Anne Hahn fell for fraudulent exterminators. They charged 1,300 euros for their services. She got the contact from the internet.
Gauting – Anne Hahn (75) is annoyed with herself. As an editor at ADAC Motorwelt, legal department, she has warned readers about fraudulent activities for years. And now she's fallen for two shady exterminators herself. “That this would happen to me,” she says, still stunned. She doesn't like the story, but she wants to tell it anyway. Mainly to warn others. “It’s easy to fall into the trap.”
In the past few weeks, the woman from Gauting has had a mouse in her kitchen on Parkstrasse. This happens often and is usually not a problem because your cat is doing a great job. But in this case the animal was hiding under the fitted kitchen. When the woman from Gauting saw that the uninvited guest was pulling material under the skirting board of the fitted kitchen, she panicked. “I thought: She’s building a nest there!”
Using the search terms “exterminator” and “Starnberg”, Google showed her a company that at first glance appeared to be reputable. It said: 13 years of experience, services in Starnberg and much more. When she clicked on the phone button, disaster began. The woman from Gauting was connected to a hotline and a young woman gave her a timely appointment on April 5th. Everything OK? Not at all.
Two men showed up at the appointment, one younger and one slightly older with a full beard, both in craftsmen's clothing. To the Gautinger's surprise, the duo didn't touch the dishwasher or the built-in stove, where the mouse had hidden. Instead, the alleged experts distributed poison pads and sprayed an unspecified substance from a large bottle. “This is very expensive stuff, it works immediately,” they assured. You can quickly tell from the smell that the mouse is dead. Then they would come and pick up the dead mouse again, that was included in the price.
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Even at this point, Anne Hahn was angry because the problem had not been resolved. She became even more angry when she found out the price. “The younger man, who until then had only been typing on his cell phone, told me the price: 1,290 euros,” she says. When she protested, the younger man then spoke to his alleged “boss” and went down to 700 euros. And then pulled out the EC device that the two of them had with them.
When the Gautinger hesitated, the duo increased the pressure. The men approached her and said that she had been told all of this, that she had agreed, that the money was for the boss, that they had to move on now because otherwise they would get in trouble and other things. “I felt intimidated and coerced. Then I handed over my card. That was it.” She only received an invoice hours later, by email, from a man in Oberhausen, probably the “boss”.
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After the incident, Anne Hahn did some research on the Internet and quickly discovered that the company had a bad reputation. Consumer protection centers warn against this, and radio and television have already discussed the scam. Finally she contacted the man who had issued the invoice, supposedly based in Oberhausen (North Rhine-Westphalia). “When I called him, he just said nonsense.” He agreed to refund 400 euros – an empty promise, the money never arrived. That same evening, Anne Hahn filed a complaint. As she found out, the usual hourly rate for an exterminator is 100 to 150 euros - and the two of them were there for just half an hour.
Her conclusion is: “This thing has shown me that when you are panicked and under pressure, your brain can stop working.” Her advice to everyone: “Make a list of local service companies that you can call in peace and quiet in an emergency.” And most importantly : Never pay without an invoice.
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Andreas Ruch from the Gauting police station confirms the complaint. In his experience, fraudulent exterminators appear again and again in the area. “Such companies on the Internet have their network up to this point.” In this case, the offense is coercion and usury. The man from Oberhausen who issued the invoice did not answer a query from our newspaper.
The point of the story: Anne Hahn caught the mouse in question herself with her hand when her boyfriend was dismantling the dishwasher. She literally could have saved herself all the trouble.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Starnberg newsletter.)