Random German company: You open your intranet, manually search through hundreds of (pdf!) application-forms (because search is not implemented), downlod the right form, print it(!), fill the form, sign it, scan the paper, send it to the ticket system. That’s what they call „Digitalisierung“, because previously they had to send the printed paper-form to the helpdesk team.

I recently signed up for a simple prepaid phone plan in Germany (I have lived here for 2 years already, fully registered etc). I had to go through the full KYC process, after waiting over a week for a physical SIM card to be sent by post to me. After this, I wanted an eSIM (this was my original goal but this was not possible on initial signup).

I had to contact customer support to send me one... by post. They only activate and send eSIMs by mail. This will take another week.

How recently? Nowadays there are a bunch of "app eSIM" companies competing in Germany that offer to get you an eSIM by just installing an app, KYC and credit card in 5 min

A few days ago - I had some strict requirements of extremely low monthly cost (I only need it for sending and receiving SMS and for signing up for certain german services that require a German number) - so I want with O2 Prepaid. There are a lot of instant sign up eSIMs that are data only, which is not what I'm looking for.

I would be surprised if you're talking about an eSIM service that give you a phone number.

Absolutely, the data-only ones don't count :D Fraenk [1] is one example, there are a few competitors all in about the same price range

[1]: https://fraenk.de/esim

Thanks for that, pleasantly surprised.

luckily I haven't been working with such companies, I have had enough of my dose of Digitalisierung by interacting with public offices. But at least I can communicate with the Finanzamt via email, after signing a document where I made clear I understand that emails are not a safe communication tool (while random non-certified letters are, apparently).

> while random non-certified letters are, apparently

They kind of are. Somebody would have to go and steal the physical letter and then read/scan it to make any use of it. That excludes pretty much all attacks on the process --- at least such where criminals might hope to make a larger profit than most other criminal enterprises available to them.

Whether that makes the letters a good idea is a different discussion...

letters can be misplaced in the wrong mailbox, delivered to the wrong address etc etc. They put a lot of trust into the system.

Sounds like my random Japanese company, except for the fact that here all the forms are created in Excel.

Well, that's better, right?

I don't know if you are serious, but I can tell you that the way these people abuse Excel is maddening.