The procedure described in the email from the SBB Contact Office is essentially the same one that I followed the other 5 times I have used a Swiss card.

My first validation question years ago arose in the Zürich Airport train station. Before boarding, we asked. The ticket agent responded by handing me a ball point pen.

Last year on the train from Munich to Zürich, we each wrote in our own dates before we got to the Swiss border near St. Margrethen.

I agree the validation box is new to me.
That was why I wrote and asked.

Some of the other procedures are new, too. Like I had to buy my CARD over here; the SBB ticket office would not sell it internationally. Also, I cannot order train tickets in a package with the card like I did last year.

Seems silly, because to get from Munich to Basel (coming in that way this year), I can print my tickets at home if I order from Die Bahn website. Once in Basel, the CARD takes over for the remainder of the inward journey.

Note that there are two stations for Basel. I need to purchase tickets as far as the Basel SBB station.

As for the other aspects of it, I am taking at full face value the words of the man who responded to my inquiry. Take a pen and write!!

Hey brookwood - I must have read YOUR post about being handed a pen at the ticket window and being told to validate it yourself! Sounds good to me :)