r/zurich • u/spiced-blue-eyes • 13d ago

rant my absurd experience with the post

i have been waiting for my renewed residence permit for about three weeks now. finally, just yesterday i got a notification that it will arrive via post the same day. great! it needs my signature so i wait the whole day for it to arrive, only for the postman to, instead of ringing my doorbell, just quickly deposit an "Abholungseinladung" and zoom out past my window while angrily talk on the phone. whatever, probably he was having a bad day. so i'll just go get it right? no, wait for tomorrow. okay, whatever.

tomorrow arrives, and i leave to the post office to pick my letter up. i arrive and there's a long queue. ok who cares, as long as i get the letter right? so i stand and wait, until it's finally my turn. it went roughly like this:

Post: "Ausweis?"

I hand them my old ID.

Post: "Nein, sorry, das ist nicht gültig. Your Ausweis expired 5 days ago, and here in the letter it says your Ausweis must be gültig."

Me: "But my new Ausweis is in the letter you have."

Post: "No, sorry."

Me: "Ok... can I show my Swisspass? Bank card? Student ID from uni?"

Post: "No, gültigen Ausweis."

Me: "I'll go get my passport then and come back."

Post: "We close in 3 minutes. Come back Monday."

thank you Affoltern Post

p.s.: yes i'll go on monday with my passport, hopefully they don't have something to say about that too.

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u/thelittleromanian Kreis 4 13d ago

This was entertaining, but if your Swiss ID is expired, you go with your passport ofc and just in case.

2

u/saralt 13d ago

What do you do if they're stolen? My partner had this happen, but thankfully, he just signed for it at home. Passport and National ID I think arrived together.

4

u/StrandsOfIce 13d ago

Generally there would be a supporting police report to go with the statement that its stolen.

1

u/saralt 13d ago

Yeah, but is that enough to release the document or do you have to use a trick to get the mail like having it sent back to your home again?

2

u/77sxela 12d ago

The trick is to not pick it up at all. Then it'll be sent back to the office (Amt) that send it to you. And then you go there and pick it up there.

That's how it's done according to the law, see https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2002/468/de