When building my home, I contracted a company to install a security system and monitor to provide monitoring for that security system. That company went out of busines and turned their accounts over to the company in this complaint, Whitetail Electronics. I received a letter stating the turnover, but I never received any form of contract from Whitetail, other than an invoice for monitoring services, which I began paying.
I noticed that the front door on my system was no longer triggering the chime, or the alarm, so I called to report this. Upon calling I found that my call was being directed to Mr. Greg Butala, who was always unavailable, but would get back to me. I realized that smaller companies are not always better and in this case, I was not having my needs met.
In February of decided to contract ADT Home security because I knew the company had enough manpower to handle my account. During the transaction, I asked the ADT agent how a change over in systems was usually handled. I was instructed to call Whitetail and have the account cancelled, which I did immediately after ADT installed their system.
In november of I received an invoice from Whitetail Electronics for monitoring for the coming year. I immediately called and told them that I had already cancelled this account. I was told that I had to speak with Greg Butala who was unavailable. When I finally reached Mr. Butala, I explained that I was dissatisfied with the service and that I had already cancelled this account. He asked me to put something in writing, which I did, in the form of the invoice notated with the date and time of my cancellation call.
In June of I received a certified letter from Mr. Butala, stating that my account was long overdue in the amount of $222.00. He went on to say that I had seven days to respond or that my account would be referred to collections. The letter did not contain a telephone number at all, yet I was to respond within seven days. When I attempted to get a company listing based on the letter's address in McKean, Pennsyvlania, there was none. But I managed to find Mr. Butala at a company listing in Erie, Pennsylvania.
When I called, of course Mr. Butala was unavailable, but I did manage to speak with him with some persistence. He explained that the letter was sent automatically and that he did not recall my call to cancel. He also advised me that they did not have the notated invoice, and as a result they continued to allow a third-party bill them for monitoring a system that I no longer had.
Mr. Butala called a day or two later and left a voice message to restate that the invoice was not in my record, but that the phone records did show that I had called to cancel the account. He went on to say that he would like to recoup the monitoring fees.
I sent Mr. Butala a certified letter asking for a copy of whatever contract there was and also the invoice in question as I intended to dispute his claim.
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