Consumer complaint received 2018-07-12
Company: McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff, Inc.
State: GA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX I elected to get security for my apartment. I contacted what I thought was ADT but later found it was a third party company XXXX XXXX XXXX. The ad stated I would get a {$100.00} gift card for starting the service along with other equipment for the home. Prior to the installation of the system, XXXX had debited my account for services I had not signed up for, even after being told I would be debited until I had service. Then the technician came out and performed an overview of the apartment and his supervisor came by. Once the supervisor arrived, he called into the company to authorize another {$100.00} gift card because they would not be able to install a certain piece of equipment. So then that would have given me 2 gift  cards in the amount of {$200.00} total. The technician informed me they would be mailed to me. I never received the gift cards and contacted both defender and the XXXX the gift card company, where they stated they would not resend me the gift card as I didn't mail in forms they state was sent to me, however, I never received the forms. So at that time, I told them there company was operating on false advertisement and that I no longer wished to have service with them as the basis for me choosing their service over the other available security companies. The representative at that time informed me, I could not cancel my contract without having majority of the contract paid. I told her until they honored my gift cards that I clearly did not receive I would not continue to pay. She said that is fine, we will simply send you to the credit bureau for failure to pay. Over the next 3 months they continued to contact me regarding this debt, and every time I repeated the same information. Finally on XX/XX/XXXX, a representative by the name of XXXX stated she would reactivate the gift cards and send me the information in order to receive them and that I would have to bring the payments current ( {$150.00} ) and pay {$9.00} for the gift cards to be mailed to me. XXXX confirmed that my account was still active surprisingly and the agreement would only be honored if I made the payment. I agreed and I got the mailing address from the representative XXXX transferred me to because I did not want this to go undocumented. I purchased a money order 2 days later and mailed it to the address provided and sent through USPS 2-3 day mail. I also stated in the letter mailed with the money order, if they cashed that money order they were honoring the verbal agreement made on behalf of their company to bring my account balance current and mail my two money orders. Failure to send the gift cards after cashing the money order would void the initial agreement/contract in XX/XX/XXXX and verbal agreement made on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX the gift card company sent out correspondence they said XXXX XXXX XXXX informed their company to send out to me to receive my gift cards, in which I did as I purchased the required 2-money orders for {$4.00} each to receive the gift cards. On XX/XX/XXXX, I went to use the alarm system and found they canceled my service after we reached an agreement on XX/XX/XXXX to bring my account current as it was not canceled. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX cashed the money order on XX/XX/XXXX, that I agreed to send in. I then informed the representative this voided our agreement/contract and I would not be responsible for any other charges/fees. Then I received a letter from McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff stating I owed {$1200.00} which the letter was dated XX/XX/XXXX, which further shows they had no intention of honoring the agreement made. This company is operating under false pretenses and misleading customers.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation