Complaint Review: ADT

I had an ADT rep over to find out some information. He looked around, made recommendations, and finally drew up the quote. I am not super-assertive in person and also, it takes some time thoroughly to think through anything with any complexity. 

The sales salesperson was also the install technician / trainer.

By the end of the 7-hour marathon, I was exhausted -- and that is when they tell you how much it costs for installation and monthly -- in my case $4,000+ up front for install (with all the discounts they advertise) and $60+ per month for monitoring. 

I immediately regretted signing up for this -- three year commitment, too.

Next day I went through the pprwork -- electronically signed and sent to my email. 

Be aware that ADT, though there is a way to legally cancel without 3 days, they intentionally make it very difficult to do so. This may be illegal, and if not, it should be.

To cancel, these are the steps in the runaround:

1. Locate the email with the legal signed documents in my email account.

2. These are embedded into some kind of document software -- you can read them there.

3. There is a document name NOC that has the document for cancelling with 3 days. Since the document software lets you only read not respond, you must download the NOC document, print it,  sign it, and fax back  or mail the signed cancellation. This is not obvious (I have a MSCIS computer degree and 14 years in the industry figuring this out took some time). They have fast and easy electronic signup software on the salesperson’s tablet or phone, but not for cancelling – of course. If I had designed this process as a software engineer, I would have been fired – unless, of course, it had been the company’s intent to deceive or mislead a potential customer in a way that is legal but unethical.  For a layman or someone not familiar with computers, this would be a nearly impossibly to figure this out.

4. Once I figured out how to get the NOC document, I printed several copies of it and signed them all. I mailed to of them to the address noted in the NOC, curtained, tracked, with return receipt on one of them. I attempted to fax the signed document SIX TIMES throughout the day. Each time, I got “NO ANSWER” from the fax number. When I tracked the USPS tracking numbers, I got a not that is was undeliverable to the address given on the NOC.

Now this last point – I suspect that this may be illegal? If not, it is beyond unethical.

5. finally I called an ADT customer support or sales number – nothing given to me but a number a got online.  I got a lovely woman who sent my cancellation to ADT cancellation dept – or so she said (haven’t checked on this yet) so I think – hope – that that is the end of it. We’ll see.

Moral – be careful, get the salesperson’s card, phone, etc, don’t sign anything when you are unsure or tired. Keep any documentation, keep all records of attempt at contact, and use a credit card that give you the ability to dispute a charge – rather tan, say a debit card, and ask the salesperson to show you exactly where the cancellation documents, and have him/her help you print a hardcopy before they go.