Buying and shipping furniture from the EU to CH

Life Hacking
1

Hi all,

We are going to move into our new flat very soon and we are currently looking for the furniture.

For some of the furniture, such as the sofa, we found that if we order via the Swiss website of an international brand, it would cost us more than CHF 1’500.- than if we order through the German website (sofa price is around 5k in CH).

We are thinking of using either a package depot at the border in Germany to go pick up our sofa ourselves or simply a delivery company that we would use to collect the sofa in Germany and send it to us in Switzerland, such as meineinkauf or shipgerman.

Has anyone done that and is it worth the hassle? I asked for quotes, waiting to see the prices.

I’m also wondering the impact on the warranty, as I believe everything should be done through Germany should there be any problem.

Thanks for your feedbacks!

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You will not be able to deduce DE VAT if you get something delivered to a depot and you still need to pay the CH one.
As far as I know you have 2 options, pick up the sofa yourself or have it delivered to CH by the seller.
In both cases make sure the seller knows what documents are required to only pay the CH vat.
Shops close to the border do this regularly

3

We purchased a bed and sent it to a friend, who was living in Germany that time.
If the hassle was worth it?

No, because we had to drive there two times (the shipment was messed up). Moreover, in case you want to use the guarantee, you have to bring everything back to that said friend and get a replacement.

For smaller stuff (e.g. supplements, not expensive stuff where you may need the guarantee option), sending it to a package depot makes - in my eyes - sense.

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4

Good to know for the VAT, thank you.

As this is an international brand with an existing website in Switzerland, if you go to their German website, they will only let you ship to a German address, otherwise they will redirect you to the CH website which is way more expensive… And as their sofa are made on demand, you cannot pick it up at their store, they have to be delivered to German address.

5

I received one of the quote for the delivery to my place and it would cost us around EUR 600, but would still be 1 KCHF cheaper than if I had bought it in CH.

I have the option to rent a van, my mechanic is willing to rent one of his for CHF 100 for the day. With petrol, that would cost me around CHF 200, but I will have to do it all myself.

As you say, one big red flag for me is the warranty. Yet, I never had to use a warranty for any sofa I ever purchased but who knows… that would certainly happen this time :sweat_smile:

I’m really tempted to buy it through the package depot address as I can save more than 1k… for the exact same sofa than the CH website!

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You’d still need to pay the swiss VAT n theory

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You can reclaim German TVA even when the product is shipped to germany and you collect it there. Just make sure that billing address is a swiss one. Also the seller wont do a „steuerbefreite Ausfuhrlieferung“. He will issue the bill incl. TVA. Once you send proof of export (stamp from the boarder, confirmation of swiss TVA paid) he can give you the TVA back afterwards.

Sure noine is forced to offer this service.

We bought our sofa in design store in germnay close to the boarder. They had decent rates for deliveries to switzerland.

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