Lat Friday June 6 at 16:51 Thai time I ordered and paid a Wilson tennis raquet from Amazon.com. I ordered from my secluded location out in the sticks. A little over 2 days later the item has already arrived in Bangkok at the UPS center, it went through customs at 01:44 this morning. Blazing fast, I must say. Although promised delivery date is June 12, it will only be delivered to me this Thursday. Still amazingly fast!

Sounds like you ordered the Sam Groth raquet!!

 

Guess you also meant to write July......

1 hour ago, dabhand said:

Sounds like you ordered the Sam Groth raquet!!

 

Guess you also meant to write July......

Sorry, yes, I meant July. 

I notice that the import tax is quite high on Amazon orders.

Don't support Amazon, nasty exploiters of the poor

6 minutes ago, Lammbock said:

I notice that the import tax is quite high on Amazon orders.

Yes, I hope the OP reports back on how much the customs folks will need to release his package.  Customs will customarily (in a manner of speaking) get their pound of flesh for items purchased online.

18 minutes ago, Lammbock said:

I notice that the import tax is quite high on Amazon orders.

 

Partly, the reason is that Amazon seems to declare the goodies legally and honestly.  A lot of the vendors on other sites seem eager to declare the items as "gifts" or declare a low value.  

 

Also, keep in mind that it's a customs deposit.  If they don't use it all, there will be a refund of the excess.  I have received the refund on several orders, but not on all of them.  It's never been a big refund, so I always count on the money being gone, and it's a pleasant surprise when I get a little back.  Which can take a month or so...

 

10 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Yes, I hope the OP reports back on how much the customs folks will need to release his package.  Customs will customarily (in a manner of speaking) get their pound of flesh for items purchased online.

Does Thailand make tennis rackets ?

If no, this customs charging is a joke

The idea of IT is to protect an industry in one's country against cheaper imports of the same product

 

It's like with steel, does Thailand make that

43 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Yes, I hope the OP reports back on how much the customs folks will need to release his package.  Customs will customarily (in a manner of speaking) get their pound of flesh for items purchased online.

If it is being delivered via a means that uses the global shipping program, then all the customs payment is made at the time of ordering, the duties are normally an overestimate and Amazon will refund if it is less.

3 minutes ago, Mattd said:

If it is being delivered via a means that uses the global shipping program, then all the customs payment is made at the time of ordering, the duties are normally an overestimate and Amazon will refund if it is less.

Interesting.  If this is the case, Amazon may be a reasonable shopping option in Thailand afterall.  I've refrained from ordering from Amazon precisely for this reason. 

1 hour ago, Lammbock said:

I notice that the import tax is quite high on Amazon orders.

I frequently order from Amazon and don't find the import tax to be out of the ordinary. In fact, Amazon returns funds when they over estimate the import charges.

 

 

 

10 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Interesting.  If this is the case, Amazon may be a reasonable shopping option in Thailand afterall.  I've refrained from ordering from Amazon precisely for this reason. 

You need to make sure that the item being ordered can be shipped this way, then when you check out you pay the cost of the item, shipping and duties with nothing to pay upon delivery, things seem to go through customs a lot faster as well, does need to be less than 40,000 THB though, otherwise you need to register with customs.

Items such as computers are a good buy, as you only pay the 7% VAT.

1 hour ago, Berkshire said:

Yes, I hope the OP reports back on how much the customs folks will need to release his package.  Customs will customarily (in a manner of speaking) get their pound of flesh for items purchased online.

If the OP used the Global Shipping option, there are no additional Thai Customs costs.

10 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Interesting.  If this is the case, Amazon may be a reasonable shopping option in Thailand afterall.  I've refrained from ordering from Amazon precisely for this reason. 

Not too long ago, maybe last month, there was the news (or was it just an advertizement) that this was just introduced.

In the past you could already order on Amazon, but it might have resulted in importing fees and customs trouble, or sellers just didnt ship to Thailand. With this recent change you can get much more items here and the import taxes are fairly accurate depicted on Amazon already leaving less surprises.

Just now, Bob12345 said:

Not too long ago, maybe last month, there was the news (or was it just an advertizement) that this was just introduced.

In the past you could already order on Amazon, but it might have resulted in importing fees and customs trouble, or sellers just didnt ship to Thailand. With this recent change you can get much more items here and the import taxes are fairly accurate depicted on Amazon already leaving less surprises.

I've ordered stuff on Amazon this way for at least 3 years now.

5 minutes ago, Jeffrey346 said:

In fact, Amazon returns funds when they over estimate the import charges.

Yes, they are very good in this way.

1 hour ago, Berkshire said:

Yes, I hope the OP reports back on how much the customs folks will need to release his package.  Customs will customarily (in a manner of speaking) get their pound of flesh for items purchased online.

The Royal Thai customs don't cream you off when you order from Amazon. This time I ordered a cheap Wilson Federer raquet just for practicing, there is no tax on it. I already spoke with UPS Bangkok, the pack will be delivered this Thursday to my home address and there is nothing to be paid, I was assured. I had prepaid the transport, which Amazon ask you to. Amazon is a great company. In March I bought an HP notebook which isn't available here. The item was here within 4 days, I had it ordered on a Monday and it arrived at my home the same week Friday. UPS charged me for the VAT (which I had prepaid to Amazon), but I received an instant credit on my credit card account after I contacted Amazon support (credited on my account the same day I contacted them!). I can assure you that Jef Bezos' company is very streamlined.

Amazon has two Global Shipping Options... Global Shipping and  Expedited  Global Shipping.

I have used both and Global Shipping takes on the average 2 days more but cost is a lot less.

So if you can wait the extra few days you can save quite a bit. 

19 minutes ago, Mattd said:

I've ordered stuff on Amazon this way for at least 3 years now.

Ditto - for the past 5 years.  I have also rec'd a refund on the duties deposit at times.  Even if it covers a handlers charge in addition, to me it is worth it to avoid any customs aggravations.

 

Once I ordered from store in USA that used such a service to pay everything up front -- my package did get held up briefly in Bangkok when it was questioned by Customs.  DHL contacted me and asked if they were "samples" -  I sent additional info (copy of online order, etc., noting the clothing was for my own use) - it seems the shipping outfit had put "commercial" on the package.  Apparently my explanation and copy of order was sufficient as it was released and delivered a couple days later.

Ebay has a Global Shipping Program too, though in their case they don't refund you if the duties are less than expected. Recently bought a computer monitor from them, and it worked out cheaper than it would have been if available to buy in Thailand.

Well let's see what thursday brings. You don't have it yet.

I've read the "Sorry we don't ship to Thailand" message so many time that I've basically stop using Amazon other than to purchase Kindle books.  They have basically said they don't want the business of those residing in Thailand - fine with me. 

10 minutes ago, Thian said:

Well let's see what thursday brings. You don't have it yet.

No need to wait for the outcome until Thursday. I've been told by UPS that there is NO CHARGE whatsoever, I only will have to sign for receipts. That's it.

7 minutes ago, connda said:

I've read the "Sorry we don't ship to Thailand" message so many time that I've basically stop using Amazon other than to purchase Kindle books.  They have basically said they don't want the business of those residing in Thailand - fine with me. 

This is usually because of restrictions outside of their control, a lot of multi-nationals block sales out of region, Dell springs to mind for example.

Was this ordered from Amazon US or UK? 

Has anyone ordered a new Kindle from Amazon recently? The price on Lazada is much too high. Would appreciate any comments.

1 minute ago, fantom said:

Has anyone ordered a new Kindle from Amazon recently? The price on Lazada is much too high. Would appreciate any comments.

As an alternative, you can always use their Kindle for Mac or Kindle for PC software, which comes free. I've been using the former for several years and have some 1500 books in the Kindle cloud to which I have access as I choose on my MacBook Air.

18 minutes ago, Pinot said:

Was this ordered from Amazon US or UK? 

US, Amazon.com.

48 minutes ago, connda said:

I've read the "Sorry we don't ship to Thailand" message so many time that I've basically stop using Amazon other than to purchase Kindle books.  They have basically said they don't want the business of those residing in Thailand - fine with me. 

It's not Amazon, It's the manufacturer/seller who either has agreements with Thai Distributers or does not want to support their product here.

Amazon will ship many items to Thailand, but you need to read carefully as they state if the item can or cannot be returned. Again, this is the Seller or Manufacturer rules.

 

Amazon has had a call center in the Philippines for several years. If you have ever had an issue with a Kindle or Fire tablet and called Amazon it was handled by them. From the excellent English speaking CSA staff, you wouldn't guess it. Amazon probably has a shipping center there now also. They have shipping centers in India, Japan and China.