Most horrible customer experience I have ever had

We installed an alarm using ADT as we thought they are a reputable company that will provide a good service.

We were moving into a new complex and was still unsure whether we would sign up for monitoring with ADT, therefore we only installed an alarm. Initially we were happy with the process of getting a quote and Mark was very helpful and responded quickly. We just ordered a standard package, a beam and a HYYP device that enables you to arm/disarm the system from your phone. We were pleased that they were able to offer us this system, as these were all the features we were looking for. We confirmed with Mark whether the entire system would still work even if we did not sign up for monitoring with ADT. He assured us that this would not be a problem, but that he would require a 100% payment upfront. We didn't think this was unreasonable and made the payment. This was a month ago and I still do not have a working alarm system.

I have never been this frustrated with any company in my life! Firstly our booking was mixed up and I needed to demand to get the alarm installed on the day we moved in (even though we made the payment 10 days before). The HYYP device was not in stock and therefore this was not installed. The one remote does not work and the stay function was programmed incorrectly.

We thought that this would just be a simple process of ordering it and sending out more technicians to fix remote/programming. After more than 20 phone calls to Mark and the customer centre, we have not received any further assistance. Mark has now come to the realisation that the HYYP device they have does not work if you are not signed up with ADT (even though we specifically asked it this would be a problem before ordering the alarm system) and now wants to charge us an extra R1 000 to outsource this to another service provider.

I understand that sometimes people make mistakes, but the complete arrogance and inability to correct this problem after 4 weeks of back and forth is completely unacceptable. I will never use ADT for anything in the future and will make sure that I bring this to everyone's attention in my complex wanting to install an alarm system with ADT. Utterly disappointed and left feeling that I am powerless in getting my money back (or just receiving what I had paid for).