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Collection Agency Says I Owe $800 — For an Alarm I Cancelled YEARS Ago?!

485 views · Published 19 November 2016 · 8:11 · Indexed 22 October 2026

Channel: Mike Martins · 2016 · People & Blogs

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I've got a really strange story for you guys today, and I want to know what you would do if this happened to you.

I'm at the mall with my wife and kids when one of my employees calls me from the store.

He tells me somebody from a collection company has called looking for me and claims I owe money.

My immediate reaction is: How?

As far as I know, I don't have any outstanding debt.

They leave an account number, so I call the collection company and find out they're trying to collect approximately $800 connected to an alarm system from my old business location.

Here's where it gets strange.

I had that alarm service at my first store around 2009–2010. When I moved the business to a larger location in 2010, I cancelled the service.

As I remember it, a representative came to the store and physically removed the alarm company's equipment.

Now, years later, I'm being told that according to their records, the equipment apparently never made it back to the company.

How is that my responsibility after their representative removed it from my premises?

I call the alarm company directly because I want to make sure the collection call is legitimate. They confirm the old account and tell me their records don't show the hardware being returned.

The representative even tells me she believes me when I say their technician took it!

But I'm still apparently responsible for the money.

At that point I'm thinking: What am I supposed to do?

Fight this?

Try finding records from six years ago?

Track down the technician?


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Or pay the $800 and make the problem disappear?

I eventually decide I'm just going to pay it because I don't want this hanging over me, even though I still don't understand why I should owe the money.

And this isn't the first bizarre billing problem I've dealt with.

I've had problems involving electricity meters, store numbers and other business expenses where somehow I'm left trying to straighten everything out.

That's why I made my previous video asking:

Does anybody care about doing their job properly anymore?

If an employee of a company removes company-owned equipment from my property, shouldn't the company be responsible for tracking that equipment after it leaves my hands?

I want to know what you guys think.

Would you pay the $800?

Or would you fight it?

Let me know below.

Thanks for watching!

Mike Martins Channel

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