Swiss Post sucks
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Swiss Post is possibly the worst mail system in the world. Well, probably not, but after dealing with at least 10 people on the phone at Swiss Post over the past week, I am aghast at how they are in their own private Idaho. No surprises there, they are a totally independent neutral country in the midst of a European bloc and appear to be very happy to stay that way. After this past dealing with Swiss Post, I am not so sure I want to return to Switzerland in the near future.
Emily left some medications at our hotel in Switzerland. It is not the first time and hopefully it will be the last but I sincerely doubt it. DNA is a powerful thing. Josh is Mr. Organization like me. Emily tends to lose things and forget things. It is incredibly frustrating for me since I am organized and it is hard to wrap my arms around. Also, I deal with the repercussions such as replacing lost items. Jessica is somewhere in the middle but leans heavily towards Emily.
When she realized she forgot the meds, I called the hotel in Switzerland immediately. The cost to overnight the goods from Switzerland to London was $1300. I could have flown round trip to Zurich for less money. Outrageous. I asked them to send them Fedex or DHL. It was a Saturday. The hotel recommended that since it was Saturday that they send them Swiss Post and they would get there by Tuesday. That was mistake number two. Number one was leaving the meds in the hotel.
Over the past day, I have easily talked to 9 people at Swiss Post and probably 8 at the British Post too. I am actually an expert on how the system works now. It doesn't. It appears that the computer system can not really be accessed by anyone on either side. Perhaps the Internet hasn't cut down on mail but I would think it would. At one point, the only mail that I expect to receive is a monthly magazine ( although that is questionable ), a package or the once in a while special handwritten note. If there is less volume, you would think the system would be more efficient.
Yesterday, someone from Swiss Post informed the hotel in Switzerland that the meds would be there in the afternoon. Never got them. On Swiss Post's site, the package says delivered. I called them this morning to find out where because we did not receive them. Their answer is, we don't know but it has been delivered. They don't have a Great Britain number which the package should get once it hits GB and that number should be attached to the Swiss Post number. They do not have any scan for the address and who signed for it. They don't even have the address it is going to on the Swiss Post site. All they know is they are going to start an investigation. There are no records whatsoever. None. No manager who has the special password to get into the system at another level. No Great Britain number just the Swiss number. They have nothing and they don't give a shit. Honestly, it was like talking to an uneducated person today. No passion, no care, no information, no nothing.
If Swiss Post defines their country, then staying neutral is their best bet.
Comments (Archived):
Many postal services are archaic, loss-making and crumbling. Falling volumes lead only to falling revenues and increased subsidies. London parcel deliveries are notoriously poor. It is often the case, I hear, that they claim no-one is home and leave a form to that effect that asks you to collect it from the local main post-office. If you haven’t done so, it may be worthwhile going there – though I warn you it may not be a smooth experience.On a lighter note, I may have misinterpreted but I chuckled at the implication of your DNA attribution.
USPS sucks too. I know. Archaic is an understatement. Everyone who worksin any post office appears to be utterly miserable.
True and their are a lot of casual staff – especially in the cities.That said, it was only last evening as I walked to the gym that I saw a post box being emptied of maybe 40 items and it occurred to me how remarkable it was that most of them would arrive at their destination within 24 hours and how we take that for granted. That was quite out of character for me and I’m only sorry that it had to be your awful experience that restored my default position of assuming incompetence and being delighted when efficiency impinges on it.
It is my default position as well. Alas.
Germany has it nailed down. I left a very expensive watch behind in my hotel room in Weisbaden. As soon as I realized I had left it behind, I called the front desk. They had it waiting for me and since I would be traveling on business and not be able to get back there, they told me they would happily mail it back to my home in the US. It was waiting for me upon my return, elegantly packaged in a watch box!! Hmmm, now that I think of it, maybe most of the credit should go to the hotel? Anyway, I was impressed – that would NOT have happened if the USPS was at all involved.
Good hotel!
$1300? That’s insane. You could have seen a London doctor, gotten a new prescription and had it filled for less money.On another note: my son is very organized (he’s the oldest), much more in line with my style (or rather: what I remember of it – my brain got fried somewhere during the past 10 years). My daughter, OTOH, is …different. My son categorized his plastic toys according to mammal or amphibian when he was 4 years old; my daughter liked (and still likes) making weirdly mixed piles of things that don’t belong together at all (IMHO). It’s very very challenging living under the same roof – I can relate to frustrations that emerge from different styles.That said, I sometimes peek in on Emily’s photo blog site (hope that doesn’t make me sound creepy), and wow, she has an eye, she really does. So even if occasional disorganization in other areas sends you around the bend, rest assured the girl has a real talent for organizing her visual field. 😉
Luckily she has many assets that outweigh her spaciness.
I feel sorry about the bad experience with the Swisspost, but in my opinion Swisspost is not better or worse than any other mail or parcel service in the world. All this systems have difficulties in doing international business, since the cultures on the two ends are different. When British Mail loose your stuff, it will be hard for the Swisspost to do something against it.Ok, one thing has to be sad about Swisspost. It’s still a government owned monopole business. Lots of Swiss fight, that it stays like that, since there is a serious fear that service will drop in real remote rural areas.I can not understand, how that hotel comes to the idea to charge 1’300 $ for overnight delivery since your daughter probably did not leave a whole track load of medication in it. I would blame the hotel for bad service at the front desk.Even Switzerland is not in the European Community they took over a lot of European laws, which are normally followed better than in many other European country.
Agree that all local mail services leave little to be desired
I have same experience now my friend send me a package but the la poste but he didn’t get any parcel number , so when I ask la poste here in france they can’t find it coz they parcel number. So it’s confusing to me how i am going to get that package. So I hope there is someone can help me to this coz it’s been 2 weeks going back in la poste here in france but they answer the same question and my friend says that the post officer told him that it has no parcel number.