Sorry to add to the plethora of existing questions asking "if I buy X from site Y in country Z, how much will my import costs be?" but I haven't found a thread that addresses my scenario. I need to purchase a new laptop for school as my previous one kicked the bucket. Currently looking at dell.com/fr-ch (among other reasons because it may be possible to request a QWERTY keyboard).


From the Dell site: Incl. TVA et TAR and livraison gratuite. From what I can see on post.ch, I can expect a basic customs clearance fee of either 11.50 or 16 chf dependent on country of origin, plus a goods value supplement of 3%, with a maximum price for customs clearance of 70 chf. Is this correct, or might I be slapped with a slew of other fees rivaling the price of the laptop itself? I have previously limited my online purchases to Swiss companies or under 65 chf to avoid the exorbitant fees, so this is unfamiliar territory. Any insight is appreciated!

That's Dell's Swiss website, are you sure they don't sort the customs stuff for you? Apple ship from outside Switzerland if you order from their Swiss site, but all the customs stuff is already done.

Yes, I was just preparing to add this prior to Island Monkey's post:

I've just looked on the Dell site and the prices are in CHF and include value added tax and recycling "tax"

Great, so the only fee would be the customs clearance fee and 3%?

Not even that. The price you see on the web site is what you pay.

This is from the German version of the Dell (Swiss ) Website :
https://www.dell.com/learn/ch/de/chd...ng?newtab=true

Or, in French:

https://www.dell.com/learn/ch/de/chd...shipping?&l=fr

Or, at least, that is what I understand.

Fantastic, thank you! This process highlights my lack of knowledge about computers and my poor French skills, really a winning combination!

No Fee!!

Electronics tend to be cheaper here than abroad. And it doesn't take long to adapt to a Swiss keyboard. The symbols are in different places, but you soon learn to swap Z and Y around. May be a cheaper solution.

With practice you can switch between QWERTZ and QWERTY. And yes, I do touch type.

Bullshit.

35 years here, and all of mine are switched to US layout, regadrless of what is written on the keys!

Tom

some people have a harder time than others, but the worst is switching around all the time.
But if you only ever use your own PC, you can keep the layout you're used to.

I think the main thing is: you don't need Y to be written in the right place if you learn how to touch-type, or if you just know they're switched.
So who cares about physical layout, as long as it's not the weird one with the elongated enter button.

But if OP is happy with the computer they found, with their own layout, then more power to them.

Obviously, regarding keyboard layouts, some people are more adaptable than others. What I will say is I find attempting to write a letter etc. in German on an English keyboard a complete misery so I always get a PC/Notebook with a Swiss keyboard layout.

Why would you write in German?

If I have to, I just add 'e's.

Tom

But writing in English on a Swiss keyboard layout is really easy. French keyboard layout is an abomination.

Whenever I've bought Dells in the past, they're priced in CHF and include all duty, taxes and VAT.
I've also been able to get any keyboard I wanted, which was one reason for getting them. I learned to touch-type on Swiss-French keyboards, but have always typed in English, French and occasionaly German, but without changing keyboard layout. It plays havoc with Google and Microsoft's predictive spelling, but that's another problem.

On top of that, you can switch character assignment of the keys from CH->EN with as little as two mouseclicks (or your chosen key combination) (on a PC/laptop). The other way round is probably much more tricky because Swiss keyboards seem to have more keys.

that style of spelling is fatiguing to read. I have a workmate who uses the US layout (because programming, as if it made sucha huge difference co sidering the ch layout has a the characters you need), his emails are unreadable.

It’s not learning the Z and Y that are the problem; it’s that all the punctuation marks are also completely differently placed. Some of us use all of those keys too.

This has been my solution is well, so now I have the privilege of annoying the IT guys with my strange keyboard every time they want to do something to my work computer.

Every company and customer I've ever worked with do emails in English, even if we do do French, German, Italian on Skype.

Only people I write to in German are the Heimatorts, and I really don't give a shit if they don't like my added 'e's, foreigners even less.

Tom

I'm trying to figure out where adding 'e's would turn a text into German?
Give the dummy (me) an example.

Österreich - Oesterreich.
Äthiopien - Aethiopien.
Überholen - Ueberholen.

My street address has an ä in it. Sometimes on line the for rejects umlauted words, so I have to write it as ae.