But they deliver to Switzerland. I have had things sent from both the french one and the british one. But you should note that:

1. the delivery will not be free so you might want to buy more than one thing at a time to minimize deliver costs

2. The delivery time will be longer, it usually takes around a week.

3. The tax... if the order total is less than 70 franks you will not be charged tax! This can pay for the postage and let you save a bit extra. But if its over 70 you will be charged tax by the switzers and they will charge an extra 18 franks for admin.... so either order in bunches below 70 or make a huge order where you dont care about the 18 franks...

@Andrew,

How did you do it? I was in the amazon.de site. When I put in my Geneva shipping address it gave me an error in most of the items in my cart except, I think one. (It was a rain cover)

Is there a trick to getting things shipped to Gva? Do I need to call ?I don't mind the 2 week shippingand the 18 franks as some things seem to be 50% less in the .de site than here in Geneva if I can find them at all.

But what sort of items are you buying?

When I'm buying books on Amazon.fr, I'm using a "poste restante" address (don't know the word in English) in a French post office around Geneva. 

They'll ask your ID card, that's all, plus 0.60 per parcel/letter (they'll keep it for you up to 15 days).

This way, if ordering from France, you'll get the national shipping rate (cheaper, faster), and if ordering from any other European amazon, you'll skip the Swiss tax ...

Well he was saying there are items that he cant get delivered at all here apparently.

You may try other Amazon web sites. I had books delivered from amazon.com, amazon.de and amazon.fr to my home in Geneva. The only problem is the taxes that you sometimes have to pay and I have never been able to figure out what rules customs apply. Alternative: there are many French residents on Glocal. Have th goods delivered to their place.

forget the German site, use the UK Amazon site, I have never had problems with the UK sites, they never let me down!!....  ;-))  they always deliver to Switzerland from the UK.  No problems there.  Problem solved! :-)))

Enjoy. :-)

I'd agree with many of the comments, the UK site has never let me down, though if it's an individual seller, they may choose not to export to CH which could be the reason for your troubles!

The no VAT clause is also rather beneficial...if you're ok to wait a little longer!

Hi All... Thanks for all your responses. I will try out the UK site. The problem is that many items are not for exporting, e.g. diapers for babies, some electronic goods. Some items are really 2 times the price in stores in Switzerland than what I found in Amazon.de. Well I will try the UK site and give feedback for my items as well.

I think books, CDs etc. are no trouble and one can ship even from the US site with fairly cheap shipping.

Also most electronic/electrical stuff I can get shipped straight from Hong Kong to Switzerland with free shipping :) And then there is toppreise. The only things are daily use things, baby use stuff, householditems...

I think Ebay doesnt exist in Switzerland largely due to the success of local rival www.ricardo.ch

There's no Amazon Switzerland, but Amazon UK and Amazon Germany deliver to Switzerland on nearly all products.

I try to place orders and more than half my cart is rejected because many Amazon Marketplace sellers do not ship outside the EU.

Hi there, my alternative is to use the French sites amazon.fr or fnac.com and they ship to relais colis or relais kiala in the neighboring French towns. It's a network of shops which give the services to most big online shops in France. They usually have extended opening hours for you to collect. For example, Fnac will deliver at the Intermarche in Gaillard, open until 8pm every day and even open on Sunday morning. Try that!

For English books, another good site (with free shipping to CH) is :

www.bookdepository.co.uk

For English DVDs, there is www.play.com also from the UK and has free shipping. They do not ship items like electronics (have a look at the list of what can be shipped).

Ebay works perfectly well here as does the book depository. I use book depository a lot, delivery is pretty good and free. 

This is great stuff guys, thanks. I order a ton of books from Amazon Switzerland, and never knew the bookDepository existed. New world just opened up...(-:

You can also use the Italian version of Amazon www.amazon.it.

They deliver in Switzerland and if I'm not wrong over Euro 20 the do no apply postage expenses.

In case this hasn't been said, Super Saver Shipping (Free Shipping) is offerred for puchases of books on Amazon.de and Amazon.fr (minimum purchase 15Euros).  Not so through Amazon.co.uk.    Items other than books cannot be shipped to Switzerland.

If you keep your book purchases under 200CHF, you will not be charged duty.

If you need a book desperately though, shipment often faster if ordered through .co.uk.

I've had to pay duty on packages that have values much lower than CHF200. I believe the maximum is CHF60. 

Other than that, nice info. 

I usually buy my books from Amazon.de and if they cost more than sFr. 25.-- or Euro I dont pay for postage and for books Swiss dont charge taxes.

Yeah I may have had DVDs or CDs in there along with books. Great to know.

You might also consider supporting your local bookshops -- FNAC, Payot and Off the Shelf all will order for you at a reasonable cost...

And the Coop for your Nappies/"diapers" and "household stuff" which is where this post started - but I've loved (and learned) so much from this forum.   I can't "Thank" all the posters, even though I'd like to.

It's so refreshing to get positive, beneficial ideas from everyone about living in Switzerland (even if it IS about avoiding tax - haha!)  For me, this is what glocals and the forums, is all about - sharing great information that benefits us all - not just "bitchin'n'moanin about all that's wrong/boring with/about..... Switzerland.....'"

Love it and THANKS.....

Nir/Oded - is there anyway you can "save" a forum, so that one can refer back to it?  I would be interested in saving this particular thread.

Unfortunately, the costs are not reasonable,at least not for the kind of books I buy. A popular book (paperback) about marketing or business typically costs SFr.10-15 on Amazon and will cost SFr. 30 or more at FNAC or Payot. Multiply that by the number of books I buy and I'm saving a lot of money. 

Second, if I order at a local book store I have to make 2 trips (since I don't live in the center); with Amazon I get the book delivered to my door in 3-7 days. 

Third, if I want to buy the best book on a certain subject I go on Amazon anyway, because it's the best source of information. The English-language Payot in Geneva may have a book on the subject, but there's way of knowing if it's good unless you check it on Amazon. 

Finally, e-books. 

10 years ago I could spend hours in a bookstore. Now I don't even see the point of them being there anymore. 

Expanding on Carolyn's suggestion about saving the thread: A Swiss tips & tricks section? Thiy would fall under the e-order s sectoin, but there may be other valuable suggestions that we may wnat to save.

Probably the easiest way is to save it as a 'favorite' in your browser. 

Caro:

We currently don't have a way for members to mark favourite threads. But there are 2 other less elegant solutions:

1. Follow Edward's suggestion and mark this page as favourite, Or:

2. Type Amazon Switzerland into the searc box in the glocals forums section, and this thread will come up.

Nir

If you or one of your friends works at CERN they will automatically have both a swiss and French mailing address (below). You can then use amazon.fr!

Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire 
F-01631 
CERN Cedex France

Very useful information !

Mainly for person like me who just moved to Geneva. Thanks for all those who contributed. 

Last time I ordered on Amazon.fr (and also Amazon.com), for items sold by Amazon, they took off the French VAT and "pre-charged" some import taxes. That way you know how high they are, and have nothing to pay when you receive the packet. If they charged you too much they will issue you a refund of the difference.

Fnac.fr also delivers from Switzerland, taking off French VAT (which is up to 21% so that's a big deal).

Last but not least, some small e-shops may also offer you the same.

Galaxus hasn't been mentioned...

Hello, you can also have it shipped to neighbouring France postoffice, "poste restante" with your name and they will keep it for you until you retrieve it with your ID (for up to a month I believe)

missdaisy (post n° 4) says it's up to 15 days.

Indeed, 15 days:

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

for those who speak French.

I realize that this reply may come a little late, but...

For anything else than books, forget Amazon, they're not interested to the Swiss market!

You may use www.digitec.ch or www.microspot.ch for electronics, www.galaxus.ch for general store stuff, www.leshop.ch for groceries... if ordered before midnight it's at your door the next evening around 7!

www.toppreise.ch is a good resource too...

True. 

Any advice for books?

Try bookdepository.com - it's own by Amazon and it has free delivery.

Book Depository - Free delivery