Cancellation

During March 2017 an ADT salesperson approached me to take on their services at the rental property I had just moved in to. I mentioned that I would only be in the property for a short period and did not want to be tied into a long contract. He explained that it wasn't a problem and that only 1 months notice was required for termination and no additional fees would be charged. At no point did the salesperson offer to go through the t's and c's of the contract. After a few months, at the end of July 2017, due to appalling service I cancelled the contract giving my months notice, only to be told there is a R1,290 cancellation fee! Upon explanation of what I had been told by the salesperson and query to this issue on August 20th I received no response and assumed ADT had done the right thing and cancelled my contract with no charge as I had clearly been mis-sold the service. Without any communication, 18 months later, I have learned that ADT have passed my account (that I was led to believe was cancelled) to a debt collection service. Absolutely shocking communication and possibly the worse customer experience I have come across. Truly hopeless professionalism.