MATHEWS SEWER SYSTEM

Last fall we did a remodel to our home and the county inspected our spetic system which failed. We had to hire and pay for a design for a new system in order for the county to approve the permit. We hired and paid a company $450.00 to do the design. We now had one year to get bids and have a new system installed. In the spring, we contacted several companies from a list provided by the county and asked they would have any interest in providing us with an estimate to install a new septic system. Mathews Sewer Systems was one of those companies. We were very clear that we wanted a bid only (we already had a design and knew there would be a cost involved if anyone did design for us) Several representitives from various companies came out and walked our property with us and two gave us verbal bids, two companies gave us written bids all of which would include the cost of a new design once they were hired to do the work. Between 4/10/2010 and 5/24/2010 Jan Mathew, from Mathews Septic System showed up at our house four times unannounced each time. We were not impressed by her lack of professionalism and lack of follow through. Most companies had estimates to us within a week or two. On 4/10/2010 we also contacted another company and had a bid from him by 4/26/2010. In May we chose him to do install our new spetic system. The day after we chose him, Jan shows up at our door again, unnounced, telling us we owe her $650.00 and that she has the design in her hand. We were shocked, we hadn't even heard from her in 13 days, which is part of the reason we chose the other company. We told her that we had chosen another company to do the job. She insisted that we authorized her to prepare a design and that we couldn't have the design until we paid. We told her we never agreed to pay for a design and that we didn't even know she was doing one. She got very angry, stomped away from the door and started pulling the unitilty flags from the front yard. We never authorized her to do a design, not verbally, and not in writing, we have never signed anything. We simply wanted an estimate to do the whole system. We NEVER received any paperwork from them, NO design, NO estimate. To this day we have no paperwork. On 7/31 we received a bill from Mathews Sewer Systems claiming that we owed them $669.56 which included a late fee (this was our first bill). We sent them a letter on August 2nd apologizing for any missunderstanding and to please stop billing us In her bill and letter dated 8/25/2010, she claims that she mailed us the design and the estimate. We have never received anything from that company. She indicates in the letter that we gave our word and that "our words mean nothing". On 9/28/2010 we received another bill indicating they are going to take action to collect from us. I would NEVER recommend that company. They lack good communication by showig up announced, they lack professionalism by their inmature behavior, they have nothing in writing stating that we would pay, which we didn't know they were charging for, and now they attack our character and are taking "action" to collect. I know this is long, please let me know if you need clarification on any of these issues.