Around April I cancelled my month to month alarm service with this company, this was after 4 years of solid service with no issues or complaints and no billing errors.
I received my final bill and paid it which was $16.05 which was my monthly fee just like it had been for the last 4 years.
I had an alarm installed in 2001 because I was going through a very nasty divorce. After the divorce and he moved on in his life and me being a single parent of 3 children I couldn't justify the expense anymore, that's why I went with the month to month contract to begin with. Anyway I received the final payment and paid it and never heard anything from this company again, never received another invoice, phone call, voice mail, fax, email or anything from them until April when a company by the name of Anderson Crenshaw contacted me.
A person from that company named Charles stated that I owed Sentry Systems a balance of $110.00 and I said for what I haven't ever received anything from this company about any balance. I said can you send me this information, Charles stated no he wasn't sending me anything until I paid this balance of $110.00 and I said well I am not paying anything until I know what I am supposed to be paying for. He stated he would haunt me morning, noon and night and he would never go away until I paid this. I said well until you send me the information I am not paying anything and hung up on him. I contacted Sentry Systems right after I hung up on this Charles.
I left a message for the billing person who is Lori and apparently the one who takes care of past bills.
No phone call returned to me, so the next day I contacted Sentry Systems again and was able to speak with Lori she stated she would have to find the account and would get back to me.
I didn't hear from her again so a few days later I contacted her at Sentry Systems again. She stated that it appeared I missed a payment for $16.05 in February and said she would send me the invoices. A week went by and no invoice, so I contacted her again, she stated she mailed them and I said well I didn't receive them, she stated she would send them out again, again another week went by and no invoices, in the meantime this Charles from Anderson Crenshaw continued to call and leave messages at my house.
I continued to leave messages and finally got a hold of Lori where she stated she sent them and would run them again and send them to me on her way out that day, we verified the address was the same as it always had been everything was correct. Some more days went by and I never received the invoices from Lori.
I contacted Sentry again and stated I wanted to speak to some one else that apparently Lori wasn't able to get the invoices sent out to me and even though my address hadn't changed or my name or anything for the last 13 years I would assume the mail should get there because their previous bills had gotten to me for 4 years in a row with no problems. I don't recall the women's name but she stated she would look into it and would call me back in the morning I gave her my work number and that she could fax them to me at my office so I could be for to get them. She called me back the next morning and stated she found them and would fax them over to me. A short time later I received the fax of about 15 pages or more.
1 invoice was for $16.05 and the rest were $5.00 a month late charges. I contacted her again (I think her name was Barb or something like that) anyway I stated to her that I wasn't going to pay all these late fees that I never even knew I owed, I never received or anything. She stated they didn't send them out every month and she wasn't sure why I never received these invoices but I could speak to Lori about it.
Again I left a message for Lori on this matter and she didn't return my call. I made a copy of the invoices and wrote out a check for $31.05. It was the $16.05 invoice I never received and I stated I would pay the $5.00 late fee for March, April and May which were the months I still had service, I attached a letter to her stating this is what I was paying and stating that I was sending a copy to the Attorney General Office to make a complaint about this, that I didn't think it was okay to try and collect a debt that you didn't even take anytime to notify the party they owed this debt and then to have a debt collector contact me and not want to provide anything to me concerning this so called debt and it was a year after the service was originally cancelled.
I never heard anything further until the end of May when a gentleman from Anderson Crenshaw left a message for me on my cell phone; I think his name was Jamie. I contacted him he asked for my phone number, he couldn't find the account, I gave him my old phone number since I had just moved, he still couldn't find it, he looked by my last name and still couldn't find it, so he stated it must be cleared up and if he found it he would call me back.
I didn't hear anything until 6/21/05 when a women from Anderson Crenshaw called me and told me I had to pay this $80.00 and I said no I was not paying it I never was billed for it I didn't have service during any of that time, Sentry never sent me an invoice, or called me or anything to say I owed this $16.05 from February, she stated fine she would begin civil litigation.
I contacted Sentry Systems again and asked to speak to someone above Lori they stated that Lori is the manager for accounts receivable and for me to hold on, they transferred me to Lori's voice mail again I left a message and stated I wasn't paying this $80.00 for a bill I never received and I wanted a phone call back from her to clear this matter up. I stated that her customer service was very bad and I couldn't believe she was the manager and that if she didn't return my call I would come down to the place of business in person to deal with this.
No phone call was returned to me at all as of yet.
Why on earth wouldn't I pay a 16.05 bill that I had paid all these years?
Why were they not able to get the invoices to me through the mail but had no problem getting them to me when I had service?
Why is it that my last name was spelled wrong on all these invoices but never was previously when I had service?
I want this $80.00 dropped and this Anderson Crenshaw to stop calling me. I want Sentry Systems to be responsible for their bad billing system and take away the $80.00 in late fees they never even invoiced and mailed to me to begin with. I am paying the $80.00 by sending it in the mail in the morning as I do not want this company to ruin my good credit but I will be telling everyone what an awful customer service and billing system they had and hopefully deter people away from this company. Not to mention their crappy choice in debt collectors.
I hope they lose business from this posting and any future postings along with the BBB complaints I have made in writing.
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