You have been warned about Mata-Dienst...they have been at it for many years. Most of the apartments they advertise (if not all of them) do not exist! They are a rip-off... Its strange how people get "all the warning signs" but still persist...

Thank you very much for the info. We were thinking in using Mata dienst for a nachmieter, but now we are not so sure anymore.

Cheers
Miki

When we first came to Zurich we were in a hurry to find accommodation. We had a temporary apartment for 3 weeks and weren't getting any response for any of the apartments we were applying for (being unfamiliar with the methods needed to secure an apartment here).

There were quite a few apartments in our price range that were showing up on websites but not showing information because they were under Mata-Dienst so we gave them a call. We were dubious about the costs and commission as well but were desperate and went ahead.

As we were looking for a furnished flat (we came from Australia with nothing) it worked very well for us. There were 5 possibilities and all we needed was to tell the landlord that we wanted it on viewing and give them a 100CHF deposit to show we were serious! We had an apartment within a week within zone 10 under the price we wanted and were very happy.

In the end we were glad we used the service because we found what we needed quickly but I can understand that this probably won't suit a lot of people.

Sort of like a bribe?

Regarding the immomailing service.... if you pay CHF 46, for how long do you get emails?

Thanks

e.

Been a while since you've tried to get an apartment in zurich has it?

No it comes off the rent...it's just to secure the apartment and is only for people renting furnished places.

its a strange set up for these people. i found the apartment on home gate called them up asking for a viewing and they said i still had to go in have a meeting and pay the fees even though i'd done the work for them.


nice business model. good luck with that one.

Mata-dienst is the last place you should go!!! They treated me like a dog because I just want flat for 1100 CHF. The best place to look is homegate.ch. The cheapest and the fastest way is to look by your self. Good luck

I went in to see them when I first arrived. The manager was incredibly rude and told me that he didn't like to 'deal with people like me'. On further enquiry he clarified that he meant foreigners. I demanded to see the boss to inform him about the sterling customer service I had received when one of his equally unhelpful drones quietly mentioned that he was in fact the boss. A few days later my husband wrote an email to complain and he received a response to the tune of....."Thank you for your interest in the apartment. Unfortunately it is no longer available. Please come down to our office to register and ......".

Have heard similar stories from a number of people. My advice - stay away.

Hi
altough they are expensive this is the last resort we had to take to find our place moving short notice from Vaud to Zurich.
Indeed the appartments are not shown anywhere else our landlord had indeed to sign a contract of exclusivity.
A;tpugh I think 75 % of the monthly rent is expensive we would not have found anything without them.

Hi,

If you like to be treated in a miserable way, to pay a 50CHF initial fees for finding nothing and lose your time, go for it.

I was, like maybe many people in this forum, one who didn't want to hear the advice of the people against using matadienst. So due to my desperate situation to find quickly an appartment, I "joined" Matadienst... and never ever again. This is really the last thing you want to do. And specially if you are not a "hard core swiss". Their behaviour with foreigners is more than borderline. Thinks like "spaniards ask too much. You only have to accept this and pay" was for sure the nicest "presents" that I got from them.

And of course, I got no appartment.

By the way, most appartment in Switzerland belong to a "Hausverwaltung=?property managment company?", so you normally speak first to the hirer. And believe it or not, Hausverwaltung don't want to hear anything about matadienst (the have had many problems with them). Even the matadienst-broker told us we should better not mention them in our application!!!!

So after beeing fed up of beeing treated like a s*it and not getting results I used a more useful method(s)

http://www.alle-immobilien.ch/
http://www.ronorp.net/zuerich/inserate/alle-inserate
http://www.homegate.ch/

By the way, I know personally 5 or 6 people that have used matadienst, none of them have gotten an appartment and all of them have the same opinion than me.

Good luck!

this is not a rip off at all, you pay a one time fee and will get a daily email with free appartments untill you decide to unsubscribe. there are absolutely no other fees what so ever. you will talk directly to the actual tenant of the appartement.
naloo's immomailing can not be compared with a mata- dienst or any other agency it works totaly different.
you can find information in english on this page: http://immomailing.ch/english.html and i even offer help for people who can not afford the subscription-fee (this information is only in german on the website), if there are further questions email me anytime.

I spent 8 weeks going through the awful ringer that is homegate, always waiting with about 50 other people to view any decently priced apartment.

I then went with both Mata Dienst and Domino.
Each has a CHF50 application fee.

I saw a few apartments that Mata sent me and really disliked all of them.

Domino took more time to notify me about an apartment but I fell in love with the first one I saw- they actually take your 'wishlist' seriously.

I was able to get the apartment and am fine with the 75% of first month's rent that is the payment.

Very happy with their service and would recommend them.

Mata Diesnt is not a scam, just as a larger agency the quality and care per person probably varies greatly.

I would generally recommend going with an agency if you don't want to invest the huge amount of time and psychological toll in going to the viewings posted on homegate.

Good luck.

I have t say they were very poor for me too. The (very few) places they found were on Homegate (indeed that is how they found them). They are typical estate agents really, except they don't actually have any properties on their books. Go figure!