Premium Recovery AG

Trading from Zug, Switzerland

July 2005: Premium Recovery AG are raided by the police! More...
Recording Phone Calls
Claims made by people in dispute with the guides as to what was said to them on the phone cannot be used in evidence. For this reason we suggest that you record telephone conversations you have with the debt collection companies and include them with your official complaints.

Laws regarding recording of telephone conversations appear to vary from country to country, for this reason we advise you make it clear that you intend to record the conversation. If the person at the other end is unwilling to be recorded, please inform them that you will not continue and that they must contact you by post

Messages left on answerphones can be used in your complaint without the need to seek consent.

StopECG is interested in hearing your recordings, please Send them in .wav format


CONTENTS
  1. Company Info
  2. Advice if you are being pressured
  3. Research and background
  4. Council Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001
Premium Recovery Poll
On behalf of Which Guide have Premium Recovery Approached you?

view results
more polls
Company Info
Premium Recovery AG were established in November 2003, this was followed in March 2004 by the arrival of Gravis Inkasso Gmbh. These Debt collection outfits are the newest companies in the saga.

In December 2003 they began contacting victims of the European City Guide and the The FAIR Guide (Construct Data Verlag GMBH). Currently we have no evidence of them collecting debts for clients other than these. If you have encountered Premium Recovery in association with any other company, please Email.

Ovag international had formerly undertaken all these operations. We also know that at least one former Ovag Employee is manning the phones at Premium Recovery AG. Also, Alexander Zweigart, Former Chief Administration Officer for Ovag International was noticed Advertising in 2004 on the jobfinder website www.jobwindow.ch using the contact email azwe@premium-swiss.com. Research by the Swiss Newspaper Tages-Anzeiger Has since confirmed our suspicions, Alexander Zweigart is boss at Premium.

Because they are based in Switzerland their ownership details are secret and we have know way of telling if Ovag and Premium recovery are owned by the same people. Ovag have a large recovery business In the US, and it is not surprising that wished to rid themselves of the poor reputation they have garnered over years for Pressuring people who were in dispute with these guides. If Ovag truly wish to clear their name they should publish their full ownership details dating back to 1991 and prove to us that there is no common ownership with the Guide companies.

Advice if you are being pressured
Premium Recovery AG are really pushing the limits with hostile letters and some very direct threats of legal action, we even have a recording of them swearing on the phone. Sometimes courts are named and dates are given. In every case we have followed the threats have passed without court action occurring.

Tactics reported so far are:
  1. Phonecalls and Voicemail threatening legal action.
  2. Letters stating Court action will be taken, some delivered by regestered mail.
  3. Letters naming courts local to businesses being threatened.
  4. Very short deadlines to pay, making it hard for those affected to seek advice.
  5. Reductions offered with the short deadlines in order to increase the pressure.
  6. In 2005 Premium Recovery AG started quoting EC Council Regulation No. 44/2001 suggesting that they can obtain a ruling in absentia against you. More on this
  7. Both Premium Recovery AG and Gravis Inkasso Gmbh have been reported as citing supposed court decisions in favour of the guides. If they use this tactic on you it is important that you request the full court papers for any such decision, please forward these to stopscamguides@yahoo.co.uk

We recommend against negotiation on the phone. If you do negotiate by phone, record the phone conversation, no matter how short; you should tell them that you are doing this, better still simply state that you want everything in writing. Written letters are easier to copy and send when filing complaints.

Letter Writing is good, the more correspondance you amass from this company and send to the authorites the better. there are a few questions you might wish to ask the Premium, please do not just trundle this list off to them, take one subject and elaborate on it. Please also send stopECG the replies you get!
Complaining: If you are in dispute with a guide and have correspondence with Premium you should file complaints. It is sufficient simply to complain that they are chasing you for a disputed contract. With older contracts there may already be a ruling against the version you signed; check the information we have on your guide and if you think the contact is subject to a ruling make sure you state this in your complaint.
Whenever filing official complaints, we recommend you keep your letters short, polite and factual. If you feel the original document was misleading, please breifly, and in your own words, explain why.

You should include copies of all Correspondence you have had with the guide and with Premium Recovery. We reccomend you send high quality photocopies and should keep your original correspondence on file. If you have lost or destroyed any documents please note this in your letter of complaint.


Complainants should go directly to the Swiss Authorities

State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco)
Legal Affairs
Effingerstrasse 1
3003 Berne
Switzerland.

E-mail: fair-business@seco.admin.ch
Fax: + 41 31 324 09 56
Website: http://www.seco.admin.ch

Please also write to the Swiss Embassy in your own country, you can find the address from here:
http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/e/home/emb/addch.html

additional information for UK readers Additional Information for UK Readers additional information for UK readers


When we last checked The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was still collecting information on Premium Recovery. If you write to the Office of Fair Trading and Seco, please send the OFT letter as 'Copy'; you should address your complaints to:

International Liaison
Office of Fair Trading
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London
EC4Y 8JX

UK Residents are also asked to write to the Swiss Embassy, send all your evidence direct to the Ambassador and include a covering note explaining if/how you have found the experience distressing.

Alexis P. Lautenberg (Ambassador),
Embassy of Switzerland,
16-18 Montagu Place,
LONDON,
W1H 2BQ

Tel 0044 20 7616 6000
Fax 0044 20 7724 7001
Email vertretung@lon.rep.admin.ch


Details on this company
According to the Swiss company register, the date of the company statutes is 14th November 2003 and the first registration is 20th November 2003

The companies first 2 domain names were registered in October 2003

http://www.premium-swiss.com/
http://www.premium-recovery.com/

Both went live on January 7th 2004, a couple of weeks after the first collection letters were posted.

In February 2004 Premium Recovery registered a slew of new domains (See The Link Farm Article)

Contact Info
Premium recovery AG
Alte Steinhauserstrasse 1
P.O.Box 5346
6300 Cham/Zug
Switzerland

Phone +41 41 444 000
Fax +41 41 444 001

Email mail@premium-swiss.com

Bank used
UBS Bank
Baarstrasse 14a,
CH-6300 Zug,
Switzerland

Account number of Premium Recovery AG for European City Guide collections is
273 27318361N

At the Foot of Premium's letters they claim their business to be Receivables Management and Business Intelligence.
This is printed in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Czech. It is not clear if these are the only languages they support, and if so, who peruses people in Poland and the former Yugoslavia


Council Regulation (EC) No. 44/2001 on Jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgements in civil commercial matters

We have received reports of Premium Recovery and possibly Gravis Inkasso Gmbh citing this legislation and saying that they will get a judgement against you overseas which you would then be unable to resist in the courts of your home country.

Got a Legal head on you or some time to kill, Look it up...
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2001/l_012/l_01220010116en00010023.pdf

This regulation is basically aimed at speeding the process of cross border enforcement of civil and commercial liabilities. It stipulates that a court judgment gained in one member state can be enforced in another member state.

Sounds frightening but hold on...

Article 21 of the regulation says:
"2. The court shall stay the proceedings so long as it is not shown that the defendant has been able to receive the document instituting the proceedings or an equivalent document in sufficient time to enable him to arrange for his defence, or that all necessary steps have been taken to this end."

I.e. the court in the country of jurisdiction must be satisfied that you have been informed of the pending action in good time, if the court is not so satisfied it is unlikely to hear the case.

Or in other words if Premium Recovery AG or Gravis Inkasso Gmbh phone you and tell you that a hearing is just days away, this would not suffice, you would need to see papers from the court, some weeks in advance

threatening fax from Ludenbach guide debt collectors PREMIUM RECOVERY Click Image to enlarge

Example of a threatening Fax From Premium recovery sent 18th August 2005, We have seen many similar faxes, however the very direct threats of legal action contained within have, thus far, not been carried out...

Note the rediculously short deadline of just 6 days to obtain a legal representative in Valencia!

So if they use this threat, call their bluff, reply asking for the name and address of the court + the day and time of the hearing, if they name a court, contact the court and verify the information, only if the court confirms the information should you consider contacting StopECG and getting yourself a lawyer!





Return to Index | @nti Copyright please distribute!