Attention emergency shopkeepers: 3,700 francs for a minor repair

No company logos anywhere

The next day three men came to the door. “As soon as I saw them coming up, I had a strange feeling,” Wagner says. The men arrived in a private car that had no company address and were not wearing tradesmen’s clothes. But he let them in. “After all, I called him.”

The three of them spoke almost no German, but they managed to remove the door and put it back on. “They didn’t look professional, but they were nice and talked about their kids,” Wagner says. Finally, they handed him a green piece of paper with only his address on it for him to sign. As they say, “To confirm that we are in the right place.” Glad that the men were out of the house again and the children were distracted, Wagner signed.

A few days later the bill arrived: 3,700 francs for approximately 45 minutes of operation. The Wagners believed this was an oversight and called the craftsman’s company. “The general manager became aggressive and threatened us with a builder’s lien.” This is a law that gives tradesmen the right to lien on their property if they are not paid for their work.

Suddenly a signed order

The Wagners did not accept this. On the advice of the Observer Advisory Centre, they asked the trade association for the window and façade industry what price would be appropriate for such an order. The answer was around 1000 francs. Wagners paid this amount to FTG.

But the company did not give up and even increased the pressure. The Wagners received a letter from a lawyer. Here he referred to an order confirmation purportedly signed by Rahel Wagner, which contained a cost estimate of 3,700 francs. There is also an acceptance protocol allegedly signed by him. Both forms were attached to the letter and actually bore Rahel Wagner’s signature.

He says it is suspected to be fake. “I never saw two forms, let alone signed them.” The order confirmation is also from five days before the incident at the patio door. Wagner suspects that the company likely copied his signature from the “address confirmation” onto forms that were later created.

Criminal case is ongoing

FTG had a builder’s lien temporarily recorded in the land registry on the Wagners’ property. The family now needs to defend itself in court against this situation. The Wagners reported the company. They learned that a criminal case was already ongoing at the Biel prosecutor’s office against the managing director of FTG. Upon request, the Bern cantonal police confirmed that an investigation had been launched into usury, fraud and document forgery in this context.

The general manager of all of these companies is the same:

• Wyss glass and window making
• Swiss glass structure
• Helvetia Glass GmbH
• Vitrerie Jura
• Vitrerie Christian
• Berner Glaserei and Fenster GmbH
• FTG Service + Fensterbau GmbH
• Glas-metall.ch
• Glasnotdienst24.ch
• glas-experts.ch
• wintergarten-profis.ch
• glasexpress-zh.ch
• There may be other websites that link to the same company.

The man is listed in the commercial register as managing director of more than a dozen glass and window construction companies in northern and western Switzerland. SRF magazine “Espresso” recently compiled several cases in which those affected reported similar experiences to Rahel Wagner. “The majority probably pay the fine because they are threatened with prosecution and litigation. That’s the trick with such companies, Wagner says. He wants to publicly warn others.

FTG chief executive denies all allegations. This is the presumption of innocence. When asked, he said that the invoiced amounts correspond to labor and material expenses. It should be noted that the services provided by companies are mostly on-call services outside normal business hours. “In such cases, it is common practice across all sectors for this time flexibility to be compensated by an express surcharge.”

The general manager says that he has also filed a criminal complaint against those who filed the criminal complaint for false accusations and misleading justice.