No report/action received on break-in/intrusion

Item: G4S
Rating: 1
Author: Desmond A

At around 7pm on 01/02/2017, the caretaker of the Mitchells Plain United Church in Westridge, Mitchells Plain, happened to walk around the building and then saw the window was neatly removed and the burglar bar was bent in such a way for the intruders to enter, and they were obviously detected by the motion sensor in the building and then fled the scene. If this was not done, we probably would have picked up that there was an intrusion on the premises. I then contact the nominated contact persons to query whether they were informed of any alarm that went off, and they confirmed that they didn't receive any contact from G4S. I then called the G4S Emergency Response Contact Centre to query why the nomiatecontact persons were not informed about intrusion and was then infomred that the alarm was triggered at 01h20 on 01/02/2017, and the Contact Centre then dispatched the armed response company, who then advised them that an inspection was done of the premises and therefore the alarm was over-rided. I then requested that they urgently dispatch the armed response company to come and inspect the intrusion and that I expected a full report on what transpired, by the close of business of the following day. After waiting for approximately 15 minutes, the 1st armed response vehicle arrived, but was informed by the guard that he couldn't do any inspections, as the team leader who attended to the alarm was still on the way. I then waited another 10 minutes for the armed response team leader (Rushin) to arrive and then showed him where the intrusion took place, and queried whether and actual perimeter inspection took place, and he advised that couldnt come onto the premises as they didnt have a key to open the gate (even though the wall was merely 1.5m high and they could surely jump over the wall to perform this perimeter inspection). I then told Rushin that he must please write a report of this incident, so that I could receive this much from G4S, for us to then take the matter forward. To this date the Mitchells Plain United Church has not received a report on the matter. I then received a call from Michel Roux on Monday, 06/02/2017 to query what took place, after I had to call the Contact Centre and the Account Department on numerous ocassions before this, who could not advise who our account manager is and who was dealing with this matter. I then requested Michel to find out who the account manager is for the Mitchells Plain United Church, and to send the armed response company responsible for our church to the church on that evening at 19h30, so that I could provide them with a key to access the gate and enter the premises to do a proper inspection if they were instructed to do so in future. Given the track record of G4S and it's armed response service provider (Secu-Pro), they did not arrive on that evening to collect the key and I have not heard from G4S since. I have also sent a mail to ********** on the G4S "Contact Us" page, but I am not holding my breathe that I will be receiving any contact from her, as this series of disspointing experiences with G4S hasn't left me with much hope. I have received permission from the Mitchells Plain United Church to cancel the contract, but couldnt even find detail on the G4S as to how to do so, even though I attempted one last time today to confirm who the account manager is for our account, and happend to get the name of and number of Lee-Anne in the Cape Town office, whom I couldnt contact, as she is only in office on Monday. I am hoping that I will actually be able to get hold of Lee-Anne on Monday, as I really dont know what more we have to do to get some sort of service from G4S, even though our monthly debit order goes off without fail, and do not receive any complaints from their side, as they get their money. Desmond Abrahams Treasurer: Mitchells Plain United Church ********** 110 **********

Helpful (0)

Replies (0)