I left Switzerland in January and thought everything was done and dusted. However I today received (via Swiss postms forwarded mail service) an orange slip from a company called intrum justitia wanting almost 1000 CHF. I have tried to translate it but nothing quite adds up. In German it says
oben aufgeführte Rechnung wurde von ihnen noch immer nicht beglichen, obwohl Sie bereits 2 Mahnungen von upc cablecom erhalten haben. mit einer umgehenden Zahlung innerhalb der nachsten 10 Tage stellen Sie sicher, dass Sie den Anschluss an das TV - und Radionetz von upc cablecom behalten.
Moglicherweise sind Ihnen die konsequenzen des Nichtbezahlens nicht bewusst, aber steigende Kosten sowie Eintrage in Bonitatsdatenbanken konnen sich nachteilig auf kunftige Geschafte wie auch auf Joboder Wohnungssuche auswirken.
I am starting to wonder if it's some scam as I have never had any demands or dealings with anything to do with these guys. Has anyone had something similar ever? I am scratching my head in trying to get to the bottom of it all
Just searched and can see a previous thread. Must have spelled it wrong last time. Sounds an ominous group. Now we have left the country I wonder if they will chase us abroad?
Intrum Justitia are a company who buy bad debt and try to squeeze money out of the debtors. It sounds as though your cable TV provider thinks you failed to cancel your membership and is now going after you for the unpaid fees.
If their claim is legitimate, you're probably best off paying up. If it isn't it's best to write them a firm letter explaining what happened and threatening to take legal action against them if they don't stop harassing you.
They're not really a scam but pretty much borderline.
I can't tell you what it is exactly, but it would appear that you haven't cleared up your UPC Cablecom invoices and they're threatening to cut off your TV and radio connections. Guess you know alone if it's bona fide or a wind up.
With regards to ignoring it in case it's genuine, that issue has been dealt with here before, but if you intend on coming back you know what to do.
OK thanks guys. It seems to make sense. The only thing is that we NEVER dealt with a company called Cablecom. We were in CH for 5 years and used only Swisscom for phone and internet. I will write to them and explain this and see what they do next.
If you never had that company as a provider, I wonder if the new tenants signed up for a contract in your name. Definitely get the dates of these debts and if they are after your departure it should be rather easy to provide them with your de-registration paper.
The other option is that you were getting cablecom through your apartment building. Sometimes it's a default contract where you have to have to opt out rather than opt in. But it sounds quite low for 5 years of service....
Whatever you do with Intrum Justitia, don't pay their service fees/"legal fees". Those are completely illegal. If you do decide to pay the bill, pay the bill+interest, and send a letter that if they want the rest of the bill paid, send it to poursuites and you will oppose it there. We have a bill open with Intrum Justitia for 3 years now. All that's left on it is their "legal fees". It was never sent to poursuites, and every once in a while we get a new bill with a sale of 30% off!!!
But as everyone else said, try and see exactly what the bill is before you pay any of it. Good luck, with my experience, they aren't very helpful.
Cablecom is a pretty horrible company, I've had the same situation, spent hours on the phone that we never had any business with them and never will. They cancelled the bill only to issue it again and again... Call Cablecom once if you like but do not pay the bill.
If you write to Cablecom, be prepared for the letter to be ignored. Article below says Cablecom has been accused by the Konsumentenschutz of ignoring protest letters from customers and continuing to bill them for non-existant service.
They have a website so send them (or use someone elses mail) and just say Mr so & so is no longer in the country. Just an idea. My friend did it and never heard from them again
I just received a letter dated June 19, put it into Google translate, and looked up the "Glauberin". It's from a dating service in Luxembourg,180 Euros!. No idea where this came from. The letter reached me through a friend, because the address Intrum used is inaccurate, but it's one I used a long time ago. Seems like data mining to me. I'm going to dispute this. Good luck with that, right? I'll try the generic email in the letterhead, once. At least I'm not in Europe any more, don't have to worry about repercussions.
Few days back, i had similar letter from the same agency, saying that i have defaulted on some UPC cablecom payment. I called UPC cablecom customer care and quoted them invoice number and asked them to send me the copy of the contract related to invoice. Lady at the call center, started saying sorry, this is our mistake, i will cancel this invoice and you will receive a letter for the same. So its better to call UPC once and ask them for details. Probability is likly that the cancel the invoice, if contract is not in your name.
Yup I know these buggers in connection with Cablecom too.
I moved from Berneck to Basel almost two years ago, here in Basel I returned the box and canceled my Abo in the regulation time, this was in April 2011.
September 2012 I get threatening letters from said Intrum Justitia.
Seems that Cablecom kept sending bills to my old address in Berneck, and so I never got them, even though they know that I am in Basel as I got all the trash mail from Intrum Justitia.
Long story short I sent them a copy of my Abmeldung and more or less told them that it is not my problem.
I get a letter back telling me that there was one bill left open that I must have received, therefore my Abo was kept live and not canceled, never got that bill as well, I told them that I would be happy to pay the one bill (80 Chuffs) if they send it to me. That was in October and since then there has been no further correspondence.
I went through a similar problem last year with Cablecom. Make sure that you follow up with Cablecom and make sure that they get in touch with the debt collection agency to cancel the charge.
It can be solved, but there is a lot of work involved.
Just had an email from the couple who took over our flat earlier this year on our return to the UK with a scan of a bill that turned up from this company (they are cool and opened it 'cause they recognized the IJ logo on the front and thought they should).
Apparently it's for an unpaid Orange bill that I have not received from Orange.
I phoned orange and explained that when I canceled my contact in May, they had said that they would email any final bills to me.
They as much as admitted that they had probably screwed up at first, and then suddenly changed tack and claimed they couldn't find any of my account details as they have been "deleted after I closed the account" and said I should speak with IJ, (which after doing research on I really don't want to do). I'm finding this all very fishy & smell some stinking BS from Orange claiming that my old account records have been deleted and I'm at least comforted for the moment that neither of these two companies have my new address back in the UK.
What d'you reckon I should do? - I've told orange that if there was any outstanding bill owed, I will happily pay if they call the dogs off an issue me the correct bill, and I'm sending them an old bill today to see if they can "find" my old account.
Companies have to to keep all data related to income, expenses etc. for a certain number of years for audit, legal and tax purposes. As such, Orange will have to have your data somewhere - maybe the customer help desk no longer has it, but certainly accounting should have it or if they have already archived it, they should be able to find it there.