askberliners

Hey!

I know that sometimes companies give away or resell for cheap some of their furnitures (chairs, desk etc.) when they scale down or move places. I'd be interested into buying an office chair from them as the good ones are quite expensive to buy brand new.

Is there maybe a place/website to buy such second hand companies furnitures instead of contacting companies directly?

Danke!

As above. I would like to get a facial and ideally have some blackheads extracted. My German is okay but not really great for this kind of purpose, so English would be preferable. Thanks in advance!

Hallo!

I am visiting Berlin soon and I am a big fan of bootleg, vintage, off brand etc football merchandise and souvenirs, and modern stuff too.

I imagine there will be lots of this about with the EURO tournament, but is there any shops for this kind of stuff? Or will there be lots of stalls/street sellers?

I tried to Google but all that came up was the official Union/Hertha stores.

Thank you

Hi all, my sister is living in Berlin for the summer and I wanted to get her a gift card for her birthday. I was thinking a cafe or restaurant or something. She is in her early 20s and living in Mitte. Thanks in advance!

I'm looking to start driving lessons this summer. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good driving school in either Kreuzberg or Neukolln?

Thanks!

it’s my first time ever visiting Berlin & honestly I’m done with all the clubbing in cities. It’s all boring & just not my vibe. I think raves like this is the way to go for me. I just want to be there for the music, As a solo raver I’d wanna know all the things there is to know about how to enter these amazing clubs in Berlin. Also I’m going to be in Berlin on 24th & 25th July, which is a Wednesday and Thursday. I checked ra.co, it says there’s something called SECH10 PLUS RAVE happening on Thursday night at M-BIA, I need someone (preferably a Berliner ) to talk about it . I’ve been reading a lot on Reddit about raves in Berlin & I finally understand why the bouncers don’t let people in, and I respect it.

Do you regret your decision? Did you jump through multiple ones? Do you have any good names to share ?

According to Covivio's website they are the fairest private property managment company in Germany. And to be fair I do pay a reasonable 494€ (Cold) 643€ (warm) rent for 39m in Mitte in a 50 year old apartment. But I just ran the numbers through conny and https://mietencheck.de/ and they both said I can save around 200€. Now that would be great but under no condition do I wanna risk evacuation, even 1%.

That's why if anyone with covivio has gone through the procedure and don't mind sharing their experience would be great!

Hello,

I have received a notification from the company that manages the apartment where I'm staying regarding the "checkout cleaning fee". For me, this message besides ridiculous it's illegal, the didn't write these fees and details in the leasing contract that I signed, the only thing it said it was that during checkout I was going to pay a cleaning fee, but didn't contain all these details

What can I do? For me this looks a way to steal my deposit money? Have you experienced this before and can suggest anything?

I'm deeply grateful for your input.

This is the message from the company (removing the company name because of course, I don't want repercussions):

Dear Tenant

Soon you will be moving out of your apartment. As stated in the lease agreement, the apartment will be professionally cleaned after you move out.

The property owner or COMPANY NAME will take care of the organization. The cleaning company‘s invoice will be sent to the property owner and the amount will be deducted from your deposit.

The costs depend on the degree of cleaning necessary and effort required. For a normally maintained apartment, when regular cleaning and maintenance has been done during the rental period, you can use the following figures as a guideline:

Furnished Apartments
1-room apartment: 5 -15 hours 2-room apartment: 6 - 20 hours 3-room apartment 60 - 80 m²: 9 - 28 hours 4-room apartment from 80 m²: 10 - 35 hours
Above from 150 m²: 16 - 50 hours

In case of more severe cleaning conditions, the hourly rate may vary significantly. The prices of the cleaning companies that COMPANY NAME works with go from 30 € to 45 € plus VAT per cleaner and hour. + Journey costs of 30 € to 35 € plus VAT within the urban area of Berlin (Public transport Area A).

Please note: Cleaning of bed linen and towels will be charged separately. Even if the linen has not been used, it must be freshly washed and ironed for the new tenant or the beds must be made up (as at handover). Having the apartment deep cleaned before returning the keys often may considerably reduce the costs to be deducted from deposit.

I am trying to get some side income and was curious if anyone is registered with Silk & Otter Research. I have done surveys in the past but the type of market research this company does seems definitely more appealing and I would like to give it a shot.

I am curious to know how frequently someone might be called in to take part in studies after registering with their website.

I have a few rugs in my house that really need to be cleaned, but I don't have the equipment or space to clean them.

I know in other cities there are services that will come and pick up rugs, clean them and bring them back. Does anyone know of one of these in Berlin? Thanks for any tips!

Hey! I went to the Auslanderbehorde a couple of weeks back to change my passport number in my residence permit, since I had to renew my passport. The issue is that I remember them telling me I'd have to go back to the office to pick the new one, but I can't remember if they told me to go pick it up after receiving the electronic Aufenthaltstittel, or if I'd receive another letter after it telling to go pick it up.

Many thanks x

Heya, I'm a Scottish tourist heading over in summer and I lament the proliferation of cheap shite clothes stores and Primarks where I live yet, being M/40+ I have absolutely no interest in super expensive brand name high fashion so a lot of Kurfürstendamm shopping doesn't sound up my street. So it sounds like I'm after department stores? Perhaps big chain stores? Am I looking for some big German home brands?

Where I live we have Marks and Spencer and - before they closed down - Debenhams which would have filled this sort of mid-ground decent quality but not £300 t-shirt fashion bullshit you get nowadays.

I think I distantly remember C&A being a thing back pre-2000s before they left the UK market and that there's one of those at Alexanderplatz, any reccs otherwise? I'm stopping at Hackescher Markt so I know there might some REAL good department stores around there?

Thanks!

As the title says. I saw a video on YT in which an Edeka in Berlin had a "pina to go" machine. In case you didn't know, this machine cuts a whole pineapple into slices and you get to take it in a box.

Does anyone know if an Edeka or Rewe near you has such a thing?

Hello,

I’ll be visiting Berlin with my familu soon and would like to show them around this beautiful city. I usually take my friends on the bus nr 100, the double decker. This time though theres an information on BVG: “Bus 200 und 300 fahren öfter. Bus 100 fährt nicht. Von 13.05. bis 28.07. fahren Bus 200 und 300 tagsüber alle 10 Minuten. Bus 100 fährt nicht. Nutzen Sie auch die U5 als Alternative. Bitte planen Sie Ihre Route in der App oder BVG.de” so no bus nr 100 service for over a month? Does this happen often? What is the reason? I still can take a replacement buses 200 and 300 but does anyone know if these are double deckers too and are they worth take a ride at all? Thanks for any information on the matter! Cheers.

Hi all,

I had 2 jobs in 2023, first job from Jan to June and salary was 44k per year and the second job was from june to december and salary was 50k per year. Now to my confusion/ disappointment, I tried do my tax returns for the year 2023 using Elster (online service for taxes) and it shows I will only get back 5 euros?? Can this be normal, I am feeling maybe its not.

I am a single male, 32 years and no kids... my tax class is Tax 1.

does nay one have an insight into this or maybe want to share the amount they got back?? thanks

I have a WBS but feel like I'm doing something wrong. In about 100 applications to the two in the title, I only ever got one viewing (which got cancelled on the day of).

I'm German but without a German sounding name, however I thought these places were supposed to be unbiased and go with either speed or randomization. But at this point with this many applications being likely quite a bit quicker than most applicants (I have the pages on a second monitor refreshing every minute) it is starting to appear kinda doubtful to me that that's true...

Does anyone have experience with those and any tips for better success?

Would also like to know your experience applying to these with and without WBS (or that of others you know)!

I’m about to change industries and take a large pay cut, and I was wondering how much most people need to get by comfortably in Berlin a month. Are there things you don’t do in order to cut costs? Are there any tips on living on a lower budget?

Hey all, I am searching for a temporary furnished house and I am in between two. One is in Schöneberg and furnitures are a bit older, other one is new (first tenant) but a bit far to city (Lichterfelde). Prices and sizes are same.

My work office is at Moabit but only 1 office day per week.

Can you guys spit some ideas?

Hi,

can someone personally recommend a specific asparagus vending place in Poland, not too far from the border, which is not too expensive and has good quality?

Thanks,
Ingmar

Where can i buy a portable ultrasound (ultraschall) device? I need to get a device that can help me with my wrist tendonitis, but I can't find any place selling one for domestic use (yes, it was already approved by my doctor). thanks!!!!

Anyone have any insight on the playground at Boxi? My family usually goes to the farmers market on Saturday to get some food while our kids play in the playground. Just as the weather got nice, they put a fence around the playground, worked on it for a few days, got maybe 25-50% done with the work, and now they’ve abandoned it for about 2 months so nobody can use it. It didn’t seem to be in bad shape before the construction. Anyone know why construction stopped (or started in the first place), or when it might be complete? Thanks!