Hi all
i am moving to Versam, GR, with my girlfriend in April, me from the UK her from Germany we both have guaranteed jobs, and i presume we will both get L permits. How easy will it be for us to register for swisscom, or anybody else, for landline fone and adsl? there seem to be so many things that i/people can't do on an L permit i am hoping this is not one of them.
many thanks in advance for any help
James

L permits make it tricky for many things that involve a long-term contract so you might have problems with phone/internet abonnements. Like so many things when dealing with Swiss businesses, it all depends on who you speak to on the day you come to make the order.

However, you could quite likely get B permits since these should be given out by default (for EU people) until they are all out of quota. You only get the L permit when no more B's are available in your area.

In places like Zuerich which is chock full of EU workers, newcomers are likely to end up with L. However, somewhere out in Graubunden should be OK. Plus, the quotas for EU B's are due to be lifted soon anyway.


Gav

i got everything i wanted on an L-permit, even a credit card in the end.

with phone, internet etc, I was never questioned along the way. I got everything through cablecom.

<edit> and this was thrown at me BEFORE i even got my apartment (i was in a corporate apartment at the time) - i walked into interdiscount and arranged everything in advance with a cablecom salesman. All i had to tell them was when to activate everything.

Gooner probably has the best strategy there - go with cablecom and forget about the Swisscom line. Cablecom will give you phone and internet and you won't need the line from Swisscom. Swisscom have also been notorious in the past for demanding large sums (like 500 francs) for holders of L and B permits (yes, it's happened to me before everyone says "but it didn't happent to me")

Of course, if you don't already have a cablecom line to your place then this could be a problem)

Cheers for your help guys, i will check out cablecom and see if i can a line to us. Also being able to get a B permit straight off may also help, i had not expected this.
will keep you all posted on developements thanks again
james

yep, 10 y ago, I had to pay 200 chf as I was on a B when I arrived in Vaud

I'm probably going the Cablecom way ( as described above ) but I'm a little concerned with "customer service". Like I've heard theay don't have any. . .

Yep - Swisscom wanted a 2000CHF deposit of off me for ISDN when I first moved to Switzerland. This was with a B permit. Needless to say, I declined.

I got cable modem from Cablecom with no hassles (when it eventually arrived in my area 2 years later) and was able to get a Diax (now Sunrise) mobile abo at the time with no deposit needed.


Gav

The internet and phone services are great, i've never had any trouble. It's cablecom TV that has given me trouble. So if you're thinking of going cablecom for înternet and tv, it's great.

just a note to those thinking of Cablecom - use the recommendation feature and everyone benefits.

Who (existing Cablecom customer) has not recommended someone to Cablecom? I know I have so it's someone else's turn

Correct - voted by K-tipp as worst company of 2006. However, as long as everything is straight forward there shouldn't be any problems. It's only when your case falls outside of the norm that the fun really starts. But try it and see.

As Lob said - new cablecom customers get 2 months' worth of free digital phone and internet access if referred by an existing customer. The existing customer also gets free access for 2 months. This deal can be combined with other promotions.

As much as I hate cablecom for their digital TV antics, you have to admit it's a good deal.

I'd be more than happy to act as referred for new cablecom clients. All I'm saying is this - if you are about to sign up for cablecom don't do it without being referred by someone else - you'll save yourself soemthing like 150 francs (depending on your plan) and so will whoever acts as your referrer!

Me me, have !

Me me, have not recommended anyone yet !

Good suggestion, since everyone benefits from it.

I've not done a referral yet.

Hello,

I'm intending on getting cablecom for my internet service, so I hope to be fishing for a recommendation - one problem, at present the cablecom website says that my apartment-to-be has digital TV but no hi-speed Net access (didn't know this was possible - I thought that if you had the digital TV you must have the cable, and if you have the cable how do you not access the internet through it? Why put a cable in with multiple capabilities and not allow those capabilities to paying customers?).

If it really is something that a foreigner who doesn't know the systems here can do without getting into too much difficulty, I will apply online so that cablecom will start trying to upgrade us. In the meantime if the cablecom website is right, I guess I need to try to get a Swisscom phoneline and Bluewin ADSL, and hope they don't charge me the earth for a phone connection (how on Earth do they justify 2000CHF for such a connection? Is it even possible to do that much damage to it?).

MrWhereisitat - without appearing to be rude I seem to be seeing the same questions coming up from you on thread after thread. There's no need to repeat yourself on so many threads.

My suggestion is this - why don't you just phone cablecom and talk to them? Sometimes it is hard to get through, but they do have a section that speaks English and they would also be the best people to answer your questions.

Sorry about the repetition - comes from replying to multiple threads then getting interrupted by a phone call from the gerance or next hotel I have to book into etc. and forgetting what I just posted about. I'm sure you remember the chaos of setting up that you'll have had to go through before and all the things you need to learn to do at once, especially with an apartment!

I think I WILL phone cablecom closer to the time I move in, but regardless of the language or country, I've found it always helps to know something beforehand, as it's in any company's best interests to keep you believing they are the best/only etc option. And whilst in Switzerland I have had some frosty receptions when I professed to not know the proper system when talking to various agencies - even when using my fair understanding of French! That's something that's surprised me here - often there is sympathy for language issues, but not so much if you don't know the processes.

Thanks to all for the responses to my queries so far - I've learned a lot. I've been passing what I learn on to the seeming flood of new postdocs arriving in Lausanne recently also, so any advice given here is reaching at least 3 or 4 people.