Liberty Gas Service

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The installation went well although it was not the lowest price quote. We went with them because they were local.. We also agreed to buy our propane from them and paid for all gas we received. In the second year of our contract, Liberty Gas Service invoiced us for a $1,000 minimum usage fee for gas we did not purchase. This was the first invoice we ever received and it was sent by certified mail. We told them that they had never advised us of any minimum purchase requirement and that automatic renewal contracts were not enforceable under New York law without prior advance notice - which we did not receive. Then they informed us that we had signed off on this minimum purchase when we signed the service order after the day they did the installation. There were several people at our home digging up our lawn to lay gas lines and run gas lines through our house. Of course our focus on that day was safety and a job done well. At the end of the day when he asked me to sign off on the job, he included this clause of minimum purchase in body of one of several pages for the service order. We were not informed of this minimum purchase requirement at any point prior to hiring them for the job, before they started the work or during the work. We were never informed verbally before signing the paper work after the job. I called to discuss with the billing department and immediately instead of discussing she accused me of not reading what I signed. This put up a big red flag. Then the billing person looked at our "contract" and said there was a mistake in that they were charging us for 250 gallons when we only had a 100 gallon tank. She said she would reduce the "minimum purchase contract" to $400 per annum. I said that might work but I need to know what we actually used because there was no indication if they put any new gas in our tank. The only thing stated on the bill was a demand for $1000+ . She said she would pull the ticket and call me back. Instead of billing calling me back, I got a call from the owner Gary who started yelling at me that I should read things before I sign them. I said that this whole thing seemed really sneaky to me and then he yelled more, said he was pulling his tank and hung up on me. The next day, I had an attorney send a letter explaining that this contract was null and void re- NY law, that we were willing to continue to work with them. But, if they wanted to retrieve their tank that they would have to wait until the gas was empty. We offered to discuss the matter. Instead, Liberty Gas Service (without prior notice and against our instructions) unilaterally removed our tank on the day before Memorial Day weekend. We had paid a lease fee for the tank and it was 70% filled with gas we had paid for.