So the next time EF gets a thread with "My neighbour is complaining at the noise" the new advice is for the EF-er to pause, look thoughtful then spread a big grin across their face saying "Aaaahhh, you got me there, ya cheeky scamp!" and close the door in their face.

... and by now the gossip factory of Zurich states that foreigners don't have any sense of humour...

Exactly, or take everything literal, as Sandgrounder helpfully suggested.

Well i just loved the whole entire story, i think your post man is a LEGEND!!

Id love to have the balls to do that to people when they are holding up my day! LOL

If someone did it to me though there would be handbags at dawn

My postman only gives me 5 seconds

He must have realised that you are not a Bernese. We locals do get our 5 minutes

Over worked,perhaps poorly paid postal workers being rude to the public.

Your rude postie sounds as if he is under stress,which may account for his bad manners.

You don`t deserve to be spoken like that to and the postie probably deserves an easier life.

Sign of the times i`m afraid.

He made a joke!

Apparently funny for him but not the customer.

FTFY. To me the reactions here are absolutly priceless and hilarious!

Really? I actually have to go the the depot to pick my parcels up!

Oh wait thats ups....

Next time get a roll of franks and throw it at him. He will get his Franks and you will get the gratitude of throwing soemthing at him

If my mail man is not super nice ,i water the walkway when we have minus 30 degree C.And then watch him crawling up to my mail box on all 4.I give him 10 minuts

Happy Birthday, and no real consolation, but...
Atleast your postie rings your doorbell...
this is about the 5th time mine has failed to even ring, and I've been on the phone to Post trying my hardest to rage in my poor German.

I find the Swiss post to be very unprofessional.

Bean

Our postman is a hoot, and has a great, dry sense of humour. This is just the sort of thing he would say, looking dead serious - but he would be joking of course Thing is I can well imagine that somebody who does not speak the language fluently would miss this altogether, and see it as a thread- and lead to a misunderstanding.

I've always found the Post Service here as good as a Postal Service can probably get.

For example: I recently stopped my post (Saturday - Thursday) as I was on a short break. I returned Thurs evening from the break and found two letters in my postbox. I didn't think much about it. However, the next day (Friday) the door bell rings and it was my postie and he was most apologetic saying that he put the letters in the postbox on Saturday before he saw the stop notice. He couldn't have been nicer or more apologetic (no harm done, said I).

Also if I am working from home I occasionally get to see the fellow who brings me my parcels (usually my Amazon.UK order ) and he's a nice bloke. Recently he asked me if I could take a big parcel (and one that did not require a signature) for a neighbour - so I did and this will probably end up to my benefit in the end.

In all, I think that the Swiss Post is generally good and I have had nothing but courteous and good to excellent service from the posties who work with the public

TD

However I DO have a less kind opinion of those anonymous, back room, employees who take fiendish delight in ham-fistedly ripping open my hobby supply parcels in order to slap a CHF 40 tax and service charge on a CHF 20 value item

I think the part with "ten, nine, eight, seven, six..." is over the top (EDIT: over the top for the OP). But to me, it was humour. Just a personal view.

For the rest, I agree it's perfectly normal German. The fact that he way trying to speak English and translated this "dryness" word-for-word must be hard to take for English mother tongue speakers, I totally understand that too.

Oh well, that's part of the standard swiss way of being with any foreigner. I've been 16 years living in the german Switzerland, and I know what I say. Time is money. You have to learn to react like a swiss does: look at the worm upside-down and ask in a harsh tone: "wie ist Ihre Name?" Then take note, and he will change his attitude immediately. If you feel like or it suits your character, you can then bark he should be carrying change if he intends to be paid for something, and give him 10 secs. to pay back before you call his boss. They are only poor stressed guys, sheep on a conveyor belt.

Well, I can certainly see why Swiss people would not bother to be very friendly with you...

Lucky you, that so far we never met! I can guarantee you that you would open immediately afterwards a new thread in this forum