Not sure if this is widely known but it was certainly new to me.
Anyway I’ve been trialling the service from Swiss Post where they intercept your physical mail, machine open/scan it, and then send it to you digitally via their app or Web. n.b. certain correspondence are excluded and will go through the normal mail channel e.g. bank cards, passwords, money, tickets, cheques etc..
Also within the Swiss Post network there are a number of Swiss banks and business where you can directly instruct them to only send you electronic correspondence all within the same app.
Its CHF 10 a month which seems reasonable for such a useful service, however if anyone has any long term experience it would be great to know how well this works in the real world. Sometimes I am gone for 2-4 weeks at a time, so this is a lifesaver for time-sensitive letters (e.g. speeding fines )
not happy enough with Medidata having your full physical & physician’s history, you give also Die Post (or whoever the software belongs to) also the rest of your private data?..
The majority of our post these days is begging letters from charities we have already given to. I wouldn’t want to pay for stuff that goes in the recycling without being read.
They address security pretty comprehensively, and all their data servers are in Switzerland.
Anyway I would trust this service more than my physical mailbox. Its so poorly designed that anyone with slim enough hands and wrists can reach in and grab its entire contents.
I would never consider such service. As someone else mentioned, organizations are now keen(er) to send digital communication. Even the doctor’s office now send links with 2-factor authentication requirements.
The note ‘No junk mail’ on my mailbox still suffices …
If mass mailers want to spend money in such old-fashioned method, the Post can profit from them …
Yes. Since the eBill was introduced, the amount of paper letters reduced maybe 10 times or more. When my son leaves Hort next month (they are sending us bills every month which are going directly into paper bin, because we have standing order for these payments, of course), we will probably get 1-2 letters per months with occasional non-recurrent bills etc. No comparison to 2011, when we came to Switzerland. I never received so many paper letters in my life as in the first few months living in Switzerland.
Last year, I needed to respond (digitally) within 10 days of receiving a document. So I signed up to this service. It works great for that purpose, while traveling.
The scans are very good and include even the envelope. If needed, you can order the original document to be sent to you. One per month is included.
For a traveling person, it is a great tool. Not expensive either.
I am going to nenew the contract.
dejavu, I remember they introduced this but at the time I wanted to try it they announced the split (you could still subscribe directly with the small startup doing the actual business) removing the 3rd party from their umbrella. I’m too lazy to dig for the small print if it’s a Swiss post thing now or again a 3rd party behind the Swiss post brand.
Anyway, my only motivation was to receive scans of letters from the stubborn institutions insisting on paper mail, like tax correspondence etc., which actually was excluded from this service
Every time I got a speeding fine the deadline was 1 month from receipt… even in the unlikely event say, of receiving one when on extended holiday and missing the deadline, the surcharge for a reminder is CHF 20 and get another month+, so no big saving (for a reasonable amount of tickets)…
I wonder what that was, because you realize the oxymoron of that statement (needing to respond digitally to something that must be received on paper). There is something not right there.
I read the terms of the EPost service. It is scary. Not only for privacy, but they will sign for you DebtCollection and Court Documents, as “received” on your behalf, but then they will just forward them to you without scanning. So now you have some deadline ticking at home without even knowing about it, because ePost signed for you.
I understand the use for someone who moves abroad, or travels with noone to open letters for them, but ePost advises that the service is not for such people, as many documents are still sent physically.
Personally, the only items I receive at home are non-letters.. So not much use. True, you could get your tax bill, the odd bill which doesn’t support pdf, but these are rare (once a year events) which will perhaps dissapear in the near future.
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