Lack of service or accountability

We signed a contract on 21 December with Blue via their sales rep Mukesh, but are yet to be fully operational. We were told that a technician will be allocated to get us up and running. The technician, Jithen arrived a couple of days later and fitted a receiver and guard cell unit, but also indicated we should consider a bigger system for our property. We requested that we just get up and running for now. He indicated that we would require a few fixes to arm the system, but would need to submit a report to technical and come back to complete this. We didn’t hear back so chased up with the technical team and Mukesh. Jithen was again allocated to complete the work required – no report or quote was sent to us in this regard. On his next visit, Jithen indicated he had a new system available if we were interested, and verbally quoted a cost for the system and the installation thereof. We accepted the cost, paid for the system as the deposit and agreed to pay the balance of the service fee quoted on completion of the job. He said he’d have to come back to install the new system instead of doing the job twice, as the scope of work was now different and he required more time to implement the upgrade. We requested a receipt based on the payment, which he indicated he would bring us on the day of the install. He left having made arrangements to come back a few days later. We haven’t heard from him since. We called Blue’s technical team multiple times looking for a resolve, only to find out that Jithen no longer works there. We told them he has left us with a new system, taken our money but has not completed the job. Someone from management would get back to us they said. After more chasing from us, Blue through Akbar finally acknowledged the situation and sent out another technician to complete the install. We now find out that the system we paid for is actually a dead one. Once more, the issue has been “escalated” by the new technician and we should hear from management the same day. No phone call received. We call again that afternoon to understand how this will be fixed. This time we speak to Suren. Suren now indicates that this is difficult scenario for Blue as it is us that made a direct deal with the technician. We are told multiple times that it is unfair of us to expect them to carry the complete cost of the fix as it is far more than we have actually paid. At this point we still have not seen any report or quotes. He goes on to state that they have processes in place for any work to be done, and that we have not followed the process. He goes further to suggest that we must pay half the costs required, and that we should also assist by opening up a case of ***** against Jithen. We ask for confirmation of what the most realistic and speedy solution will be. Suren says he needs to speak to his director for options on a resolve but he’ll call us the next day. Of course he doesn’t and we have to follow up again. Still no call today and on our follow up today, we are told he now needs to speak to another person, Louis Botha who has been allocated the responsibility of this. We press for feedback in writing on our options, as well as a timeline today already. Still not received. Our issues are as follows: 1. Jithen was employed by Blue Security and arrived at our property in a Blue uniform and vehicle. When he engaged with us – it was Blue we were engaging with. This person was allocated to us by Blue, not someone we have found or opted to use. 2. This representative of Blue offered us a security solution that met our approval – he has not delivered on that solution and Blue has gone back on their word to deliver against that solution. 3. Suren refers to Blue’s internal procedures for any work to be done, and indicates any work required would not have been quoted to us directly by the technician – please can Blue indicate where and how this process was made available to us? 4. Please also show us notification of the scope of work and any quotes that were sent to us indicative of work to be completed? Even after we called you the very first time to request for the work to be finalized, Blue again did not follow said process and did not send us any documentation on the scope of work or any related quotes. 5. You also now conveniently refer to the contents of a report that indicate the scope of work to be far more than we have paid for, or the costs we agreed to – yet you were happy to send out a new technician just this week based on the same scope of work to complete the install of the system left behind without any additional costs to us? 6. Now that you find that the system is non-functional, you’re no longer happy to stick to this arrangement? 7. Furthermore, a debit has done off the given bank account for the install for the guard cell even though this cost was settled via an EFT already. The point remains that we have engaged the services of Blue Security and an employee under your watch acted ************ly and we are now being punished for it. We are out of pockets on money paid, with no security in place – with implications to our safety and insurance cover. There is a serious lack of urgency to resolve this. God forbid that our home is broken into – will Blue be carrying the cost for any losses incurred? Do you actually take your clients seriously? The only thing clear here is the shifting of blame for a scenario caused by one of your employees, and the lack of accountability from what is supposed to be a reputable and trustworthy organisation.