We live in SW Florida, but still have our most valuable house on 10 acres for sale in N Florida, about three hours away from our current home.
We have been customers of ADT Security Services since Sept. 24. Two days ago, on Dec. 20, my 64-year-old husband went up to the N FL house to check on it and possible re-list it. However, upon arriving, he discovered that the ADT system was not working.
He called ADT customer support, and at first, they told him we didn't have an account, that they had no record of us. Apparently, they had not recorded our new phone numbers which we had called in—and yes, we have witnesses that can verify the calling in of these numbers. Not only could the rep not find the account, my husband said she was very short and rude with him.
Finally, however, the ADT rep did locate the account and did an over-the-phone system test with my husband and then stated that the upstairs fire alarm/alert was malfunctioning—she then stated that someone had tampered with it. No one could have tampered with it because it is inside the house, and the house is vacant; my husband asked the rep if they'd had any alarms of entry at the house, and she said no. So no one broke in the house to tamper with an upstairs unit—absurd—the equipment simply was not working.
As if the frustration at this point was not enough, the ADT rep then told my husband that the soonest a service technician could come out would be Dec. 26—that's right, the day AFTER Christmas—so not only would the house be vulnerable to fire and break-in during that time, my husband, in attempt to protect our property, would have to stay there—and miss being at our current home on Christmas Day. The rep stated that there was absolutely no way to get a service tech to the location until Dec. 26, almost a week after we discovered the system was not working.
My husband then called me at our current home to apprise me of the situation, after which I called ADT and spoke to another ADT rep. Her name was Keisha who seemed to have no empathy at all for our situation, and rather than listening to me, talked over me. She did, however, call my husband and set an appointment for an ADT service tech to come out yesterday, Dec. 21. The service tech did come out on Dec. 21 and when finished, said that the system was now operable; however, this morning, again, my husband was unable to set the alarm—the system was not fixed.
Since his cell phone minutes were very low by this point, I called ADT from our landline phone at our current house. I explained the situation to the ADT rep Whitney, who was courteous, but couldn't help me; she transferred me to a rep in the ADT scheduling department. The scheduling rep, Merideth, while speaking courteously, did nothing to help us by getting someone out to fix the problem—she said the next soonest time a service tech can come out is Dec. 27th—two days after Christmas.
As the situation stands right now, my 64-year-old diabetic husband is sitting alone in a house in an isolated rural area in the middle of 10 acres of woods. Our valuable investment, a beautiful two-story home, sits completely unprotected from fire and break-ins; but beyond that, and even more importantly, my senior citizen husband with a medical condition is sitting there alone, vulnerable himself to break-in, robbery, and assault. Aside from this, even if nothing happens to the unprotected property, he will be missing Christmas Day at our current home; Christmas will be at this current home because this is where we have beds and accomadations for family coming here for the holiday.
I went onto ADT's Facebook page and posted this experience; an ADT rep posted a comment on my post to write them at [email protected] and they would work to resolve the issue—I sent them an email from both Facebook as well as from their "Contact Us" page on their website. I've had no response from them.
My husband and I have been customers of ADT since Sept. 24—we are on payment auto-deduction so have never made a late payment. We are not wealthy people, but we have worked our entire lives; we have a smaller, second home back in my hometown because of years of working and saving. The first house, the more valuable one that now has the faulty ADT system is a major investment for us, a part of our retirement that we will be using to sustain us—we cannot afford to have this house damaged or destroyed; it is a "bank account" that we must depend on that will combine with a modest social security income to help a maintain basic monthly expenses and pay for occasional auto and house expenses and repairs.
We were happy with ADT—until the system they set up stopped working; they continued to bill us, have spoken rudely to both of us, and they apparently have no concern for the gravity of a situation, a situation wherein a 64-year-old senior with a serious medical condition must attempt to sit guard on a house in an isolated area.
I have never filed a report with complaint prior to this horrendous experience with ADT; however, I wanted to let others know how ADT treated us when we needed them most. Tomorrow, I will also be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Maybe another security system company would do the same—I don't know—but I do know how shabbily ADT has treated us, good-paying customers for over a year, customers who do not regularly call in, customers who were satisfied with their service until their service failed to protect our property, and ADT failed to help and support and protect us.
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