Appello Reviews 202

Disgusting poor service, I’ve been trying to call them all morning to stand down emergency service but you can’t get through to anyone.
Absolute shower of ***T

As a house manager who has worked in a building serviced by Appello monitoring services I have seen the work of Appello result in the saving of many lives and provide an exceptional service. It always brings me peace of mind to know Appello is monitoring. Yesterday they called the Fire Brigade for two separate smoke activations. Thank you Appello.

Applied as an 'emergency' call taker. With many years experience as a proper 999 call handler, with both ambulance and fire, I got knocked back because i was TWO percent below satisfied mark.
The psychometric test was bollocks and nothing to do with the job. Well after the shocking reviews I have read, im glad not to be associated with such an anal company

It’s supposed to be my emergency in my home. But totally unreliable connection. I tried for 2 hrs today. Box said “your call is being connected” but never was.
How can I rely on you, if you don’t provide the security I pay you for?

Appalling company. Door entry and warden call system always breaking down and left residents at risk over Christmas and New Year period at risk. Issued door code to folk to enable them to gain entry. Totally covered up a recent incident where a resident nearly died and the cheek to try and block new suppliers of new entry system.

Weird how all the positive reviews are written in the same dorky style, reported...
"I have worked here for over XXXX amount of years and can honestly say that XXXXX"
If you're going to fake reviews at least put some effort in.

Living in an independent living retirement home we were promised a brand new call system with the ability to call any other apartment as well as the managers' office.
They replaced all the old cables with up to date internet standard(?) cabling and gave us each a wall tablet to be able to make those calls as well as many other features.
It worked for a very short time. Now we can't call any other apartments or the managers because the Contacts button doesn't work and neither do the Alarm, Assistance and Visit Requested buttons.
The only thing that does work is the door entry system through which we can see video of the person who has rung and let them in if correct.
We aren't even sure if the automatic fire system alarm will actually go to the call centre and we've been advised to carry our pendants as the emergency pull cords do not work.
In all, this so called "future proofing" has cost us so much out of our funds for so little outcome.
Those in charge do not answer calls made to them or, if they do, nothing is done about our complaints.
This is an update that I forgot to make after receiving their reply.
I did email the company. It seems that, because I am just a resident and did not complain personally to the company, they felt that my complaint was spurious.
Consequently, I passed this information on to our management team who were the ones the company were evading in the first place even though they were acting on behalf of 45 apartment owners.
Now, two months later, there may be an inkling of progress in the near future when an engineer may pop in to see us when he's up here on holiday. May...?

My 96 year old friend has been waiting for a replacement pendant for months. Meanwhile she has fallen twice and was unable to call for help. Fortunately she had not injured herself. If she had and was bleeding badly, she would have died. For these vulnerable people it is literally a matter of life and death.

I have been trying since April to obtain a replacement for my Aunts damaged pendant. After a number of phone calls and mixed advice we have not resolved the issue. If I could give 0 stars I would

I contacted this company appello who said the system has nothing to do with them. I also contacted akuvox where the video door system is from, where you cannot get any further information
I have had numerous sleep disturbances from the outside doorbell, I live in a sheltered housing at a Central & Cecil building, this has been going on since the 15th May, when we had a demonstration how to use the door video camera, I mentioned how I can hear the doorbell as it is very loud outside, as I live above the door entrance, and was told on that day that someone is coming to lower it, nobody has been after numerous complaints to Aster, who is part of the C&C group, now coming up to 3 weeks I was told that someone will come on their next visit, when I asked when that would be, I was not given an answer as to when that would be. They are very bad in customer care, especially when the service charge has increased to quite a lot

Had to replace a pendant which my sister misplaced.
She is partially sighted has Parkinson's and nearly ninety.The pendant arrived with no instructions, but they expect her to calibrate the new pendant to her phone.After many phone calls we arranged a friend to go and see her,even he was unable to do it.
I am disgusted at the way she has been treated,on their profile it says care,well we are still waiting!!!

On 3rd February I raised a formal complaint with Appello regarding the Careline support for my father in law.

Dad had a fall in his bathroom on the night of Friday 31st January and his Careline was activated. My husband and I can be with Dad in 7 minutes, and have been with previous calls Careline have made to us. However, on this occasion Appello failed to call any of the four contact numbers and Dad was left in the cold on his bathroom floor for 3 hours until the ambulance arrived.

The following morning, 1st February, I phoned Appello to find out why we had not been contacted in the first instance.  I was originally told that an operator had called my mobile number, but not got a reply and it appeared no further action had been taken.  I then had a return call from someone, who was clearly not telling the truth, to say he had checked another system and they had made calls to the 4 registered numbers. However, there was no evidence on any of the four numbers that a missed call had been registered. 

Dad suffered hypothermia from being on the floor so long, and where he had been in one position for so long, developed a sore. He spent five weeks in hospital.

Although Appello acknowledged my email on 3rd February, saying my enquiry had been logged under complaints reference number 54797, they made no further contact. Two weeks later, on 17th February, I chased Appello. On 18th February they responded saying they were continuing to actively investigate my complaint.

We are now six weeks since the incident. I'm disgusted with Appello's lack of concern for my father in law. The Careline used to be so good, but something has clearly gone very wrong with their support.

Today I have needed to contact Appello twice and each time at least 20 minutes wait. This is shambles for an emergency call response company.

Recently got our grandad a life line watch, this was accidentally knocked this evening 23/11/2024 935pm. Luckily I was with our grandad.
It took 7 minutes for a very unhelpful lady to answer, who asked if he was ok, to which I replied yes, sorry! But I am a little concerned about the time it took to answer! The lady blanked this and said are you ok ***** (grandad) and I said yes but, I am wondering why it took so long to answer and the lady hung up after huffing! Not happy at all with this service and will be looking to change supplier for our grandad. Training is definitely needed - these are people’s lives! Families have trusted you! Beyond unhappy - lucky I was here to see this poor service tonight!

Unfortunately the county I live in has decided to move to this company from the lovely one we had before, although due to the terrible service, adult social care swapped me back to my old welfare checks ( which Alpello do not have- well if they do they they dont even rate as 1 star!) which means I can ring them on an incoming number and they have all my details but have appellate alarm box. I find it interesting that all the good reviews come from management companies using terminology that most of us dont understand- I just want a caring person on the end of the phone,
I occasionally do pendant checks and 7 minutes is the quickest answer I’ve had- no good for someone having a heart attach of stroke, or for me who has it for choking episodes. Anyway, I had a new reclining chair delivered yesterday and only half an hour later when the machine told me it was unplugged did I realise. I meant to plug it in again, but in the interim I rang my real company who do welfare checks and they answered in 30 seconds. I didn’t want to recall this inaccurately but had remembered. As soon as power goes off they look to see if it’s an area problem or unique to your propert and they call you within ten mins. If you can’t fix it they ring two hourly ( unless you ask them not to) til the power comes back on) I decided after 24 hours that my box might be unsafe ( if it’s any use anyway) as the battery might have run out, I asked the guy ( most call handlers are friendly enough but clearly through no fault of their own so t know what they’re doing of the answer to basic questions & I do actually feel sorry for them) what is the protocol for unplugged boxes and he said it wake-up’s last just over 2& hours . I asked if they contacted vulnerable people who’s power is off and the guy wasn’t really sure. He said they’d had a notification at 3.06am but hadn’t liked to ring me then ( then why didn’t they ring me when it went off at 10.20am yesterday, the time I rang today approx), he said he could look into it and see what protocol is. I said( completely politely) ‘it’s a shame this is just a business not really a caring organisation ‘ and he hung up! I have had so many complaints through adult social care about them I’m worried they wouldn’t get to me in an emergency but might even not bother tho I’m sure no one would be that unprofessional. It’s just that on my other care line, they’re almost like friends! Big mistake moving to this Careline, although money is tight I would pay to go private but there are no longer any engineers in this county tho I rarely need one . Let’s hope there’s not a whole house power cut cos I have oxygen and sleep apnea machine and all sorts now and have no idea what they would do

On July 3rd. 2023 I lodged a complaint with Appello that my personal alarm and for alarm was not working. They acknowledged and on July 27th. 2023 gave me a complaint reference number 51699.

The faulty equipment was eventually replaced on January 4th. 2024 Iad to make a Subject Access Request under GDPR regulations to find out what had happened. In fact Appello did nothing and left it to the managing agen of my property to yake action.

I have now lodged a third stage complaint with the company and will be seeking compensation for gross negligence, distress and failure to keep me safe .

I received a call from Appello at 5.47 am today,23/08/24, asking me or a family member to attend my mother, or an ambulance would be called.Unable to get through on the number left. Very upsetting as my mother passed January 2023 and her property has been unoccupied since. No apology when I eventually spoke to someone. The one time my mother had to use her pull cord, there was no answer, on a Saturday morning,Thank goodness she was able to call me.

I have lived at different sheltered housing facilities which are connected to this company and in my experience the service is woefully inadequate. On the few occasions I have contacted this company I have found the service to be dismal. Staff seem either disinterested, incompetent or unable to cope. They are not solution orientated. The attitude is passive aggressive. They seem to focus on finding ways of evading rather than helping you to resolve a problem. On the last occasion I reported an unspecified door problem preventing me entry to my home. I didnt cause the problem. Appello's suggestion was to start looking for an emergency locksmith myself - on a Monday evening and without any belongings on me living in a sheltered facility. Absolutely dismal. Completely derelict in their duty of care. I would dread to have an emergency and have to rely on this company to help. I have now contacted my sheltered housing provider to investigate because I clearly need to arrange an emergency support service I can rely on. Dreadful, dreaful company in my experience.

When it works it's very good.However,when something goes wrong Appello seem to be unable to cope.
At this retirement complex we have been waiting 3 weeks for Appello to fix the broken door entry system.This means that residents can leave the building but they can't get back in.Only the able bodied and agile are able to use the alternative door.Deliveries are unable to be delivered as the drivers can't get in and I have no idea how emergency services would be able to get in if they were called out at night.Not good enough Appello.

I'm writing now because of a neighbours' experience the other day which mirrored mine in February.
When I contacted Appello in Feb because I was in unbearable pain after an operation, they offered to call an ambulance. I said not necessary, just want advice. Told me to phone 111. Equally useless. So they called an ambulance. Four hours later I contacted them again and told them to cancel the ambulance. Then I took full doses of codeine as well as morphine and collapsed into bed, half expecting to have taken too much but I was desperate. I survived obviously.
But if all Appello can do is call an ambulance in these days of NHS chaos, or tell me to phone 111, what use are they?
I live in a McCarthy Stone development. They say we MUST call Appello, not a neighbour or friend. But do they know how useless Appello are in practice for their residents??