I want to rave about Swisscom.

1. They gave me a 6-month contract when I called and asked if they could
provide me with one, even though all the material on-line says a minimum contract is 12 months.

2. The phone and internet were connected and operational when I arrived.

3. The "infinity" DSL speed that I signed up for is the fastest internet connection I've ever had in my life. My university in the US is one of the original internet sites and is part of the backbone - the speeds I get in my office are not remotely close to what I get here.

4. They sent me a handwritten thank you note with bon-bons included.

I think their TV service over the wire (Bluewin TV) is pretty good too. I get loads of UK channels and even one in HD, which just popped up unannounced on my screen a few months back.

When we moved over here in March, we were originally going to go with Cablecom for TV/phone/internet, as they were doing a good half-price deal. Our relo consultant, however, said she would get us connected if we really wanted that, but just wanted to let us know that her office was currently fielding a long list of expat Cablecom complainants about poor service, lack of internet and so on, most of whom were getting nowhere fast.

So we went phone/internet with Swisscom, and they've been completely faultless. The services were connected when we moved in, as arranged, and we haven't had a single outage since.

In fairness, we've now got a Cablecom recordable box and TV service, which works fine too. The difference is I don't care that much if it breaks and I have no TV for a week or more.

kodokan

Well, I was about to write a raving review of Swisscom saying that I never had any problems what so ever with them - until today!

Has anyone tried out their new "KMU Hotline"? What a disaster! All in German, you need to tip 5 times just to get to the waiting line. Once you get through and ask for an English person you again get in waiting line only to finally be told that you are with the wrong person and need to be connected again.

Well, in the end I did get to talk to a very competent and friendly guy that patiently listend to may ranting about their new "improved" service. So I guess they are still on the plus side in my book. For now.....
......
And unbelievable - I just got a response with a new offer for our company contract. Within 5 minutes! Impressive! Ok, they are definitely still on plus, just hope they change that KMU Hotline thing.

We also tried Cablecom when we first came here around spring of 08 and they were completely incompetent. It was going to take them round about 6 weeks to get our connection up and running.

We ditched them and went to Swisscom. A couple days later, everything sorted.

When I speak to Swiss people, they tend to agree that Swisscom is better than Cablecom. But then, most of our friends don't even have a TV so maybe that skews the perception a bit.

Just like the cablecom threads I'm sure there will be mixed reactions to this post. My own experience with Swisscom led me to Cablecom and methinks it all depends on where you come from (country).

My inquiry with Swisscom was for an ADSL line and a non-internet phone for a contract period of at least 3 years. I was politely advised telephonically that this would be no problem once i had paid a 700Sfr securitzy deposit .

A curt e-mail to cablecom via their website provided me with all of the above plus a 3 month subscription to have 50% off calls to my homeland (after 3 months evaluation i would be billed for this) and all arrived within 48h of me confirming i wanted the offer.

Like your positive experience, a colleague from an EU state visited Zürich on a research stay for 6 months. She was hooked up with an ADSL line and telephone from Swisscom within a week .

Nuff said

Swisscom are excellent - I'm always truly impresses at the fact that the helplines are avilable in 4 languages. Even when I've called the French helpine and got stuck trying to explain some technical issue relating to my DSL connection, the person on the pther end has been able to switch into flawless English.

quite humiliating. Can you imagine that level of service in the UK?

I actually was going to use Cablecom but after reading about experiences on this forum I used Swisscom. When I moved into my appt the phone was on, getting the internet was easy and any problems I have you can ring up and speak in 4 languages.
Vaudbrit - With my phone in the UK - when you ring up BT you are transferred to India and sadly their language skills are not adequate enough to fully get your problem across

...which negates the lower labour cost of these outsourced call centers because they can't solve a problem efficiently not to mention the annoyance to have to speak SLOOOOWLY and LOUDLY because they can't understand you and you can't understand them.