ADT Alarm System - demand for payment

michael1234

We have been paying nearly £50 per month for this for the past 5 years. Well it started as £30 and has just crept up.

I looked at the original contract and it says we signed up for the "platinum" package which means free monitoring, servicing and maintenance. Maintence specifically includes "repairs and replacements parts as a result of equipment malfunction" and "repairs and replacements parts as a result of normal wear and tear of the system parts". Certainly when it was sold, the salesman made it very clear that essentially unless we or someone else actively damaged the kit, we would be covered for anything that went wrong.

So a few weeks ago we got the usual annual letter inviting us to book for out annual inspection. The engineer showed up and when he was nearly finished told me he'd replaced a lot of batteries in the PIRs and also the battery in the main alarm unit. I double checked with him if it would be free of charge and then he starting umming and arring and saying head office likes to charge for them now but my best bet would be no to sign for any of the work and then argue my case. He was very much against taking it out and putting tyhe old one back in after I suggested doing just that. He said the main battery should be £25.

So, yesterday I received a bill for nearly £100 ! The bill actually said for "work done on the system" but when I rang they said it was "for the main battery sir". The person was polite as was I, but I came away from that call very depressed.

I am so angry. I have given that company (tyco ADT) so much money over the past few years to be treated like this.

As far as I am know, they can't force me to pay them that. Even the original contract is partly illegible (10% of the words are cropped off in the photocopy originally given to me). I didn't ask for the battery, its cost has been inflated, miss-described and in any case I should be covered under their "platinum" contract. That all said, if they do end up pursuing me, are they entitled to start adding other "admin charges" or costs prior to a court case I wonder?

The other thing is I noticed they need 3 months notice for me to cancel! Three months is a long time but I guess there's not much I can do about that? Unless maybe I claim the contract is not valid due to it being only 90% present? (It is genuinely impossible to read many clauses).

Sorry for the ramble. Got it off my chest now. :rotfl:

Keep_pedalling

According to their FAQ page battery replacement is chargeable on all commercial and domestic contracts.

http://www.adt.co.uk/existing-customers/faq

LilElvis

If the battery fails then you'll have a call out in the event of a power outtage as there will be no back-up power source. I've no idea what plan we're on but we only pay about £35 per month (an increase of circa £10 in 12 years) for a fully monitored system and have never paid anything additionally. This has included replacing a couple of sensors, the battery, the entire control box and some rewiring so that the system didn't interfere with the broadband line.

unholyangel

OP does the plan say batteries are excluded from "replacements parts as a result of normal wear and tear of the system parts"?

bod1467

As per #4 ... what matters is what the documentation says for the plan (when taken out and as subsequently amended and advised to the customer); what the website says now is irrelevant, unless these same changes have already been formally notified to the customer (and accepted by not cancelling the plan).

michael1234

Many thanks for the replies and makes sense about what was in the original contract or replacements sent to me. To the very best of my knowlege there haven't been any changes sent.
The contract I have is very difficult to read due to a lot of the sentences missing words at the end due to the poor photocopy.
Since it is a hard copy only I can't search for the word "battery" but I don't think there is any such exclusion mentioned.

unholyangel

michael1234 wrote: »

Many thanks for the replies and makes sense about what was in the original contract or replacements sent to me. To the very best of my knowlege there haven't been any changes sent.
The contract I have is very difficult to read due to a lot of the sentences missing words at the end due to the poor photocopy.
Since it is a hard copy only I can't search for the word "battery" but I don't think there is any such exclusion mentioned.

As above, even if they wrote to you to advise of the changes, they should have given you the right to cancel without being worse off for having entered into the contract before you are affected by any changes. You cant have a contract thats binding on only one party (ie making you liable for all remaining payments of the contract while allowing them to suspend provision of services/contractual benefit, change what is supplied etc).

They really should have ensured a proper copy of the T&C's were given to you as now, you could challenge quite a lot of those terms if the words that are cut off hide or change the meaning/effect of the terms. Its imperative that consumers have a chance to become acquainted with terms before being bound by them - the terms must be in plain intelligible english and this also refers to their presentation (font size/colour etc) - I would suggest a set of terms with words missing would not be intelligible english.

I would specifically look for information about batteries being excluded if not in the terms describing whats covered in the plan then in any terms headed with words to the effect of "limitation of liability".