FAQs

Launch and registration

Service and pricing

Security and data protection

Technical delivery

mmmmm

mm

mm

Launch and registration

1. Who is the service aimed at?

People who are often away and want more flexibility as regards when and where they are able to deal with their mail promptly. By digitizing items of post, the new service ensures that users are able to receive and manage their physical mail any time and anywhere. This includes not only individuals, or more precisely private customers wishing to use Swiss Post Box for their own purposes, but also business customers, i.e. companies and business people with an interest in such a service.

2. How do you register for this service?

You can register at www.swisspostbox.com, where you will also find all the information.
Registering for Swiss Post Box is voluntary and subject to a charge. By registering, customers consent to Swiss Post accepting their letter mail on their behalf and processing it according to their instructions.
As part of the registration process, Swiss Post checks the customer's identity and domicile address. This identity check serves to protect all customers. In doing so, Swiss Post follows the same security guidelines as it uses for online banking (PostFinance). (Please note that a copy of your Swiss yellow ID for the identity check costs CHF 20.- .  Prices outside Switzerland for an officially stamped or notarised copy of your passport vary.)

Registration procedure:

1. Sign up at www.swisspostbox.com.
2. Set up your Swiss Post Box.
3. You will receive a personal correspondence address so that your mail goes automatically to our scanning centre.
4. Give this to selected people (such as your bank, insurance company, municipal authority, employer, etc.) or set up an temporary mail forwarding order and have all your letter mail redirected to the new correspondence address. You will not have to change this address when you move.
5. We receive your physical letter mail at Swiss Post's highly secure scanning centre and process it according to your wishes.

3. Do postal carriers have anything to fear from the electronic mailbox? Are their jobs under threat?

No. There will still be physical mail, even with this new service in operation. Physical letters will continue to be sent, but customers will also have the option of receiving them digitally, any time and anywhere This service makes letters a more attractive means of communication overall and supplements the tried-and-tested delivery method with a more modern method of delivering letters.

4. What potential savings does Swiss Post see from introducing the electronic mailbox?

Swiss Post's desire in introducing this service is not to cut costs, but to increase its sales and address the needs of customers in an increasingly mobile world.

5. Why is Swiss Post collaborating with ECM?

The ECM software solution allows us to call up the addressee's personal decisions and process items according to the customer's wishes. This personalized document management system supplements Swiss Post's existing solutions for bulk mailings.
As the first licensee for Europe, Swiss Post intends to play a pioneering role. Because Swiss Post is one of Europe's leading providers of document management services, it has the necessary infrastructure and is able to offer this solution in several countries.

Service and pricing

1. What exactly does the service provide and what does it cost?

Single easy

Liberty Plus

Professional

2. Do I have to have all letters redirected to the new address?

No. The address is only used by those who have been specifically told about it by the customer. So the customer can choose exactly which senders' mail he or she wishes to receive in the Swiss Post Box.

3. If I only wish to have the Swiss Post Box for a few weeks a year when I'm holiday, can I set up a mailbox for a limited period of time?

Outside Switzerland:
Swiss Post is unable to offer this option for technical reasons. There are plans to introduce such a service in Switzerland in 2010.

In Switzerland:
For technical reasons, this isn't possible at the present time. Swiss Post will offer a special service package to meet these customer requirements at a later date and in Switzerland only. There are plans to offer a holiday service package that includes the option of activating the Swiss Post Box at the click of a button. An order would then go to Swiss Post to send all letter items to the alternative address. Users of this option would not have to inform any senders. Once they wish to stop the electronic forwarding order, customers can deactivate it at the click of a button and have all their mail sent to their home address again. For this to work, Swiss Post needs to set up an appropriate process. It does not expect to introduce such a service before 2010.

Swiss Post Box customers who have asked selected partners to use their Swiss Post Box address (ex. their bank, their insurance, their municipality, their employer, etc) can have all their mail forwarded to their Swiss Post Box address while away on holidays. To set up temporary forwarding, go to http://www.post.ch/nachsenden.

For forwarding mail, please use the following format:
Your Name/Company
Swiss Post [your Swiss Post Box number]
Zürcherstrasse 161
8010 Zürich

4. The service is intended for letters. What happens if a parcel is sent to the alternative address? What does Swiss Post do with the parcel and how is the recipient informed? Does he have to pay again to have these more expensive items forwarded?

The service is basically intended for letters. By selecting who to give the correspondence address to, you largely determine who sends letters to you at this address. So if you order a book online, you certainly won't give the SPB correspondence address as the delivery address. If you receive a parcel at this address, we send a photo per e-mail to you. You tell us where to deliver it, at your expense.

5. Is the pricing the same in all countries?

Yes.

6. Why do customers have to pay again to have items forwarded? After all, the sender has already paid the postage?

By using the Swiss Post Box the customer receives the letters to the new digital address, for this service the sender pays the postage. The intention of using Swiss Post Box is to receive the letters only in digital form. For a new reshipment to an address of his choice a regular postage is charged.

7. How long can customers archive items for and what amount of data can they store?

Archiving is available for an unlimited period. There are currently no limits on the amount of data.

8. Once a customer makes a choice (scan content, forward item, dispose of item), how long is it before that order is executed?

The scanning centres are staffed during office hours. Orders are fulfilled within eight hours. However, the customer can also decide by default which items from which senders may be opened. Those items are processed immediately.

9. What happens to the physical items that have been scanned in and are no longer needed by the customer?

They are either shredded, recycled or archived, depending on the customer's wishes.

10. What happens if the customer deletes mail by mistake?

We always document every step of the process, and customers will also be able to view this in their account. Such instructions are not carried out until 48 hours after they arrive, so such an order can be cancelled again within an accommodating period of time. Swiss Post cannot accept liability if an order is not cancelled within that time period.

11. Does Swiss Post also accept registered mail?

Yes, it does. Customers need to consent to a clause to that effect when concluding an agreement. The registered mail is displayed accordingly in the mailbox. The customer is immediately informed and specifically alerted to the fact that a registered mail item has arrived.

12. (For Switzerland only) Is a mail A also delivered on Saturdays and can the data be called up in the Swiss Post Box?

No. No items are processed on Saturdays. Items are scanned in at the secure processing centre Monday to Friday during office hours.

13. Can customers choose not to have advertising scanned in at the same time as the content?

We never read an item's content and are therefore unable to separate advertising from content.

14. What sort of addresses does Swiss Post offer and what do these cost?

Free addresses

Addresses that are subject to a charge

15. What criteria are applied in selecting these addresses and why are some of the addresses subject to a charge?

The free addresses always have local production (scanning centres). However, these locations are often not at attractive addresses and there are some customers who, for reasons of prestige, desire an attractive street address. Therefore we charge the address.

16. Can I use more than one address and if so, what do these cost?

Yes. The price is added up.

17. Can I have an item forwarded to any address?

The items could be forwarded to every national or international address.

18. Can I register more than one user for an account?

Yes. You can have as many as you like. With Liberty Plus, for example, you can register as a business with five employees or as a family with several members and receive the appropriate number of log-ins. Each person with the same source address then has their own electronic mailbox.

19. What is the cost of postage and how long does it take to process orders?

We send the items conformly to national and international standard postages. Items are shipped at 4.30 p.m..

Scanning times
We process orders during office hours.The response time to a customer order is from 1 to 6 hours.

20. If the number of letters received exceeds the number of scans in my subscription, will additional costs be incurred for each additional scan?

"Scan" refers to the number of individual pages we scan after opening your letter. Any consignments that exceed the number of scans included in your subscription will be billed separately (see Price List Extras/Extra Content Pages Scanned).

21. Is it possible to withhold the letters I receive over a longer period of time so that they can be sent together to my private address?

Yes, this is possible.

22. Can the monthly invoice be paid via direct debit?

Swiss Post accepts credit cards only at present. An annual invoice can only be issued in exceptional circumstances.

Security and data protection

1. How does Swiss Post ensure data protection?

Swiss Post has the same security standards as PostFinance and is bound by the principle of postal secrecy.
Swiss Post only opens letters for customers who have subscribed for this service and therefore specifically given their consent. All Swiss Post Box employees undergo the strictest security and personality checks. After processing, every letter that we open and scan in at your request is repackaged in a neutral envelope and placed in interim storage. The processing processes are audited and certified by Swiss data protection officers.

With Swiss Post Box, you are entrusting the task of opening your physical letter mail to Swiss Post, which has stood for discretion, security and quality since 1849. It is our job to uphold the principle of postal secrecy. Data protection is ensured - data traffic is always encrypted. For the five countries, letters are captured electronically in Switzerland. The electronic data are made available to the recipient from Switzerland.

2. How does Swiss Post ensure data protection in the surrounding countries? Can it guarantee security there, too?

Yes. Swiss Post's corporate governance applies to all countries and employees.

Technical delivery

1. Where are the items scanned in?

The items are scanned in at the Zurich-Mülligen letter centre, in a secure scanning centre. During the initial phase, this scanning centre will also scan in mail from Germany, Italy, France and Austria and is operable as a duty free zone. This is something Swiss Post can handle well, without any loss of quality (time). It uses the existing logistics network of its subsidiary company Swiss Post International. Only during a second phase will Swiss Post set up scanning centres in countries outside Switzerland as well. It's a question of time and volume.

2. Is mail from abroad transported to Zurich-Mülligen on a daily basis?

Yes. Swiss Post International carries items to Zurich-Mülligen on a daily basis. During this initial phase, items for customers from Germany, France, Italy and Austria will be subject to minimal delays. Scanning centres will be set up in those countries at a later date.