in order to ship items purchased in the US to Switzerland.
Is it worth it? Is it safe in terms of fraud etc.? Things to consider, to keep in mind etc.
I was wondering whether anyone here had experience with firms like http://www.borderlinx.com
I used to do this with Shipito.
Needed to spend at least a few hundred $ in the sales to make it worthwhile because getting the stuff to Switzerland + tax will cost at least USD100.
I have not done it in recent years because most companies I buy from now have international websites, Amazon UK or DE have improved selection. So it is not worth it anymore.
No experience.
A few years ago I used to order quiet a lot from the US and never bothered to choose my own supplier. Delivery costs were obviously not worth remembering as I don't remember them being a problem.
I used www.borderfree.com a couple of times and it worked just fine.
However, they only work with certain stores.
I've never used Borderlinx myself (or any shipping forwarding service such as that one), but I did just find this page of reviews for Borderlinx on trustpilot.com, in case that's of any help. It is in German, though:
I should also add that the difference in price of clothes of US vs Switzerland has reduced quite substantially over the years. Maybe it's because of Zalando and other European online stores getting their act together and gaining popularity, pushing prices down.
I used Shipito because it was one of the early ones. I think it was originally a bicycle store which started getting requests from their customers to ship stuff other than bicycles and thus their whole business changed. The main advantage was that they can give you an Oregon address so that you don't have to pay sales tax, and that they can hold all your stuff until you are ready to consolidate them into one parcel. I guess now everyone else can do the same.
I have been a very happy user of www.myus.com for many years. It only costs me like USD 60 a year and the best thing is that you pay no sales tax (not sure how they do that, but it might be due to where they are based - Sarasota, FL).