ADT Answers the Alarm Bell

What alarm system?  ADT/TYCO and John J. Nazarian went to battle and I have to say, when these guys screw something up they fix it! Only if you have the ability to track down MR. BIG and talk to someone with a brain and not raisins where the gray matter should be.  As many of you know I have given advice for dozens of years about the advantage of having a good home alarm system, and more important a service.  Hell, many of my clients and friends live in very secure and gated communities with uniformed guards at the gate.  And even then having a good security system is just as critical.  And I have to say, when I started, I like thousands of others had WESTEC……..and now we have ADT/TYCO…read on.

Last week I wanted to change my passcode as I had every two to three years for more than 12 years….it is a personal thing for me.  I called ADT and got a young lady who had no idea how to change my code and told me so.  Perfect I say, can you find for me another person,  she tells me to call back and with luck I will get another operator who can help me…funny but true, she was “new”…I am so glad that I was not getting my ass kicked, “no don’t hit me with that I am talking to ADT!”  I do as I was told and call back and I get another young lady who attempts to help me and instead of removing and changing my current code, I now have two codes, my original and the new one (I am glad that this one knew just a little more than the last one)…they both work! She finally gives up and puts me with a supervisor from Nebraska.   Yes you heard me right Nebraska, hey I am happy that is still America!   Madam Stupidvisor tells me that a “technician will have to come out and the charges would be $135.00″ and wait it gets better, they will have somone available in TWO WEEKS,  what?  I tell her that I have a light flashing on and off and that I now have two passcodes, her response, “maybe YOU did something wrong,” what? (Did I not see this episode on ‘I Love Lucy’)  I did just as I was told by the ADT phone girl who was instructing me.  By now I am ready to spit fire, I have been set up…”Do this and this and — Oh I am sooooo sorry now we will have to send someone out and YOU get to PAY $130.00″…what?

Well, I make my appointment for the weeks ahead and I send an e-mail to TYCO telling them what BULLSHIT this is and how terrible it is to be treated this way, and  I get the office phone number and the home address of the guy who runs TYCO….Mr. Big, aka Mr. Ed Breen. I am now calling and sending e-mails. You know I am doing the famous Nazarian “watch me now.” I SO BELIEVE THAT WHEN THESE “CUSTOMER SERVICE” JERKS ARE RUDE AND NASTY TO CUSTOMERS WHO PAY THEIR BILL SO THAT THEY CAN HAVE A JOB, Mr. Big needs to know!!! Office phone number 1- 609-720-4200 . The next day I speak to Mr. Breen’s office (aka Mr. BIG) and it is Valerie who informs me that Mr. Big is out of town and asks how she can help me.  Nice, very nice and she takes my name and number and I wait.  In the meantime I get a very nice phone call from Melinda Stewart at the Corporate Office, this young lady is wonderful and tells me that she can and WILL HELP,  SOS! You can reach these people at 1-866-561-0952.  I am not going to give you Melinda’s direct extension because I dont want to, she is working hard and does not need any more I am sure…..these are the people who really want to help you and boy did she ever.  She tells me that the next day a Tech will show up and make everything all better, hey that is sounding more like it and she’ll see if she can get the fee waived and will not charge me the ridiculous fee of $130 buckaroos to change my password. This is nice to see as everyone else so far was sooooo incompetent that it was nothing short of sickening that I pay for a service, that I have done myself for FREE. And the one time I need help, I get the crew from the “Ship of Fools.”

Next day I am contacted by “Oscar,” Oscar shows up, he speaks well and is very together looking.  I show him the Blue box and he does a few things and finds that I have another code that I knew nothing about and now I realize I have 3 passcodes…what?  Well Oscar does his magic and it blows up in his face (you know he hit a wrong button and POOF)….what?  Yes he punches a wrong code or moved a wrong wire and wiped out my entire system..,but, he tried.  Now I am running outside to see if I have a F’n black cloud over my house.  Oscar apologizes but he cannot undo what he has done and tells me that I need to call and make an appointment to see if they will send him and one other tech to return to re-program this system. (a WESTEC 4000 that was almost 12 years old …never ever had a problem till I had someone come and change the code)  BUT it still worked fine till Oscar showed up (I like this guy)…just kidding, Oscar you were as effective as trying to blow out a gasoline fire on a windy day…but you tried.  Well  I call the service people who will get me a time to come out and fix my system, RIGHT?  Wrong, so very wrong. Some soft spoken male at the other end commences to tell me that “Oscar doesn’t run anything” and it is he, the voice on the other end that is feeling very powerful  in telling me that it will be a week to get my system turned back on….what?  DMV is looking more organized and friendly than ADT.  What got me was the cavalier attitude, keep in mind, it was one of ADT’s Techs who shut my system down and now I have Mr. Zen being very full of himself with his power to inform me that he knows I have NO ALARM system and he is going to take his sweet time in fitting me in…..for this shithead, knowing I,  a 12 year customer have no alarm system due to an error on one of HIS Techs attempts to change my code, and he doesn’t care! I may have just as well been speaking cantonese.

I had a secret weapon my new found friend in Nebraska, Melinda, she got it as soon as she heard what had happened.  Folks remember all I ever attempted to do was to change my entry code…that is all.  And I got to see ADT at work, ‘Yellow Carpet Service’, stand right here and get pissed on.  I even left a message at Mr. Breen’s office, When I called I spoke to another very nice person named Rosa, she “got it” and put me in touch with Mr. Michael Schultz and he turned out to be the “rain maker.” He asked if it would be OK to wait a couple of days and he would have someone at my door first thing Thursday morning.  I could tell from his tone he was not happy with what I had been put through to date ( Mr. Schultz got it too).

Well the short end of the story is this, I had Oscar and Andy the technicians  (these guys are great and also entertaining) back and it was not but a few minutes later that Andy Field, Residential Service Team Manager also showed up…Mr. Fields was very apologetic and assured me that they would get to the bottom of why I was treated so badly and that they were going to replace the entire board and exterior components WOW, we went from “Yellow Carpet Service” to “Gold Spoon Service” and that is what I remembered 12 years ago when I signed on, GREAT SERVICE.  It gets better, while I have Mr. Fields, two seasoned Technicians who should call?  Mr. Michael Schultz to see if I was happy!  Folks it does not get any better than this…these guys spent 10 hours and we now have an alarm system that works and I am a very happy home owner again.  Very Special thanks to Valerie and Rosa in Mr. Breen’s office,  Melinda in Nebraska for getting me to Mr. Michael Schultz (her understanding made me feel that I had someone I could depend on, NOT MR. ZEN), who got Mr. Andy Field on the case and of course the guys who put it all to work, Oscar and Andy!  If these guys had made it rain any harder I would have needed a canoe, Thank you ADT for making a believer again in the American business ethic that people do care and take care of a customer…and they even told me to call them back directly if I needed anything else!