You want to know more?

Gass: I am a psychologist by training and worked as a management consultant for many years. In the 90s, I myself was affected by money losses twice myself, once by a scammer, the other time by a affiliate who didn’t pay a commission. Both times it went into 6 figures. Both times I hired debt collectors. In the first case they returned about 20% of the money, in the second 100%. This company later asked me to take over marketing and sales. I did that for a few years until I moved to the Inkasso-Team in 2014.
Lagler: I have an education as a maintenance specialist and an additional commercial education. During my apprenticeship, I worked part-time with the Inkasso-Team. I saw that this activity was exciting and financially interesting. I’ve been at it full time for 2 years.

Lagler: For tactical reasons. We are not interested in debtors knowing operational staff in advance. For example, sometimes observations or other undercover operations are necessary. Mr. Gass and I are also responsible for sales, so we are allowed to be a little more in the public eye. We are currently a team of 7 people plus about 20 freelancers.

Gass: The be-all and end-all is a thorough analysis of the case and in-depth research on the debtor. You have just heard that this may also require observation. In addition, we have many other research tools and sources with which we can get a picture of a debtor’s life situation and find starting points for pressure.

Gass: Generally, we resolve many cases through skillful negotiation or through legal action. But, we prepare an alternative beforehand, namely what we do when negotiations do not lead to goal.
I’ll give you a few examples. In one case we found out that the debtor’s in-laws had a low opinion of their son-in-law. So we wrote a hypocritical letter to those very in-laws informing them of the son-in-law’s debt. We asked if they could not pay his debts. This provoked angry reactions from the in-laws and the wife. Finally, the wife paid a large part of the debt just to get the troublesome family issue off the table.
In another case, a debtor stalled us for months with empty promises. Then we published his story on the internet. This publication was factual and contained only true facts. We ignored a warning from a lawyer. We knew that there was no objection to the publication in the form it took, and we stuck to our presentation. This was so damaging to the debtor’s reputation that he paid the entire debt.

Lagler: No, one could only speak of blackmail if we had no legally justifiable demand. What we do is not coercion either. We don’t say: ‘Pay, otherwise we’ll do this or that’.

Gass: Yes, of course. Pressure per se is not illegal. Many debtors would not pay without pressure. Clients come to us precisely because we are creative specialists in pressure scenarios. Often our clients themselves have tried everything possible in vain: talking, sending reminders, prosecuting, etc. But the debtors have stalled or tricked them, for example by transferring their income or assets to others. Clients expect us to uncover such machinations and put the debtor in a situation where he has to pay. And that’s where we are very creative and push the envelope.
Lagler: You should keep the following in mind. Before any pressure scenario takes place, personal contact with the debtor is the first step. We want to know his point of view and negotiate a fair solution first. Only when he blocks are further steps taken.

Gass: If we did, we certainly wouldn’t put that in here. Joking aside, we are specialists in intelligent means of pressure within the legal framework. We explain to the clients in a personal conversation what we will do in the specific case.

Gass: Yes, of course. We are a Swiss company and our main territory is the German-speaking area, Switzerland, Germany, Austria. In recent years, other countries have been added on a case-by-case basis. On our website you can see where we have been active. We have seen that we have the ability to successfully collect money in these countries as well.

Lagler: This is only possible with local partners, freelancers, and collection companies or lawyers on-site. This network is very important in order to be able to do this work. As a rule, we also travel personally to the debtor’s country.

Gass: Finding debtors is often part of our work. We find them in 90 % of the cases. I only remember three cases where we were not successful.

Gass: Yes, in about three quarters of the cases we bring back money.

Gass: Quite simply. Before a success can occur, we must work intensively on a case, often for months. That has to be financed. And of course we cannot guarantee success in individual cases. The down payment is therefore a fair sharing of risks and costs between the client and us.
Lagler: According to the collection contract, we take on cases for an unlimited period of time. Even if the deposit is used up, we have to keep working. Even with a lawyer, you usually have to pay an advance on costs. If this is used up by the lawyer, you have to pay extra and you don’t know where the limit is. With us you never pay more than the agreed deposit. If a case lasts longer than about 6 months, we almost always end up with a negative balance, which means that from then on we work on our own account. The minus is only compensated by the success commission.

Gass: Lawyers are specialists in legal issues and legal action, especially in the case of disputed claims. Rules of professional conduct prohibit them from doing many things that we can do. With professional debtors, it is sometimes difficult to get anywhere through the legal process. You could say: We pick up where lawyers leave off. However, we also sometimes take legal action in parallel or cooperate with lawyers by obtaining legal expert opinions or charge them with lawsuits.

Lagler: It is best to send an email or fill out our contact form. We will contact him or her by phone or arrange a meeting. As soon as we have the documents, we let them know whether we could accept the case and give an initial estimate together with an offer. All of this is non-binding for them.
Gass: Only then do we present you with a collection contract.

Lagler: Let me put it the other way round: We can accept cases that satisfy the minimum sums. These amount to 50’000.– euros or Swiss francs for cases in German-speaking countries, 100’000.– euros for cases in the rest of Europe, and 300’000.– euros outside Europe.
Gass: And it must be a documented claim, i.e. claims arising from loan agreements, other contracts, acknowledgments of debt, court decisions, or other enforcement orders. Unpaid invoices are also eligible if they are based on a written agreement.

Gass: If we see opportunities, we will also take on untitled claims. There are clients who do not want to go to court or are afraid of the costs. As I said, we conduct a preliminary analysis for all inquiries and then decide whether to accept the case.