Parcels sent to Thailand

[fabman]

I would just like to say what a waste of time it is having parcels delivered to Thailand from overseas.

My mother sent 2 parcels here in December. Neither ever arrived. She unfortunately didn't have them tracked, so whoever took them, got away with it.

Last month she and my sister have both sent parcels, this time both have been tracked. They both arrived at the post office, but this time have import duty on them. The cost of import duty for both is 1600 baht ( about £40 ) neither were heavy parcels. I am contesting the import tax on 1 of the parcels ( probably wasting my time but worth a try)

All of these parcels were just small gifts for my 4 year old daughter, because she hasn't seen her family in England for some time.

Anyway we are now thinking what is the point, either the parcels get stolen ( it makes you wonder what kind of people steal gifts sent to children ) or you are going to have to pay ridiculous costs for postage and import tax etc.

[robcar]

I mentioned in another thread that I am still waiting for a small Jiffy Bag to arrive, posted 24/10/2018 in UK. It contains 2 watches bought from Amazon UK that hadn't arrived at my daughters' address by the time of my return to Thailand. She forwarded them on to me.................... Parcel has now been in transit for nearly 5 months

[Dannie Boy]

I mentioned in another thread that I am still waiting for a small Jiffy Bag to arrive, posted 24/10/2018 in UK. It contains 2 watches bought from Amazon UK that hadn't arrived at my daughters' address by the time of my return to Thailand. She forwarded them on to me.................... Parcel has now been in transit for nearly 5 months

If you haven’t already done so, I’m sure you can say goodbye to ever getting your parcel delivered


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hin]

This happens often enuf that it is no wonder that many venders will not ship to Thailand. And my theory has been that insuring or registering often just flags it as somthing that somone might want, especially if small enuf to fit into a pocket. But when ordering from Ali Express I do usually try to use sellers that offer China Post Registered Air Mail and have had good luck. But bad luck with some packages sent by other mailing methods. When in Australia I had really bad luck with both their postal and courier systems and registering was useless. They could tell me when and where a parcel last went thru a checkpoint but could not tell where it went from there or what happened to it.

With letter type mail I never register and have had good luck by always using plain Jane type envelopes and hand write the address using a person’s name, never use a company name in the address and NEVER use addressed return envelopes that many businesses provide. Also never use the type of envelope that is used for birthday and Christmas cards. If shining a flashlight against the back of the envelope can disclose what is inside, put in a piece of newspaper to prevent that.

[Big Boy]

My 2 Bahts worth - as far as I know, I've never failed to receive a parcel yet. Of course, if something has been sent without my knowledge, I haven't missed it. I usually ask for parcels to be tracked. Non-tracked take a little longer.

My son is receiving wedding gifts through the mail system at the moment, with no problems. I was dreading customs getting involved, but they haven't.

I think in 7 years, we've had one parcel intercepted by customs - it's just luck of the draw. Maybe I should play the lottery

[caller]

I think in 7 years, we've had one parcel intercepted by customs - it's just luck of the draw. Maybe I should play the lottery

It's not the luck of the draw, it all depends on what the parcel seemingly contains and what's actually declared as being inside, or whether they doubt what's on the label.

If it's from friends and family, or 'co-operative' senders, a certain amount of leeway can be used to describe and value what's inside. But if from automated services, such as amazon, then that's not really possible. I have had art work sent to me and it's hard to hide that. The level of duty payable is staggeringly high, so a helpful sender is all important. I refused to accept two paintings in one parcel once because of the level of duty charged. I actually told the courier to send them back and I would make other arrangements. They didn't want to do that and negotiated with customs(?). I accepted the 3rd reduction in duty, which was quite significant.

On a watch I had sent from the UK, the duty I had to pay was 9 baht, I kid you not. But the fee made no sense whatsoever.

And that's the point, don't expect logic or consistency. There is none.

[Big Boy]

The intercepted parcel contained second hand baby clothes, and was declared on the label.

[caller]

The intercepted parcel contained second hand baby clothes, and was declared on the label.

As I said, don't expect logic or consistency - maybe they didn't believe what was written on the label - who knows?

But I still maintain that by and large, it is more than the luck of the draw. Of those that I have had to pay duty on, one had also been opened by customs and another partially opened, as far as I could tell.

[VincentD]

I think I posted in the iHerb thread about some new customs tax regs, tax everything valued at 1,500 baht or more no matter what it is. The Post Office is being held to ransom on this and being what it is, doesn't bother to inform as they are probably fed up with being pressured to apply this, and are also drowning in the deluge. They say, not us, and point to customs. Customs point the finger a little higher up.. Go figure who...

[handdrummer]

I think I posted in the iHerb thread about some new customs tax regs, tax everything valued at 1,500 baht or more no matter what it is. The Post Office is being held to ransom on this and being what it is, doesn't bother to inform as they are probably fed up with being pressured to apply this, and are also drowning in the deluge. They say, not us, and point to customs. Customs point the finger a little higher up.. Go figure who...

In that case, if ordering from iherb, don't order above 1500 baht. It may mean several packages but if you spread them out over several days you should be able to avoid the drive to customs and the tax. The stupidity gets worse by the day.

[fabman]

Yes 1500 baht is the threshold for customs, I was told by the post office. They also said if you could include the receipt for the goods outside or inside the parcel, that might help.
We have only ever received 3 parcels in Thailand from overseas and all have been charged duty. So i unfortunately for my daughter this will be the last time.

For me it's just more greed from the top brass in this country.

[laphanphon]

Shop quite a bit online, inter'l / China mostly, and Singapore it seems, and rarely a problem. Guessing twice at most, and 100+ parcels.

Won't order anything that's mandatory to use expedited service any more, as a guaranteed stop at customs, and they have a law of their own when assigning duties, from free, to official 10 %, up to 80 % of value once, and negotiate down.

A couple were silly taxed, so if have to, simply buy local, as having and same price or cheaper.

Local online shopping has gotten much better, or I'm getting better at it, and rarely order inter'l much any more. Inexpensive items (< ฿1k) that aren't needed, ASAP, that are sometimes half the local price.

Use to be a fan of Banggood, but they instituted a $40 USD minimum order for free shipping, so quit using them.

AliExpress is still good and inexpensive. Gearbest, has some inaccurate shipping times, and a last resort.

Local LAZ and priceza for price comparisons between LAZ and Shopee, then direct use of their site. Shop24 for some items. All having good vendors, quick and excellent service. LAZ, having excellent return policy.

Ebay is good, and Amazon doesn't ship much to PKK, without their silly shipping costs. Kills any value they may offer. Good research info though.

[migrant]

I get a lot of small boxes shipped to me from the states. I order and they deliver to my son. He repackages, sends to my (Thai) wife and on the return address uses a Thai name. I probably received 20 boxes over the last 12 months, 2 were stopped by customs. The boxes are cigars. Customs told me I could get one at Christmas and one they stopped was around that time. They allowed me to have it, pay a small customs fee. BTW the one seized that I did not attempt to get was just returned to California two days ago, 6 months after being seized.

[caller]

For me it's just more greed from the top brass in this country.

I'm not aware of any Country, apart from those in a trading bloc, that doesn't charge VAT/duty for incoming goods. The couriers will even add their fee for organising the payment of said duty. The only reason it's free in trade blocs, such as the EU, is that VAT is paid at source by the originating Country, before it's shipped.

I had a watch strap sent from Singapore the other day, it wasn't particulalarly expensive, but more than the threshold, but no duty was payable, I assumed that was because of ASEAN? But happy to be corrected.

There are actually lists of different charges for various goods brought into Thailand, some are, or were, from/to, which is a bit worrying as there is scope there for you know what. But I can't find anything recent about this. Maybe someone could check this out and copy it here?

[laphanphon]

sends to my (Thai) wife and on the return address uses a Thai name

I think including a Thai name and address in Thai script definitely helps bypass customs.

Advantage to my name, being Thai, and my brother has sent me a few heavy parcels, laptops along with better, cheaper electronics from the USA over the years, and not making a stop at customs.......