Got fined for having my mailbox full!

Complaints Corner
61
Seems like the OP has been fined to encourage her to act like 99.99% of the population and empty the post (from whatever origin) out of her mailbox.

62
With your 99.99% you strongly underestimate the stupidity of mankind.. Not to mention people leaving on extended holidays, only to come back and find their mailbox overflowing with crap.

63
Hmmm. That might take a while. My photoshop skills aren't that great.

64
That cost is minimal (less than one CHF) and already paid for as part of their campaign. And the actual culprit has no damage so no incentive to change.

65
For all those who have their knickers in a twist and burn for revenge I suggest the following. Take a cheap envelope of the needed size, put a ten Rappen stamp on it plus a blue 'priority' sticker (or mark it as A post) and send the stuff back or onwards.

Without a sender address the post office can't get its money back from the sender so the postman is forced to collect the too-little-paid amount from the recipient.

Maybe this works, I've done it a couple of times and assume so.

66
You can arrange for your post to be retained at the Post Office if you are away for a long time.

67
Yup, I do this too if I am away for 2 weeks or more. Still doesn't stop the piles of spam/leaflets going through your mailbox though.

68
That's got to be annoying, and now it makes more sense when you put it that way. I live in the sticks so no one wants to come all the way out here to put a leaflet in my mailbox. But it must be easy for advertisers in town to pile it up in mailboxes pretty fast.

When our mail is held by the post, we get no junk handed back when we pick it up. Only items addressed specifically to us. And our box is (almost) always empty of ads upon return as well.

69
Papyrus on Freiestrasse has them. You need to ask at the desk on the ground floor as they're in a little drawer.

70
Process all the inboxes in your life to empty regularly. They are not a place to store trash. (They are also not the place to try and organise things - don't use them for pending items, or for support material for work in progress). Just use it as a collection place for stuff which you then process.

You're unsure if you've missed correspondence amongst the trash in the mailbox, but still don't know whether to process the mailbox's contents? If you want to feel, and be, in control, this is one of the behaviours you need as a habit, not as a one-off thing you might consider sometimes.

71
I once got a similar notice. We weren't even on holidays and usually clear our mailbox daily so...

72
my mailbox was barely half full with newspapers and the postman went inside the building and dumped them outside my flat door just so he can have space to put a small package in the mailbox. I still cant figure out why he did that though, and a) not drop the package also at my door or b) leave the junk where it is in the mailbox and only put the package outside my door, since he was going there anyway or c) put the package with the junk since there was still plenty of space :S

73
If he'd put the package by your door, and it disappeared- he could be in trouble if you complain to the Post Office. There was space, but perhaps not enough to be able to fit the parcel properly into the box, so it can't be stolen. So I have to say I take my hat off to that guy/woman- s/he could have just taken the parcel back to the PO and left a not for you to come and collect it. Must have taken him/her a few minutes to first try and fit parcel, then take junk and take to your door (which floor?) and then place the parcel properly in box. So, bravo, great service I'd say.

Never heard of 'no advertising' not be respected by Swiss post staff- and as said, he junk which does get into box is from private deliveries for pizzas, etc- not PO. If you have a Migros or Coop card, the paper is clearly in your name on the paper, so they have to deliver it by law.

We have a flat in the UK- and we tried, time and time again, to ask the postman, then the local post office then the Naitonal PO to stop delivering junk mail as we are not there to take it out most of the time. By the answer was a clear NO- 'we get high revenue from delivering advertising- so we have to deliver without exception' was their reply. Fortunately a helpful neighbour offered to remove rubbish and keep proper mail- and we gave him self-addressed stamped envelopes for him to forward same, if we were not visiting for a while. Daughter now lives there, so problem solved- but it was so annoying.

And of course, if we go away, neighbours here deal with the post and we do the same for them- normal no!

74
Jannetta

I read your post where you wrote:

The attached message was saying "Ihr Hausbriefkasten ist voll. Unsere Mitarbeitenden in der Zustellung haben festgestellt, dass Ihr Hausbriefkasten so voll ist, dass wir Ihre Sendungen leider nicht mehr ins Brieffach zustellen konnen"

Okay, so in that part they're just stating the fact.

It's still not clear to me for what, exactly, you are being fined. In the sense of the formal name of the transgression. The mere statement, as you have quoted it above, plus, for example, an Einzahlungsschein for Fr. 24, does not yet show how it is a FINE.

Could the Fr.24 have been an offer of a service they were suggesting you buy, to help deal with the problem of a too-full letterbox?

Could you please explain, or better still quote, what exactly was said about the amount, and how you know it was a fine. Somehow I'm missing a part of the story, and I'd really like to understand, please.

Thank you.

75
You'd think wouldn't you

... the police recommend mailboxes are emptied when you're away. http://www.geneve.ch/police/prevention/cambriolages/

"Ne dévoilez pas votre absence prolongée par des indications telles que billets à la porte, boîte aux lettres archi-pleine..."

We have friends emptying ours & we do theirs. Seems simply logical to me.

But the OP is not even away.

76
I delivered newspapers years back for a little while. Got sick of getting up early!

The one thing that pissed me off no end was people loading their letter boxes with old paper.

grrrrrrrr

Stop doing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

77
Some update.

When I got that note I called Post office and they told me that I have to pay the fine of 24 CHF, no way to escape.

Due to lack of my German skills, I could not read the message attached to the invoice and just paid. And only today my friend translated the message and it said that that was the amount to pay if I want Post office to keep my mails for some time...

So apparently they have been keeping my mails since I paid... so I called and cancelled it.

Luckily I did the payment of just 24 CHF, not 200.

It's hard to be blonde.

78
Poor OP. We did try... At least anyone who encounters this in the future will know what it's about!

79

This seems to me to mean:

a) Because there was no place to put it in your letterbox, the post office kept your mail back.

b) In so doing, they started to provide you with a Service. For this, they charged you the fee of Fr. 24, just the same as they do anyone who REQUESTS to have their mail held back.

c) It was not a fine at all.

d) When you cancelled the Service, you started getting your mail again.

and most likely

e) If your letterbox gets full again, the post office will probably automatically start to provide that Fr.24 Service again.

Thank you very much for providing the rest of the information. I feel much better about this fee, now.

80
Oh dear - Now you'll open all the backlog of stored mail and find that you've been fined for not paying a bill on time...