any news?

[Rich 2]

Yes, absolutely....

18 Months ago, my alarm system was getting so bad, they took it out and replaced it with a much lesser model, despite the fact that I had paid over

[Rich 2]

Here I am almost 3 years later,

So, yet again more problems... I've just had my third alarm system installed, purely because the 2nd replacement was a bag-o-bones

So now, they installed the 3rd alarm on the 18th, couldnt finish it because they didnt have all the parts, and whatever the engineer did on the install, it totally screwed up because for 3 days straight it was dialing 0870 numbers, every 60 seconds...

I had to call them back in again on the Saturday to disable its dialing function because my phone line was un-usable from Thursday right through to Saturday.

Now, if the engineer wasnt in such a rush to go, when he installed it, he would have stuck around to make sure it was working correctly, but as he demonstrated, thats asking too much...

So the new alarm, once disconnected, has run up a

[Rich 2]

Right, yesturday, the ADT engineer came back to fit the rest of the equipment he didnt have the first time round, was done fairly quickly, but obviously cant finish the job, yet again because the phone line still doesnt work, so what the hell was the point in coming at all?

As he was the only person at ADT that I can actually see, I gace him a copy of the critical parts of the Virgin telephone bill and asked him if he could get it to his boss "TODAY" but sadly I got "I wont be seeing him until tomorrow"

I asked him to then telephone his boss asap so I could email the entire bill to him immediately, but you guessed it, that also didnt happen.

Finally today, the Area Manager calls me and tells me he is going to sort it out, and can get a cheque to me sometime this week..

Well, sorry but your system knocked out my phone/TV/Broadband line pretty damn quickly, and thats how I'd like it restored, PDQ!

So, after some deliberation, Bob has agreed to send a cheque directly to Virgin, so at least were FINALLY getting somewhere, just a shambles its taken this long to get there.

Why the hell do people still use cheques! Whats up with paying by card, get it paid and done!