hi there.

you should take a look here:

http://www.cartons-de-demenagement.info/stockage-geneve-pays-de-gex-self-box-divonne-lausanne-bassin-lemanique-thoiry-val-thoiry-garde-meuble-espace-de-rangement-self-stockage-demenagement

i use this for over a year now, and it only costs 5 euro per package.
i save all the costs from the border ( usually around 30 chf) and the shipping is always cheaper to France instead of Switzerland. 

or maybe if your method is more efficient i would be happy to hear about it when you figured it out. :)

Bella: thanks! Several times I needed stuff delivered to a FR address where I could pick it up, and never had a good solution. This is good info.

Saso: how does the system with "poste restant" work?

Thanks, Nir

It is pretty much the same as above. Usually all post offices except packages like this.

The sender just writes:
YOUR NAME
Poster resante
ADDRESS OF POST OFFICE

The post office will the keep the package/letter for 15 days for you to pick up. As I read in France they do charge 0.60 EUR for the service. That's about it as far as I know.

I used it a lot in other countries but not in France though. The only drawback is that is can not be a shippment from courier (dhl,ups,etc) since Poste do not sign for the package.

Bella Stella - thanks for this!! This looks like a perfect alternative for those packages that need signing!

Your welcome. 

I have to tell you though, that Amazon is so far the only company that doesnt accept this adress as a valid one.  I contacted their customer service and they told me they coudnt deliver to this adress for technical reasons. 

Other websites worked perfect for me.

On above, I regularly use French P.O. poste restante in Divonne-Les-Bains and Amazon France deliver no problem to this P.O. address via postal system (latest last Friday). My home addess is in CH.

However, since 09/12 the French P.O. has increased their charges for this service from 60 € centimes to 4.0 € per package, so it's only interesting on expensive items.

Pity!

Could this be caused by over-use/abuse of the facility by CH residents?  It’s amazing how quickly the “authorities” get wind that the (wo)man in the street is on to a good thing.

R.

Agreed, no doubt an overuse by CH residents. Last Christmas the Poste at Divonne had to open a special neighbouring warehouse which was full top to bottom of Amazon packages.  But I read an article in a Swiss newspaper that showed the Swiss import duty (calculated and collected by the CH Post) was often a rip-off.  The article even suggested the 'French' option.

Sometimes we choose to be sneaky, sometimes it is forced upon us...

Indeed, a rip-off it is!

One time I ordered with a voucher visitcards from vistaprint, which costed me exactly 5 EURO.The douane at the border estimated the worth  around 100 CHF, so I had to pay around 30 CHF ( 15 for the administration costs) in total to the Swiss douane. That was the last time I got something delivered to Switzerland.

As an update to ordering stuff from Amazon.fr via the French P.O., I have discovered that if you order using the French amazon 'point relais' (delivery point) system rather than specifying 'poste restante' there are no additional charges even though you pickup at the same post office.

In my case I selected 'point relais' at Amazon with postal code 01220 (for Divonne), Amazon proposed (among others) the P.O. which I selected (the address was my name, the P.O. but no mention of 'poste restante'). Amazon sent me an Email with a reference nr. when the packet was delivered, and I popped along and picked it up with no extra charges at the P.O. This is a commercial arrangement between Amazon and the P.O. No minimum orders required for books, clothes, shoes. Nifty service.

Hi all! Sorry for my ignorance..i'm new to all this as I have recently moved to Geneva. Can someone walk me through what I need to do exactly when ordering stuff online and for it to be delivered in a postoffice in France near the border? Do I need to have a P.O. box? 

Thank you!!

I'm curious to know too, hope someone picks up this questions and decides to help us with some info

A friend of mine recommend this parcel pick up service in France -http://www.cartons-de-demenagement.info/en/. They take deliveries from Amazon.fr and others - 5 Euro for 48hr storage of a parcel and locations in Cesssy and Thoiry.

There's nothing to it, really. When you are entering your address for delivery on the website, just write it as follows:

Nir Ofek

Poste Restante

74240 Gaillard

(I'm using Gaillard as an example because that is the post office I prefer to use; it is less than ten minutes' walk from the Moillesulaz tram stop of the 12 and very simple to get to even with public transport.)

When your order is shipped, the vendor will usually give you a tracking number so that you can check when the package reaches the post office. Sometimes Colissimo (French postal service) will send you an email when the package arrives, sometimes not (so it is good to have the tracking number).

To retrieve the package, simply go to the post office with a piece of ID, a print-out of the email showing that the package has been delivered (or just the tracking number), and 4 euros... et voilà. 4 euros is just for one package, so if you get more than one you will have to pay separately for each. I've done this many times and as recently as two weeks ago, and have never had a problem. It is really worth it for packages coming from France and the EU in general. Also, just walking over the border with my stuff to take the tram seems not to be a problem, no one's ever asked to inspect anything... in any case you are entitled to cross the border with up to 300 euros worth of goods without declaring (a much higher allowance than the 66 francs Swiss Post allows you to import for free before they start collecting customs fees).

Hope this clears things up :)

...in any case you are entitled to cross the border with up to 300 euros worth of goods without declaring

300 CH francs... (not much of a difference now).

Afrochick: thanks a lot!!!

Greg: if I can just send amazon stuff to the French post and they charge me Euro 4 per package, what's the advatage in sending stuff to your friend's place and paying Euro 5 per each day?

I forgot to add that the French post office will hold your package for you for two weeks (it's quite generous, even more time than the Swiss post offices) and that is part of the service, so no need to rush there as soon as the package arrives.

If you are just ordering from Amazon, it is worth it to look into the new Amazon Global Delivery option, where they will calculate and charge you the Swiss TVA as part of the shipping. This way, for just a few francs extra (depending on what you are ordering), you can get it delivered to your Geneva address. What makes Swiss customs fees expensive is not the actual TVA of 8%, but the processing fee of CHF 18.- that is tacked on (and is usually more than the TVA). This is eliminated with the Amazon Global Delivery option; you just pay the TVA in advance and there is nothing more to pay when the mailman arrives.

Btw, on occasions, I've had the Amazon.fr 'global' fare to Switerland (i.e. this can apply to goods sold and shipped by Amazon.fr: they remove the French VAT, but have you pay shipping costs, as well as custom fees and Swiss tax in advance, with a guarantee that nothing more will be paid - they will even refund if their estimation was too high, which happened once for me!) cheaper than if I had the goods delivered to a French address. So my advice: let Amazon do the math first!

This would be especially true if:

- the goods are light (as shipping costs will increase depending on package weight)

- contents are submitted to high tax rate such as 20% in France (i.e. less true for books or DVD)

- the value of goods including shipping costs, before tax, is lower than 60 CHF (then there is no custom fee nor taxes applied - but even if you cross that line, custom fee, Swiss tax and additional shipping might still cost less than French tax!)

Update: the limit is now 100 CHF.

From the Swiss government website:

Consignments from abroad are generally subject to customs duty and VAT. Below we show how the costs can be calculated roughly and what has to be noted when importing.

Please note that a definitive calculation is not possible, as the costs of the transporter, e.g. Swiss Post, are not known in advance. The costs are generally billed to the recipient together with the customs duty and taxes (e.g. VAT). Clarify this with the corresponding transporter.

Gift items sent by private individuals abroad to private individuals in Switzerland are exempt from duties and tax up to a merchandise value of CHF 100, but tobacco products and alcoholic beverages are excluded. The sender must provide a corresponding comment on the outside of the parcel or letter.

------------------------

See: 

http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_privat/04363/04364/index.html?lang=en

Nir, as far as I can see, there's no advantage.  Poste Restante is cheaper and keeps the item for longer.  Details (in French) here:

http://www.laposte.fr/particulier/produits/article/recevoir-ses-courriers-et-colis-dans-le-bureau-de-poste-de-son-choix

Thanks.  It would be interesting to know prices in advance.

Just like BellaStella, some time ago I had some business cards being shipped to me from the EU. 

Now, I am OK with the fact that the Swiss customs made me pay for the Swiss VAT (even if I paid the EU VAT too, but whatever, it's the law).

I am a bit less OK that they made me pay 25 CHF for the dubious privilege of paying the custom tax.

And I am definitely pissed off that they included the price of the shipping in the VAT, so that the final price eventually snowballed.  What a rip-off.

I think all the countries in the world add on the cost of postage into the value so I wouldnt blame the swiss for that - they certainly do the same thing in the UK anyway.  A few things to note if you have items shipped to switzerland - if you fast track your package by sending it the most expensive and fastest way to post from abroad then the customs people here will also automatically fast track your package and charge you for the privilege (last time i checked that was a 30 francs fee).  So if you have items shipped to Switzerland just go with amazon's slow option or the ebay normal option, not priority.  Also, if the people who send your item don't put the customs form CN22 or CN23 on the outside of the box then the customs people here will open the box to estimate the value of whats inside and they will charge you for that privilege too (about chf 14).  So send it slow and always include the customs form on the outside of the box.  After that its just a toss-up of does the benefit in not paying the EU 20% vat outweigh the cost of paying customs here, in which case have it sent to switzerland, or if not then have it sent to france.  Whenever I want to buy things on amazon for example I pretty much always check the same thing on amazon.fr becuase they will send it to a network of shops in france for free and then you can just go pick it up.  I've used that service many times and its pretty much faultless; there are loads of pick up places close by in neighbouring france.  And then finally, I have to say that whether or not you actually pay the import duty on goods delivered here seems a bit of a lottery.  I've had expensive items sent here perfectly labelled where i havent paid any duty at all despite it being passed through customs, so sometimes you have a nice surprise...

This is really useful information!  Does anyone know if any of these services would work for furniture?  I want to order some chairs from a french site but they don't deliver to Switzerland.  THank you!

New update - the Ferney Voltaire post office doesn't accept Poste Restante packages. Anyone know other good options to ship packages to in Ferney? Thanks!

CHf 300.- is the limit of the goods value YOU CAN CARRY WITH YOU.

Your info is about goods SENT to you...

Seems like some "private" busineesses do it.

Relais-colis in Ferney

Article from La Tribune (in french) about the phenomenon...

Just for fun ...

Wanted to check the info about Ferney postoffice no longer accepting poste restante, so googled a little bit.

And end up on this French phone directory page about the Ferney postoffice ... where you can read many messages left by people thinking they were writing to the Ferney postoffice .... I reckon they never got an answer !

Not to mention that publishing on the web your full name + dates of holidays/trip is not exactly smart.

No ?

http://www.annuaire-inverse-france.com/0450280717/la-poste

Yes it is the same .

you pay à small fee and you just need to show your identity Card .

your name

poste restante

01210 Ferney Voltaire 

I did the same  several Time