Fees

Detectives are service providers.

As usual in the service sector the service rendered is invoiced according to the time spent in rendering the service. In the detective business it is customary to charge according to the actual hours worked by the individual detective officer and the kilometres driven.

These are submitted to you both in a written report of activity as well as in detail in the easy-to-understand final statement which we will also explain to you.

A fixed schedule of fees as found by lawyers or tax consultants, for example, does not exist for detectives. Nevertheless, there is a non-binding recommendation in the detective sector, issued by the professional associations. We observe this recommendation.

We strictly reject excessive fees just as much as dumping prices which could only be offered by employing unqualified sub-contractors or old age pensioners / school children and certainly have a deleterious effect on the findings.

We would be glad to discuss general approach methods and previous successes in a personal advisory meeting and to work out a cost quotation. Naturally you can also include a clause in the contract at any time that stipulates a binding maximum cost.

We accept the following:

We have increasingly noticed that detective services in our sector are being offered at "knock-down" prices. The very competitive nature of our branch unfortunately led some of our competitors in the past to offer working prices that had not been calculated seriously, but were intended solely to be "unbeatably cheap".

As an officially certified (TÜV) detective agency we follow this trend with apprehension as such finely calculating detective agencies very often leave no room for employing reasonably trained and experienced detectives and only work with unqualified sub-contractors or school children / old age pensioners and can in no way offer a serious, comprehensive reporting method in a format useable by courts including professional visual evidence gathering on video-CD, VHS cassette and photos that applies to our service claim.

Complaints from final consumers are increasing that not only miss competent consultancy and help in their individual problem, but also that the simplest questions fail to be answered by rudimentary or non-existent customer service. It is therefore the case that the final consumer often has to turn to a more competent detective agency or to realise that a lot of his / her money has gone down the drain.

Both lead to understandable annoyance that expresses itself as fall-out on us, serious detective agencies.

The Lentz® detective agency has a tight-knit network of highly qualified and competent detectives that have undertaken the 2-year full-time training course with state certified professional qualification as "certified detective" and boast not only specialist knowledge but also several years of practical experience, enabling them to quickly recognise your concrete problem and to act correspondingly.

Your and our joint interest is a problem-free system that works to satisfy long-term your individual requirements at the highest level. This is why we recommend that when selecting your detective agency you do not just take the cheapest service provider with the cheapest prices, but decide on a qualified specialist detective agency that is capable of helping you to solve your problems.

You can recognise such detective agencies among other things by the following

• The presentation of written references from satisfied customers as part of a personal interview.
• The existence of a TÜV certificate in accordance with the strict quality standard DIN ISO 9001:2000. This verifies that neutral and experienced TÜV inspectors have been convinced of the service offered by the detective agency in an inspection lasting several days.
• The fact that the detective agency has a professionally outfitted office, has the necessary equipment and has its own car fleet and does not receive the customer in the "living room" or in a restaurant / café or similar locality.
• Its advertisements give the full address of their local branch.
• Evidence of the training of its detectives that can be presented in a personal interview.