unprovided services and billing issues

I started a 3 year contract with Omega Marketting in 6/2004. They would provide the alarm and installation services if I agreed to a 3 year monitoring contract. I bought a new house later that year and moved in at the end of December. I contacted Omega in January to have my service activated at my new address (free one-time move). Omega has still not changed my service address almost a year later. I continued to pay for services during this period but also began having billing issues where checks that have cleared my bank they said I had not paid and have threatened to send me to collections. I sent a letter with details regarding the payments and showing that they had cleared, but they did nothing. I began a BBB complaint in September, seeking resolution to service and billing issues. I requested contract termination and refund for payments since January or services to be provided with credit. They refused my request to terminate the contract but has not resolved either of the issues. They held one of my checks until after its expiration 90 days later claiming I stopped payment and regarding service they said, "I will make an effort to see that his address is being monitored (if it isn't already)" but has not been corrected. In my response I requested arbitration (my contract has a binding arbitration clause) if agreement could not be reached and stated no additional payments would be made until issue is resolved. The case was closed as unresolved on 12/15 because the business did not respond. The business has not credited any payments not even those that have cleared my account and I expect they will send me to collections in the near future. I feel I should take action before they send me to collections but I'm not sure what to do.

Can they send me to collections if the contract has binding arbitration clause and I have requested arbitration?
Is there anything I can do before they send me to collections to protect my credit?
If I initiate arbitration will I need to pay for it?
If I get a arbitration attorney and win will I need to pay for the attorney?

I'm located in CO, business in ID. The arbitration clause states both parties volentarily submit to jurisdiction of dallas texas.

I would take action BEFORE your credit is dinged. It will be harder later to correct any errors on your report.
I would consider suing the company and all of the parties responsible in the operation , listing them as John Does 1 through 20.(example) if you don't know who they are. Check your local laws regarding this.
It sounds like they are in total Breach of Contract.

I don't know what the laws are for your state, it may be possible for you to sue from where they agreed to do business.(your relocated home/part of your contract) Usually you can sue where you live or the company conducts their business even if they are not homebased in your community. In other words they will have to come to your court. It doesn't sound like they will show anyway and you might stand a good chance of getting a favorable judgement.

Make sure all your contracts,records,bank records and correspondense are in order to present to the court to show their negligence and breach.

On the lighter side, you may seek the short term assitance of an Attorney to just write them a NASTY-GRAM.
It may stimulate them to take action in resolving the issue. At a minimum they might reply you have to go to arbitration and you already have the docs to show they didn't show for that.

The BBB has no power to make the company do anything. It's strictly voluntary on the part of the company to correct the problem to protect their reputation.

Check the local rules of which court you'll need to file in depending on the amount of your loss and the juristicional limitations.

Free Legal Aid is available to answer most of your questions. Check with your local court house or in the phone book for your area.

Thanks for the response, however I don't think I can sue them because the binding arbitration clause.

I'm torn on how to go about resolving this, if I continue to pay for services they are not providing I'm just throwing away my money and could perhaps even weaken my case against them (why do you keep paying if they aren't providing services?). However since the business isn't respond to any of my letters or phone calls or even the bbb, I feel my only options are to 1) proceed with arbitration, 2) send them check for whatever they say I owe them, 3) or stop paying and wait for them to attempt collections. Since I know very little about arbitration I would need some legal assistance and so far I haven't gotten any responses on legal match, I'm not entirely sure how to even go about initiating arbitration myself. I finally found the AAA web site www.adr.com where I can get a demand for arbitration form but I was a bit confused about their fee schedule it looks rather expensive... Assuming I win my case I would expect a refund for about $300 and contract termination saving me around $600. Additionally since it must be performed under the jurisdition of dallas TX I don't know if I would need to travel to TX to present my case or not which obviously would increase the costs. I can't find any clear cut answer to who pays for arbitration, I think it is up to the arbitrator to decide if the looser pays or if cost is shared by both parties. If I have to pay even half the arbitration costs then it probably isn't even worth it.
option 2 just seems wrong but could be most cost effective.
as for option 3 I don't know much of anything about collections either. I don't want to wake up some morning and find my car missing. From what I can gather they first have to get a judgement against me from the courts before they can collect. So I assume I will have the opportunity to dispute this and provide the documentation before the judgement is granted? I have the bank statements that show I've paid for all provided services and even paid the months in question when service wasn't even being provided, a copy of returned check they say I stopped payment on but actually expired, copies of letters and bbb complains they didn't respond to so I think it would be easy for me to dispute, and could easily represent myself since the documentation speaks for itself, I'd loose out on the 300$ worth of payments for unprovided services but I'm more concerned about my credit rating (over 750 last I checked) then anything else. I'm also assuming the judgement would need to be obtained in CO where I live rather then in ID where business resides and therefore I wouldn't need to travel to ID to dispute?

Can anyone tell me more about how easy/difficult it is to dispute a collection?
Is it even worth fighting, should I just **** it up pay the 800$ to cancel the contract and be done with it?

Thanks,
- Kurt

http://www.dr.bbb.org/ComSenseAlt/bindArb.asp

This link takes you to the Better Business Bureaus' page explaining the process.

I think you'll find it interesting, well as much as one can anyway...

You might wish to contact your local BBB for more answers and assistance.

mileaway recommends some good action --- if your credit score is in jeopardy (and it certainly sounds like that may be the case), it is up to you to take corrective action. Regretfully, this is one of those cases where the BBB will not be able to come through. The BBB operates under the premise that a group will resolve all complaints "fairly" --- but when push comes to shove, the BBB is about as effective as the UN without access to weapons! :-P

Try getting a trusted legal advisor to send a preliminary mailing. Depending on the outcome, you should probably consider further action.

Brad