I write because I desperately need help dealing with ADT, which continues to bill me monthly for services it stopped providing long ago. ADT is completely taking advantage of me, is treating me terribly, refuses to communication with me and, again, is charging me for services it is not providing. I have never written a letter like this before, but I am so frustrated and feel so helpless that I don’t know what else to do. I am a 25 year-old 1st grade school teacher and cannot afford a lawyer so I’m hoping you can help me.
ADT installed a security system in my apartment in Chicago. During the instillation, the ADT tech installed the “Safewatch Quickconnect” control panel next to my back door. The proximity to the door concerned me, so I asked if the police would be alerted if someone pulled the panel off the wall – the tech assured me they would be. On Friday February 13, 2009 I came home from work and found that someone had broken into my apartment. It was trashed, and the thieves stole several valuable items. The intruders ripped my Safewatch Quickconnect ADT alarm from the wall and smashed it into little pieces on the floor. Contrary to ADT’s assertion, the police were not notified when the control box was ripped from the wall. I called ADT that night and was told I would not be charged the March monitoring fee of $42.99, but was otherwise given the run-around with regards to my questions regarding why the police were not contacted when the thieves tampered with the box.
I called back the next day because I was still confused as to why the alarm failed to work. Unbelievably, the representative told me that the ADT tech lied to me. She said that if the alarm goes off (which it would have in my apartment given that the thieves kicked the door in), but is ripped from the wall before the expiration of the allotted time for the owner to punch in the code, it is the same as if the owner disarmed the alarm. I. e, pulling the control box of the wall DOES NOT notify the police. I immediately asked to speak with a manager, and was transferred to several different representatives. A day or two later, I received a very curt voicemail from someone representing themselves as an ADT District Manager. The message said that ADT could prove that I never set the alarm the day of the robbery, which is completely false – why else would the robber rip it off the wall? - and that there was nothing it could do to help me.
I called again on February 18th feeling very upset because I was lied to and was sold a product that didn’t work. Once again, ADT transferred me from representative to representative. When I did finally speak with someone, ADT said that the best it could do was to reinstall the same alarm. To this, I said I wanted an alarm that would work if an intruder came in and ripped it off the wall, as I had been promised mine would. The representative told me that if I wanted that feature, I would need to upgrade to a more expensive system. I asked that given the circumstances (that ADT itself acknowledged that it lied to me) if I could get the upgrade, but pay the same monthly amount. The representative said no, and that I would need to pay more money and then, almost apologetically, stated “I know the product doesn’t work if ripped off the wall and you know it doesn’t work, but our millions of customers don’t know that.”
I received a monitoring bill in April. So I called to say that I didn’t have an operational alarm (so there was obviously nothing to monitor), and that they should know this because of my numerous, previous phone calls. ADT said too bad, and said I had three options (1) pay nearly $800 to break my contract; or (2) upgrade to a new system for a higher cost; or (3) continue to pay my monthly monitoring bill (even though there is nothing to monitor!).
Since April, I have spoken with ADT many, many, times and these conversations have bordered on ridiculous. For example, on or about May 13 a representative told me that I had changed my security verification password and that he couldn’t speak with me because he couldn’t verify my identity. And that was the end of the conversation because he refused to speak with me. But I NEVER changed my security password. So not only did I have to suffer though the trauma of having my apartment robbed and my belongings stolen (when I thought I was adequately protected) but also the company was now, for lack of a more eloquent phrase, clearly jerking me around.
This summer I called ADT and pleaded that it give me an address so that I could speak with someone in person. That representative transferred me to a “Rosi Doherty.” This gave me hope, and I thought I might finally be on the road to a resolution. By this point, I had been paying my worthless monthly monitoring fee since February. I called and spoke with Rosi at the end of July
Rosi was pleasant and assured me she would do her best to take care of the problem. I called back when I did not hear from her after a week. She explained that she was waiting to hear from an “Elsie Fink.” I again called Rosi when she failed to ever call back. During this call, Rosi assured me that Elsie would call me directly. No surprise, she never called. I then called Rosi and asked for Elsie’s phone number, which she gave me. I immediately called Elsie. Ms. Fink told me she was looking into my case and would call me back. I explained to her that I was constantly getting transferred from person to person and that I just wanted to TALK to someone. She PROMISED she would return my call the next day. I am still waiting to hear back from her and my numerous messages have been ignored.
Now, every time I call, I am transferred from one person to another without anyone taking time to talk to me. No company has ever treated me as horribly as ADT. I haven’t had a working ADT alarm since February and I don’t even live in the same apartment (I moved after the robbery). I don’t want to be forced into an upgrade, and I don’t want ADT to reinstall the same worthless alarm that I had in my old apartment in my new apartment. I just want out of my contract, but I cannot afford the nearly $800 “early termination penalty”. ATD admittedly lied about the product it sold me. I am a teacher at a Parochial Elementary school. I cannot afford to keep paying a monthly fee for something I do not have, and I cannot afford a lawyer to help me. I understand that this may seem like a small matter, but this is extremely burdensome for me and I don’t know where else to turn for help.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide me and please email me if I can provide you with any additional information.
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