OK, so when we moved here, we thought long and hard about get the GA - we did and have never regretted that decision. But, I feel like SBB does everything they can to continue extracting money. Two recent experiences are:

We took a vacation and wanted to turn in our GA so we could be credited for the time we weren't using the GA. A really cool feature actually, but they charged us 10 CHF each to take our cards from us.

Surcharges on buses. We were in southern Switzerland this week traveling on buses in Ticino and Zermatt and were charged surcharges. If anyone has a clue what these are about I would like to know.

And! We did a trip with our dog to Austria. It was too hard to figure out what the train fees would be for her since we could get to an Austrian border town on her GA, but then would have to pay for the rest, so we went to SBB to get them to help. They sold us a ticket for her for 46 CHF. When we got into Austria and handed the conductor a ticket, he made the strangest face and I thought we had done something wrong, like traveling on the wrong day. Instead he told us that we could have bought a ticket for out dog for a full days travel anywhere in Austria for 1.80 Euros. So we paid 46 CHF for what should have been 3.60 Euro... SBB wouldn't help at all with this when we got back.

And! When we first got here, and were deciding about the GA, we were buying individual tickets, because we were told we could trade them in and be refunded if we decided to get the GA. No-one said that you can only turn in 3 trips for credit until we were trying to get our credit. We were also told that is we forgot our GA, we could buy a ticket and get credit for it if we took our GA in with the ticket. They didn't tell us that you have to tell them this is what you are doing when you buy the ticket so they can write on there this is what you are doing. They will absolutely not refund it if you don't have this written on your ticket.

My list could go on and on. I LOVE the Swiss train station and wouldn't change it for the world, but we have always gotten inconsistent answers from our train station attendants and processes and costs, have been charged for everything possible along the way, and have always been shoved off to the next higher level - i.e. I can't help you from the conductor, but you can contact the people at the station who can't help you, but you can contact somebody by mail, etc. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Try writing an email or telephoning their customer complaints centre. I had a few interesting experiences with SBB also and after the last incident, felt that enough was enough and an email (in English). I received compensation (mainly the additional costs that I had been forced to pay as they didn't get my ticketing right) but at least they did apologise and sent cash back!

I'm afraid I don't have their details anymore but any ticket office can provide them.

Pardon my ignorance. What does "GA" mean?

General Abbonnement (Yearly ticket)

Charging 10chf to take in your GA sounds reasonable, it takes time & benefits you to the cost of SBB.

The route to Zermatt is privately owned.

On the other hand, a GA is what - 3K?
That's still half the price of a yearly ticket for a 45 min journey into London that's only valid Mon - Fri on a particular route. (And you probably still don't get a seat).

The 46- dog ticket sound like a piss take though.

Write 'em - I'm pretty sure they are going to compensate you.

As for the busses & cablecars in touristical regions: Some will accept the GA, some won't. Here's an overview

http://www.sbb.ch/content/sbb/de/des...r.download.pdf

Hope this helps, Tom