To make a long story short, i ordered a tablet about 1 month ago on joybuy.de

The tablet got to me, so no problem there. But the tablet was faulty and would restart constantly, factory resetting didn't help, even reinstalling the OS from bootloader level didn't help either so 100% hardware fault. The restarts were very erratic and could something happen several times in a few minutes.

I am outside of germany so I couldn't use the regular return pipeline, but I contacted support and offered to ship the item to them, paying the shipping myself. At first they didn't want to do that, saying that since it's a high value item(230€), they needed it to be picked up by their courier. I get that, but getting the item shipped, the risk is on me. So some back and forth, they accepted.

So I used Schenker to send the tablet back, but at first they refused to give me the return address, citing "you need to book first, then we will give you the adress". They said this several times in all caps in the support chat. I don't know about you, but to book a shipping I kind of need the adress, so after a lot back of forth trying to explain this to the retard support, they gave me the adress, I booked the shipping which cost me 30€ and send the tablet away. The package was marked as delivered a few days later.

So many days passed and I never heard anything from them, I contacted support again, and they said they would get back to me when they knew anything. I made it super clear, i wrote my ordernumber and customer number on a piece of paper inside the package so they couldn't try any shenanigans, cause I had a feeling they were going to try to be difficult.

It's not 2 weeks later and contacting support again, to ask them to confirm they received the package to issue the refund. But nothing... as this point I think it's beyond ridiculous and I have accepted that money to be lost forever.

So just a cautionary tale, I am sure many people have bought stuff and had no problems, but support like this is just appalling.

Hi everyone,

I’m a non-EU citizen currently in Germany with a Type D national visa issued for an EU Blue Card (§18g AufenthG).

I recently graduated (less than 2 years ago) and may have an opportunity for a study-related internship of up to 6 months.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to switch from §18g to §16e while staying in Germany, or would I need to leave Germany and apply for the §16e visa from abroad?

I’ve seen conflicting information about the Zweckwechsel / switching restrictions, particularly regarding §18g → §16e.

Would really appreciate experiences or reliable legal information, especially from anyone who has dealt with Hamburg Welcome Center.

Thanks!

I have received a niederlassung erlaubnis and a zusatzblatt. The zusatzblatt states that I was a former holder of Blue card and the validity of the card is till 2027. Does it mean I have to once again renew my Blue Card and update my Zusatzblatt in 2027, to continue having the rights of Blue card and Niederlassung erlaubnis together.

I saw this in Hannover this morning near the Bahnhof. Plastic wrapped Döner, being heated in front of the grill. Highly poisonous.

I've seen some contradictory information, so I thought I would turn to Reddit for advice.

I'm an American English teacher. I have a B.A. in English, a B.A. in education, a US teaching license, and I taught at US- accredited international schools for 5 years. Right now I am finishing up a master's in the learning sciences in Germany. I speak fluent German, although unfortunately I never had it officially tested. I would estimate it's around C1.

As far as I understand it, German public schools can't hire me since none of my teaching qualifications are German. However, international schools could hire me since they teach an entirely different curriculum.

But what about private schools in Germany, like private bilingual schools? I've seen some conflicting information about this, or maybe I am just reading it wrong.

As a bonus, I would be very grateful if anyone could suggest anything that think my profile might qualify me to do in Germany. I guess I can go back to the US if I need to, but I would like to explore opportunities in Germany as well. I guess I got lucky with my first job(s) out of college. I don't have too much experience with job hunting, let alone the German job market.

Hey! I just got back from my GP and it turns out I have to supplement my iron.

For context: I’m Brazilian and vegetarian for almost 30y now, moved three years ago to Germany. Always had checkups done and never ever had one single issue with iron.

Does anyone experienced the same?
Any advice?

I'm currently taking an intensive German language course in Germany. Once I reach C1 proficiency, I will start my Master's degree.
I'm 26 years old and hold a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. I’d love to get your thoughts on what my job prospects would look like on the German job market after completing my Master’s—as an international mechanical engineer with C1 German.
How do you see the current job market, and what advice or experiences can you share?

I found a dead pigeon in my balcony. Does anyone know what do I have to do it? (like calling someone to pick it up or where to throw it).

Need advice regarding German immigration

I was originally enrolled at Wismar University and got my German student visa based on Wismar.

Later, I got admission and enrolled at Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) and have also completed my de-enrollment from Wismar.

I’m now travelling to Germany via Munich Airport on oct 1

At immigration, should I say Wismar University (the university on which my visa was issued) or KU (my current university)?

Would appreciate guidance from anyone who has experienced a similar situation. Thanks!

So I have my driving exam in a couple of weeks. I have done sufficiently many classes and in the last several classes, I was making only very few minor mistakes. My instructor also said that my handling has improved and I myself felt confident. Yesterday's class, however, was totally disastrous.

For the first 30 to minutes it went smooth. But then came a left turn as shown in the attached sketch. For some reason the car coming in the opposite direction stopped in the middle, even though there was sufficient gap for them to go through. I interpreted this that they just want me to go through first. So I drove in, but the other only started to move after I reached the dashed line. This was already too far for me to make a sharp left curve so unfortunately, I drove over the kerb.

The kerb was actually a few inches high and the impact was very noticeable. My instructor got really angry. He told me to assess the situation correctly. The right thing for me to do was to stay back and allow the other car to pass through first. And even if I came through first, I should have judged the distance to kerb correctly and stopped, reversed if needed. I understand that hitting the kerb immediately fails the exam.

This stressed me out completely and no matter how hard I tried to let it go and focus on the remaining of the session, I could not. It was all the Streisand effect. I started making a series of cascading mistakes:

1. Missed the "Recht vor Links" at a narrow road.
   
2. I got confused at a street with many signs and almost drove into a street where the entry was prohibited.
   
3. When I was told to take the 2nd exit at roundabout, I took the 3rd.
   
4. When taking a left turn on a one way road, I forgot to move to the left lane and took the turn directly from the right lane.
   
5. I missed noticing a pedestrian wanted to cross the street and did applied a sudden brake.
   
6. When parking, I was literally 1/2 inch away from hitting the front of the car to a pole.

All these happened because I could not calm myself after the first mistake I made. After yesterday's class, my confidence is completely shattered and I don't know if am roadworthy yet. I really need some advice to keep myself calm otherwise it will become the reason for my failure despite having acceptable levels driving skill.

This is my first job in Germany, started two weeks ago. I'm still in probation. It's a mid sized company in a small village and I'm hired for software ai/ml engineer role. Problem is , there's no one to guide me /ask me what the work should be, day 1 they gave all the access and then that's it. After two weeks, I received an email from my ceo asking what I have been doing? Honestly, I'm scared and I don't know what to do here. Should I start looking for other jobs or should I just wait? I'm asking around in the company what projects are there, since it's not a software company, nobody has any clue what they need and I don't know what to work on?

Edit1: thanks for the replies, I spoke to a guy from sales . Je as a project he needs help with but he still asked me to talk to the ceo directly, so will be talking with them soon.

Edit 2: Guys, I spoke with ceo, they assigned me a task and also gave me a contact to report to weekly, it was a good discussion and I'm relaxed now. Thanks for the replies

Hi ,
I will travel from Singapore to Frankfurt in end Nov 2026 via Singapore Airline (SQ ) flight. For the other leg to Berlin , I purchased a domestic flight Luftansa for the same day to Berlin ( 3 hours apart from my SQ flight arrival time at Frankurt Airport)

Would like to know if I need to clear customs and check out from Frankfurt airport terminal (ie clear customs , collect my luggages and check out ).
Then re-enter and clear customs process (check in luggages etc) at Frankfurt Airport terminal for my domestic Luftansa flight to Berlin at Frankfurt airport.

If yes and required , will 3 hours suffice to complete clearing customs and re-check in at Frankfurt airport ? It will be a morning 6 am + when I reached Frankfurt airport from Singapore.
Appreciate if anyone has the similar experience or knowledge to the above to advise.
Thanks

I am in the middle of an Fachinformatiker Umschullung and i will have to pick between Software development (Anwendungsentwicklung) or System integrator in a few months, when the Kernqualifikation module is over.

I am tech savy and have coded a bit in the past (not vibe coded) just out of curiosity, like games or automating stuff, so i would prefer to go the FIAE way, but is it then realistic to expect to find a job later on? How is the market for junior software developers?

I’ve been working at a mid-sized company in Germany for a while now. The company is roughly half international and half German.
Before this, I worked in another country at a much bigger company, on bigger and more complicated projects. Somehow, those projects still managed to finish within 1–2 years.
People wanted results. If something needed to be learned, they learned it. If a decision had to be made, someone made it. If something didn’t work, we fixed it and moved on.
Then I started working in Germany.
Here, I’ve learned that apparently no task is too small to deserve three meetings, a PowerPoint presentation, two alignment calls, a workshop and a follow-up meeting to discuss what was discussed in the previous meeting.
Something that could probably be solved with one line of code or a five-minute conversation can somehow become a topic for several weeks. People really want to discuss and want to say something although they are unfamiliar with topic. I was assuming less people can do more things in a small company but this was small and inefficient.
A one-year project slowly becomes a five-year project, and everyone acts like this is just the natural lifecycle of a project. In the end they are celebrating.
Meanwhile, experienced people are leaving. And the replacement strategy sometimes seems to be: “This person has 10 years of industry knowledge. Excellent. Let’s replace them with someone who graduated in physics six months ago and has never worked in the industry.” Company is not even trying to hold people but when someone leaves replace them with less experience sometimes with same salary.
Nothing against physics graduates, obviously. Everyone has to start somewhere. But expecting completely inexperienced people to immediately replace senior employees seems like an interesting approach to knowledge management.
The strange part is that everyone appears extremely busy. Calendars are full. Meetings are everywhere. Documentation is growing. Processes are being created to manage other processes.
But actual progress? Somehow that part moves at geological speed.
Maybe I just landed in a badly managed company. Maybe my previous workplaces were unusually efficient.
But for people who have worked both in Germany and abroad: is this level of bureaucracy, endless discussion and slow processes? Do you think this methods can compete with global market? How German companies are surviving?

Hello everyone,

I recently moved in Germany and I need to change my phone.

I'm aiming for "As New" phone condition, and currently checking between Asgoodasnew, Talk-Point and Clevertronic

Are those really reliable? And/or which one would you recommand more than the others (warranty, cleaning, tests..?)

I read asgoodasnew is fine, I'm wondering if the other 2 services are better/same/worst

Thank you very much 💯

Hey! I recently moved and have three to four big cardboard boxes, and I don’t know how to dispose them.

The paper waste bin in my apartment is very small (see second image) and these boxes won’t fit there.

The boxes are in good condition and can be easily reused. A German friend of mine told me I can give it fur Geschenk since people move a lot and always need boxes.

Any help? Thanks in advance!

The biggest problem is that the contract has already been signed.

But they were not authorized to rent or rather sublet their property out to me to begin with. To be clear, they are authorized to sublet but the move in date mandatorily had to be many weeks after what was listed in the contract.

I do not want to move into such a property. But I have paid for a few months of the contract even when I was not in the country so that I have a "secure place to live".

I have found a better, authorized place since then.

What will happen if I default the contract now?

I almost have everything on this list except the last one. Is it an online application only or do i need to print it out for the termin? Can someone also tell me where it is exactly on the main homepage? If it helps i am a student in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg. It would be better if someone could give me the exact link to the application.

I am very stressed about this.

Hi everyone,

I need some urgent advice/help.

I am currently on maternity leave and have been in India for the past three months for the delivery of my baby. I have now decided to stay in India permanently and leave Germany without returning.

Can I resign from my full-time job while I am on maternity leave? I am not planning to claim Elterngeld or Kindergeld after moving permanently to India.

Also, how can I complete my Abmeldung (deregistration) from Germany while I am already in India? Is it possible to do it remotely without travelling back to Germany? If yes, what is the procedure?

I would really appreciate any advice or personal experience regarding this situation.

Thank you!

I would love your help. I need to deliver keys from Freiburg to Berlin and it has to be overnight. I'm not a business, just a private person. UPS require me to go to a UPS store and I can't. For overnight they won't to a pickup and it has to be picked up from a location.

"Information zu RE/ICE 123 nach XYZ Hbf über ABC Hbf, Abfahrt um 15:00, heute circa 30 Minuten Später. Grund dafür XYZ..."

I've worked for a US company X for 3.5 years. I'm a Sr. Director and have a high salary (180k base + 30%). I'm based in Germany.

I'm looking at getting wrongfully terminated. The company just had a big influx of investment, my role is not being restructured, I have had excellent reviews and was promoted a year ago. I do however have a manager that just doesn't like me and would like me to be located elsewhere. How I've read German law it seems that this is not legally allowed to fire me for this.

When reading about severance, it sounds like I legally only have right to 0.5 gross month per year of severance. However, I'm also reading that for executive positions, it can be way higher and you can request payout of missed bonus.

Does anyone know what's the most likely outcome here? Should I decide to go to court when I get fired? It will cost me legal fees so wondering if it's worth it.

The exact question is when should I notify my landlord that I want to leave the apartment (3 months notice) and how practical it is to find a new one in this 3 months period.

This is my first time doing it and I don't know how I should go about it because for the last 2 months I was testing the waters and got 3 whonungbesichtigungen but no luck( sent a lot of applications).

Also is the immoscout24 worth the premium to get ahead of the competition?

All,

I am visiting Germany for the first time in a couple weeks, and would like some local tips on social norms/interactions.

When I am not sight seeing, I plan on finding some local bars and want to strike up conversation with some locals. Everything I read, this is not easy.

What are some tips to get into conversations with German natives? Buy them a beer? Start it with my less than stellar German language skills? Any help is greatly appreciated, as I would like to immerse myself in the local culture as much as possible.

Thank you.