It can be really irritating.
Again today I ordered something then went to the checkout and it showed free delivery.
Then a window popped up that said I only had to order x euro more to get free shipping. I ignored that then another window popped up that said I was selected for a free prime trial and if I took the offer I would not have to pay the delivery charge on my current order.
I also ignored that and completed my purchase with the original free delivery as promised.
I’ve “joined” Prime several times, gotten that order delivered for free, then immediately cancelled the Prime membership. They still keep offering it to me.
The prime thing is a massively irritating harassment. I hope the EU will fine them a few billions for market position abuse so they stop it. Their strategy seems to be “if we annoy you long enough you’ll finally get tired and give in”.
I did it once - the free trial that is - but have continued to benefit from the free delivery for probably five or six years now…
As for the popups, there seemed to be more on the .de site, which coincidentally I used just yesterday, than the .fr one which is my normal preferred option due to the language, but same item this time was a little cheaper on .de and I realise that in fact everything can be done in English, whereas the French site doesn’t allow a language change.
Also, I believe that for shipments to CH amazon.de removes the DE VAT and adds the Swiss VAT. This expedites delivery as it’s imported duty-paid.
Amazon.fr doesn’t do this.
They both do this. Not all sellers will ship to CH, but I’ve not seen a difference between the two in that respect (i.e. the same product/seller doesn’t ship to CH from one site but not the other). I do often find though that the Prime next day delivery is not available to CH.
We still have a house in France so am always looking for the best options for availability, price and delivery, sometimes shipping to one home address, sometimes to another, sometimes to a pick-up point in France near to our Swiss place. It all depends.
Well, I’ve never seen it on the ,fr site but I haven’t looked there for some time.
Been like that for quite a long time, but as I say not all products, not all sellers, and quite often not worthwhile as there’s extra shipping to pay, given that I get the Prime free delivery if it’s available when shipping to France.
Just checking old orders and I can see quite an inconsistency, e.g. one order from August 2022, sent from a seller in France, had 0% VAT applied, so was not actually duty pain in CH, although I’m pretty sure I didn’t have to pay anything extra.
And in fact it looks like that’s also the case with the item I ordered yesterday from .DE. They’ve simply removed the German VAT from the price and not paid any Swis tax. Worried now, but I’ve never had an Amazon package inspected by Swiss post/customs, so hoping it gets through OK.
Was the price, including shipping, less than f65? If so, no CH VAT is due.
No, both the old one I looked at and the recent/current one were more than that. And AFAIK the VAT is still technically due on lower-priced items anyway, that’s simply the threshold below which you don’t need to do all the paperwork.
I’ve actually been a Prime subscriber for years, back to when I would have to go to Germany to pick up packages. It made sense since it offered free, expedited delivery within Germany.
Since they started shipping to Switzerland is Prime worth it? I’m still paying for it, but now I think about it, everything takes ~5 business days to arrive and I have to pay more for expedited delivery (so what is the point of Prime??)
None of the purchases I’ve made in the last year have had Prime free next-day delivery to Switzerland. So most of them we still get shipped to France, only occasionally for logistical reasons or if they do free delivery independently of Prime do we get stuff sent here.
I joined DHL so most Amazon goods are delivered to the German Post Office of my choice with no fee to pay at the Post Office.
I did try that so I could use the 24hr DHL drop boxes, but it wasn’t possible as I don’t have a German domestic address.
They dropped that requirement years ago.
It took a long time before I could use the service because they did not send me a customer card as they promised, eventually, I discovered they do not use them anymore.
I just need a Swiss ID card to show when I collect the parcel.
Even if you don’t owe VAT in CH it’s nice of they take off the DE or FR VAT as it’s above 20% in both countries so a nice rebate. (Books are lower)
Yes, the only worry though is that if Swiss customs decide to intercept it they’ll not only levy the vat but also add a handling charge, which will likely be more than the saving except on expensive stuff.