Any Recent Experience Ordering Items Over The Internet With Successful Delivery To Your Thailand Address

[miketu]

Hi all, I just ordered a small item over the internet from ebay coming from the UK and am curious if I will ever receive my order delivered here to my condo in Cha-Am??   I included an explicit building, room, and street address in my ship-to address but am still skeptical if I will ever receive it based on prior experience (Vietnam era) dealing with the Thai postal system.  Anyone have recent experience ordering items over the internet and had it successfully shipped to your Thailand address?? 

 

Thanks,

Mike

[lopburi3]

I have been receiving items from Ebay/Aliexpress for years here in Bangkok without any real issues (at least weekly on average).  

[PoorSucker]

I order weekly from Aliexpress and Lazada, never had an issue.

[Sheryl]

I regularly get things from Amazon, eBay, Lazada. Usually no problem.

 

I have failed to receive letters several times but never, that I can recall, a parcel.

 

Your biggest issue will nto be its arrival at your condo but possibly - depending on what it is and how it was labelled - clearing customs.  This goes smoothly (with or without tax being levied) only if the customs declaration was such that it was competely clear to customs what the item was. if not, you may get a notice to go to customs in person to clear it which is a real nuisance.

 

Also sometimes -- for reasons I can't figure out -- instead of just collecting the tax on delivery you will be contacted and asked to pay it up front before it leaves customs. That just happened to me with a vintage oriental rug bought on ebay, even though the tax was only some 300 baht or so. Wasn't hard to do, though, I got email and could make online payment.

 

I did have a brief spot of trouble with a toy drone bought for my grandson, though, because Amazon neglected to indicate "toy" on the customs form...so I had to convince customs that I was not, in fact, importing military equipment.

[robblok]

I order a lot from ebay it almost always gets here, and when it does not it is usually a Chinese seller that may or may not have send the product and i get a refund. 

[theguyfromanotherforum]

I have received 100% packages from Amazon, and around 60% from Chinese sellers using Ebay, Wish and Ali.

 

The Chinese will send the product, no problem and they even provide tracking. It is inside Thailand that most of the packages "disappear". 

 

I received packages from Canada, but my mom sent me tea once and that never arrived. There must be quite a list on Thai customs that they are allowed to confiscate.

 

 

[miketu]

Great, thanks guys for your inputs.   Seems the Thai postal system has changed for the good since the SE Asia war days!

[trucking]

Received 4 orders from China no problem. Delivery a bit slow, from 3-5 weeks but arrived ok in the end.

[johnjohn2]

I have been ordering from Lazada, E Bay, Ali Express and so far have not had any issues. I now always go for shipping with tracking though. 

Most of the orders I put in from China are fairly quick. I have had one or two orders that took up to a month though. Both those were with standard shipping and no tracking.

Recently had a package from Hong Kong that only took 7 days to get here and that was over the new year. (EMS- which you can track there and here)  

I ordered some stuff from New Egg and the VAT etc was included when I purchased. No issues getting here. Havent tried Amazon yet. Dont know if they include VAT in price or not? 

Ive had a handful of things sent through regular postal from the US and havent gotton any of those. So now whenever someone sends something to me I tell them FEDEX. But always have to pay some ridiculous price whenever I get it. But at least it always comes in. 

Once I received an email and phone call from Thai Customs asking me for a photo copy of my passport. Cant remember what it was (a little while ago). I cant remember exactly what the issue was right now.  I sent copy and then they released my item and it got to me. 

[miketu]

8 minutes ago, johnjohn2 said:

I have been ordering from Lazada, E Bay, Ali Express and so far have not had any issues. I now always go for shipping with tracking though. 

Most of the orders I put in from China are fairly quick. I have had one or two orders that took up to a month though. Both those were with standard shipping and no tracking.

Recently had a package from Hong Kong that only took 7 days to get here and that was over the new year. (EMS- which you can track there and here)  

I ordered some stuff from New Egg and the VAT etc was included when I purchased. No issues getting here. Havent tried Amazon yet. Dont know if they include VAT in price or not? 

Ive had a handful of things sent through regular postal from the US and havent gotton any of those. So now whenever someone sends something to me I tell them FEDEX. But always have to pay some ridiculous price whenever I get it. But at least it always comes in. 

Once I received an email and phone call from Thai Customs asking me for a photo copy of my passport. Cant remember what it was (a little while ago). I cant remember exactly what the issue was right now.  I sent copy and then they released my item and it got to me. 

Very good, thanks for the reply.

[Suradit69]

Never had a problem with things from eBay, Lazada, Amazon, Land's End, and others. 

 

Usually preferable to have things sent through the post office because the couriers like DHL, UPS, FedEx will manage to screw you on any customs duty that may (or may not) be due and the global shipping services used by some eBay and Amazon vendors are rip-offs that make the shipping unnecessarily expensive, but nonetheless, the items  do arrive.

[Billy Bloggs]

Yes ordering in Thailand from Lazada I have no problems especially as its cash on delivery. However I have had parcels go missing from Australia 1 it just never showed up and 1 from England that turned into a 3 Ist didnt arrive, they sent a second it arrived but had a word miss pelt and they promised to replace, i never received the 3rd and gave up. 

So good luck it seems.

[ToddinChonburi]

Really depends on who is delivering.  My post is flat out shit.  Do not even get my 3bb bill most months.

[Randell]

I agree with all the above posts have ordered from ebay and no problem have also ordered from Lazada again no problem. and with package tracking all works quite well. Although it seem I have lost a couple here in Thailand.

 

[dpdp]

I am wondering why all parcels from Japan always attract customs ? And sometimes need to visit them to check what is inside the parcel, even when sent by standard Japan post and received by Thai post.

 

 

 

[ianwheldale]

On 04/01/2018 at 5:01 PM, PoorSucker said:

I order weekly from Aliexpress and Lazada, never had an issue.

Not quite every week, but plenty orders placed and delivered. Only one bad occurrence, Ali order not received after 2 months, sent email, refunded within an hour.

[gamini]

On 1/4/2018 at 5:01 PM, PoorSucker said:

I order weekly from Aliexpress and Lazada, never had an issue.

no duty too.

[ChrisKC]

I ordered an item from a private Company in Taiwan 5 days before Christmas. I was called on my phone within one day to be informed of the exact price that Customs would charge and I insisted I would accept delivery only if I got official receipt. It was delivered by Kerry on Christmas day and I got my receipt. I was a bit indignant at having to pay 30% on top of the purchase price for a special lumbar cushion but other than that the operation went as planned

[PJPom]

Just returned from Australia and had to post 20kg parcel as I couldn’t book any more with airline. I posted it 16 December and it arrived in Krabi 21 December, cost a lot but well done to Aust post and Thai post.

[jacko45k]

I frequently order small cheap items and have them delivered at my house.

Only lost items once and that seemed to occur in Bangkok Customs who sent them back or they were acquired.

Shipping times from China are rather long, 3 weeks or so.

No problem with the postman finding my place, he is friendly, maybe due to the annual NY tip!

[Grumpy Duck]

I purchase from Lazada using COD frequently, no problems. I have purchased photo supplies through B&H in New York with delivery via DHL with no problems. I refuse to use Fed Ex as they suck and Fed Ex and UPS are double the rate of DHL. I have sent and received snail mail via Thai post from US with no problems except with the IRS, for some reason their mail is routed through France or GB and I usually receive it a couple of days after the suspense date. My buddy sends my US mail from California to me once a month. Regular air mail, usually about $13.00 for a 10x12 envelope. And takes around 10 to 13 days. 

[lopburi3]

2 minutes ago, Grumpy Duck said:

I purchase from Lazada using COD frequently, no problems. I have purchased photo supplies through B&H in New York with delivery via DHL with no problems. I refuse to use Fed Ex as they suck and Fed Ex and UPS are double the rate of DHL. I have sent and received snail mail via Thai post from US with no problems except with the IRS, for some reason their mail is routed through France or GB and I usually receive it a couple of days after the suspense date. My buddy sends my US mail from California to me once a month. Regular air mail, usually about $13.00 for a 10x12 envelope. And takes around 10 to 13 days. 

Yes IRS is extremely late getting here - had same issue on a ITIN renewal where they sent from Europe and obviously it had spent weeks somewhere before being posted.  US mail varies from one to two weeks.

[miketu]

Great, thanks everyone for your informative input!

 

Mike

[dpdp]

7 hours ago, Grumpy Duck said:

I purchase from Lazada using COD frequently, no problems. I have purchased photo supplies through B&H in New York with delivery via DHL with no problems. I refuse to use Fed Ex as they suck and Fed Ex and UPS are double the rate of DHL. I have sent and received snail mail via Thai post from US with no problems except with the IRS, for some reason their mail is routed through France or GB and I usually receive it a couple of days after the suspense date. My buddy sends my US mail from California to me once a month. Regular air mail, usually about $13.00 for a 10x12 envelope. And takes around 10 to 13 days. 

 

You have just been lucky. DHL are the worst EVERYWHERE in the world.

 

 

[Grumpy Duck]

7 hours ago, dpdp said:

 

You have just been lucky. DHL are the worst EVERYWHERE in the world.

 

 

Since 2002 I have been using DHL and have had 2 problems, one AT&T warranty service sent an empty envelope instead of a cell phone. The other was recently I sent a letter to a PO box address in the US. They don't deliver to US PO boxes, The package was delivered the next business day once I provided a physical address. 

But I have heard nightmare stories about them here. 

Fed Ex on the other hand...

Citibank US sent me a replacement card using Fed Ex next day. Several days later They delivered a form saying 

"cannot find your address" after I asked how can they deliver the notice to the identical address, they said "sorry will deliver it tomorrow" tomorrow ended up over a week later. Took 2 weeks for an overnight package. Citibank now uses DHL who takes 48 hrs for an overnight from US. I liked UPS in the US but too expensive here. 

[darrendsd]

On 1/5/2018 at 5:19 PM, ToddinChonburi said:

Really depends on who is delivering.  My post is flat out shit.  Do not even get my 3bb bill most months.

Like you I had the same issues, Make a complaint to the Thailand Post call center, since I did this I have had no issues with mail being delivered