ADT Not Refunding Money as Promised

I cancelled my ADT armed response subscription on 12 October 2017 after experiencing a lack of service delivery on numerous occasions. After sending my notice of cancellation, the area manager, Mr Carlos Barbosa, contacted me telephonically to find out why I am cancelling my subscription.

I explained to him, as per my written request for cancellation, that the response officers could not gain access to my complex on numerous occasions in the past 4 weeks. I further explained that the final straw was when my alarm was activated and I requested a response officer to be sent out to my premises. 2 Hours after the alarm activation, no one had responded. Upon phoning the control room, they informed me that the response officer had reported “all is in order” – this was a blatant lie, as I have video evidence that no-one had responded to my alarm activation during this time.

Part of my cancellation request was that my subscription be cancelled with effect 31 October 2017, and that ADT waive the 30 day cancellation policy in light of the lack of the non-existent service I had experienced. Mr Barbosa agreed to this and explicitly promised me that I would not be billed at the end of the month.

On 31 Oct an amount of R467.55 was debited from my account – subscription fees for the month of November. I phoned Mr Barbosa the following day to query this, and he admitted that this was done in error and said he would arrange for the money to be paid back into my account.

Subsequent to that first phone call, I have had to phone Mr Barbosa a total of 12 times – each time he promises to follow up on the payment and that he would get back to me within a few minutes. Not once has he come back to me!!! On Monday 4 December he told me that the payment reversal had been approved, and he didn’t know why it hadn’t been processed yet. It has now been 5 weeks since the debit order went off my account, and I have still not received the funds!!!

ADT is quick to deduct money off you account, but when it comes to returning money incorrectly debited, it takes 5 weeks?!?!?! This is completely unacceptable and inexcusable!!!

I am getting nowhere with Mr Barbosa, despite having have been more than patient! He can’t even be bothered to get back to me once!!!

This complaint on HelloPeter is my last attempt at resolving this matter amicably. Should I need to, I will lay a formal complaint with the National Consumer Commission.

I look forward to hearing from someone that can actually help me in this regard.