Living in Thailand you're better off ordering from Amazon instead of eBay

[ghworker2010]

Im officially sticking up my middle finger to eBay. Tired of their petty rules / messages below.  I resorted to Amazon with no B.S and a quick transaction. I highly recommend Amazon....

 

We are sorry, but the item you selected may not be purchased due to seller shipping restrictions or due to country-specific import/export or other relevant restrictions

[FritsSikkink]

Prefer Lazada

[FolkGuitar]

Interesting.... I've never had a problem with ebay shipping to me here in Thailand, and I order 3-4 times a month. But Amazon... My word! 95% of the time I try to order something I get the message "this item doesn't ship to Thailand," and I have to have it sent to my re-shipper in the US to be forwarded to me. Extra expense and extra two weeks time!

 

[cliveshep]

Some items that are light I get sent to my daughter as even if they do post to Thailand paying £25 postage for a 4 ounce packet is a rip-off.  Case in point is tips for the mig welder, £4 to buy, £25 to ship. Actually from what I have since found I could probably buy them here anyway.

 

Most things we buy from ebay come from China, postage is free and customs charges don't so far seem to apply. Maintaining a UK bank account meant I could maintain PayPal but it is a pita accessing their site as I have to get my daughter to accept a phone call, give me a pass code, etc. before I can log in. But we have bought all sorts of stuff especially for my lorry here from e-bay, like reversing cameras, reversing radar, reversing beeper etc. Computer stuff is good from them too except UK specific bits like keyboards for laptops, or some specialised parts for our Samsung American Fridge-freezer with ice-maker. For some reason those parts come via e-bay from Lithuania. 

 

Lazada is bloody expensive I've found - a multi-media player from them for my lorry was 1400 baht, reduced from 2500 baht, but my wife got a far better one for her car, fitted for her, for under 1000 baht at the auto parts market at Ban Klang, up the side of Kasikorn Bank, at the end of Rangsit-Pathum Thani Road. Totally ace for after-market bling bits for both cars and bikes too. Then if it's computers, cell-phones, bits for pc's and laptops, dash cams, in fact you name it plus clothing and textiles next door and free parking then Zeer Rangsit is defo the place to go shopping., because if THEY don't sell it you probably can't buy it in Thailand.

[ozmeldo]

I never have used eBay. The site is confusing and the merchandise even more sketchy than Amazon. eBay will become a crap site something on the level of overstock. Buy in BKK, pay cash. One big order on my trip to US.

 

I loathe Bezos. Only must have products. Done contributing to that machine as well.

 

Order a computer from Lazada? Yeah right. Lol.

 

Edited February 24, 2019 by ozmeldo

[Katia]

I haven't been on eBay in years... I don't understand what it has become.  It started out as a sort of vast online garage sale for people to sell their stuff, and had an auction type format (which, really, is sort of silly-- just price your item and let the first person who sees/wants it buy it, without the auction runaround, but I suppose it was some sort of game people enjoyed playing or something), but then it started becoming inundated with commercial vendors selling new items en masse (and went more and more to fixed-price, not that that was necessarily a bad thing but it wasn't the model eBay was built on), which is when I stopped using it-- I got sick of sorting through new stuff in search of unique items.  If I want new stuff, there are plenty of stores around, both online and "in real life," and all are easier to use than eBay.  These days I imagine it's pretty much all the new-stuff vendors, so I don't even know what its point might be anymore, since it's not different than other sites like Amazon.

[mokwit]

You can buy much of what is (new not SH) on ebay from Aliexpress at about half the price and with free or negligible postage. I also have dropped ebay after they introduced the Pitney Bowes collects duty with no refund scam.

[tyler28]

The message you received relates to an individual seller's shipping restrictions. Plenty of third party sellers on Amazon also decline to ship to Thailand. These policies have nothing to do with Ebay or Amazon being "petty," and they are easy to get around.

 

Most expats use shipping forwarders like Shipito or Planet Express (my preference), which provide you with a mailing address in the U.S. and then forward your Ebay or Amazon packages to you in Thailand through a provider of your choosing (USPS, UPS, DHL, etc.). By using USPS and declaring a low value, one can usually save a lot on shipping and customs fees.

 

In short, there is no reason at all for anyone living in Thailand to use Amazon or Ebay direct shipping at all, much less to limit himself to products eligible for such shipping.

[FolkGuitar]

When I order from eBay, I only order from companies that specify free shipping. When I order from Amazon, if on the rare occasion that they will actually ship to me here in Thailand, I don't worry about the import duties as it gets here quite quickly.  I just ordered two shirts from the same seller. The white shirt will ship directly to me, but the blue shirt, identical in all but color will not, and I had to have that sent to my reshipper.

 

[Jeffrey346]

I order from Amazon as their products are real and they get here in 5 or 6 days. Amazon now has a dedicated section of products that do ship to Thailand.

You need to check Lazada as many of the products are fake. I also find Lazada expensive.

My wife likes these new 3 in 1 laundry pods. They sell on Lazada for 250-450B depending on the seller. I buy the identical product on Shopee for B149. Huge difference.

[Kerryd]

I use all 4 (Amazon, eBay, Lazada and AliExpress), depending on what I'm ordering.

 

The killer for me is the shipping charges. Amazon is usually not too bad and they ship by registered mail (instead of a courier company). I've often received a small refund on the "estimated duties" they charge at time of purchase, something that never happens with any of the others.

 

But, as noted above, soooo many things won't ship outside of the USA, even when it's "Fulfilled by Amazon". Frikken annoying when you have 4-5 items in your cart, all "Fulfilled by Amazon" and they won't ship 3-4 of the items, but will ship the others.

 

eBay seems to have ridiculous shipping charges. I tried order 2 of an item (total $24.00) and the shipping charges (for the 8 oz package) was going to be $32 ! If I ordered 4 (a 1 pound parcel) the shipping charges were still going to be more than the cost of the items.
I was just looking at a small part for my motorcycle, a small plastic tray that goes into the battery compartment. Cost - $12. Shipping - $36 !!!! The thing weighs like 4 oz ! But the only shipping option is "USPS First Class" (i.e. the most expensive option possible). Can't just stick the thing in a padded envelope and send it through the mail. Nooooo, that would be too easy (and cheap). ****ing rip-off is what it is.

NEVER USE USPS for shipping if possible. The courier companies (like DHL, FedEx and USPS) use 3rd party customs brokers to process the shipments through Customs. Almost every single item I've ever had shipped via DHL or USPS has incurred additional customs and duties, as well as additional "distribution" charges. I've posted before about getting a package delivered by USPS and having to pay almost 70% of the value of the shipment in duties and tariffs and distribution charges.

The customs brokers don't care about the value of the package.
What they will do though is "estimate" the cost of the item (even if it is declared), "estimate" the shipping charges and "estimate" the insurance costs (to ship the item), total that all up and then apply the duties and taxes to it. (And then add their "distribution" charges to it and charge VAT on that as well.)

 

With Registered Mail (EMS) it seems that anything under $75 scoots through without additional charges. Stuff from $75-150 is "hit or miss" (probably depending on the size of the package) and things over $150 usually get dinged.

Lazada has a poorer selection and a much worse search engine. With Amazon, if you type 4 words in the search (like "large blue cotton towels") you search is limited to items that have all of those words in it (usually - or at least 3 of the 4 search terms it seems).
 

But on Lazada (and AliExpress) they will show every item that has any of those words in it ! And trying to filter the results on those sites is almost impossible as they usually have very limited filter options - if any at all. Very poorly done.
eBay is bad for that as well and AliEpress is the worst. 

Never usually have any problems with items ordered from Lazada (or AliExpress) but you have to realize that what you are ordering is often going to be low quality knock offs. Also, it seems for every item you look at, there are 50+ vendors selling the exact same item, with the exact same descriptions and pictures and maybe a tiny variation in price (or sometimes a huge variation as some are probably betting on you not noticing that the same thing is available from other vendors for a lot less).

 

Had one instance where an item I ordered from Lazada was shipped but never delivered (seems it came from China, when through Customs and then "disappeared" after it was handed over to the courier).

Lazada contacted me when the estimated delivery date had gone by and they cancelled the order and refunded my money within a couple days. No hassles at all.

 

Never have an issue with Customs (or 3rd party brokers) when ordering from Lazada or AliExpress, even when you know the item is coming from China (or wherever). I did have to pay some extra charges once when a motorcycle windshield I ordered arrived from Hong Kong. Had to go to the post office and pay an extra 300 baht. (It was in the "hit or miss" price category but was a large parcel.)

I've also tried ordering stuff and having it sent to a friend's home (in the US) and then having it forwarded here. The first time I did it, they sent 3 of the items, kept 2 for some reason and couldn't find the 6th item (despite it being shown as having been delivered to them). The items they did ship, via registered mail, arrived with no problems (and no extra charges). The cost of shipping seemed pretty high, but as I couldn't get those items any other way I had to accept it.

 

(Now that I've seen the names of some "forwarding" services mention in a post above, I think I'll try one of those in the future instead).

[Pravda]

5 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

(Now that I've seen the names of some "forwarding" services mention in a post above, I think I'll try one of those in the future instead).

 

Don't bother. It will cost you arm and a leg and most forwarding services are using courriers - a big no for reasons you mentioned above.

[mrmicbkktxl]

On 2/23/2019 at 2:57 PM, cliveshep said:

Some items that are light I get sent to my daughter as even if they do post to Thailand paying £25 postage for a 4 ounce packet is a rip-off.  Case in point is tips for the mig welder, £4 to buy, £25 to ship. Actually from what I have since found I could probably buy them here anyway.

 

Most things we buy from ebay come from China, postage is free and customs charges don't so far seem to apply. Maintaining a UK bank account meant I could maintain PayPal but it is a pita accessing their site as I have to get my daughter to accept a phone call, give me a pass code, etc. before I can log in. But we have bought all sorts of stuff especially for my lorry here from e-bay, like reversing cameras, reversing radar, reversing beeper etc. Computer stuff is good from them too except UK specific bits like keyboards for laptops, or some specialised parts for our Samsung American Fridge-freezer with ice-maker. For some reason those parts come via e-bay from Lithuania. 

 

Lazada is bloody expensive I've found - a multi-media player from them for my lorry was 1400 baht, reduced from 2500 baht, but my wife got a far better one for her car, fitted for her, for under 1000 baht at the auto parts market at Ban Klang, up the side of Kasikorn Bank, at the end of Rangsit-Pathum Thani Road. Totally ace for after-market bling bits for both cars and bikes too. Then if it's computers, cell-phones, bits for pc's and laptops, dash cams, in fact you name it plus clothing and textiles next door and free parking then Zeer Rangsit is defo the place to go shopping., because if THEY don't sell it you probably can't buy it in Thailand.

get a vpn use UK ip address then you should not have a problem to sign into paypal UK,or use the paypal app on your phone,the app seems to not care where you are at

[Jumbo1968]

I used Shopee the other week, I bought a Samsung J6 mobile phone, straightforward after getting my head round how to change the language to English.

[VocalNeal]

On 2/23/2019 at 8:57 PM, cliveshep said:

Case in point is tips for the mig welder,

Yep for sure available in Thailand at any decent welding shop

 

[sledpull]

Ali Express has far exceeded customer service of Lazada. Lazada and Ali Express are both owned by Alibaba. For some reason, the skills of Ali Express, a sister company,  have not been conveyed to Lazada. 

[Mavideol]

how long does it take Amazon to deliver, do you know where they ship from

[tyler28]

2 hours ago, Pravda said:

 

Don't bother. It will cost you arm and a leg and most forwarding services are using courriers - a big no for reasons you mentioned above.

No, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I don't mean to be rude, but why would you post such misinformation about services you clearly haven't used, without taking the time to do even the most basic of research?

 

I use Planet Express. I have never paid any kind of joining fee or membership fee. After I made an initial $5 deposit (later used applied toward my first shipment), they provided me with a mailing address in California. I have Amazon and Ebay ship to that address. When a package arrives, Planet Express informs me by email. I then log into their site, fill out the customs declaration myself, and then select a shipping option. I do have the option of using couriers, but there are also several options using the US Postal Service. I nearly always choose one of those.

 

For illustration purposes, the last two Amazon packages I had forwarded by Planet Express each weighed less than one pound and each cost less that $10 to ship to Thailand. This is Planet Express's cheapest option. In my experience, it takes about two weeks. I have never been charged any customs fees when using this service, and I have never had a package go missing.

Edited February 25, 2019 by tyler28
Punctuation

[tyler28]

2 hours ago, Kerryd said:

NEVER USE USPS for shipping if possible. The courier companies (like DHL, FedEx and USPS) use 3rd party customs brokers to process the shipments through Customs. Almost every single item I've ever had shipped via DHL or USPS has incurred additional customs and duties, as well as additional "distribution" charges. I've posted before about getting a package delivered by USPS and having to pay almost 70% of the value of the shipment in duties and tariffs and distribution charges.

The customs brokers don't care about the value of the package.
What they will do though is "estimate" the cost of the item (even if it is declared), "estimate" the shipping charges and "estimate" the insurance costs (to ship the item), total that all up and then apply the duties and taxes to it. (And then add their "distribution" charges to it and charge VAT on that as well.)

You are confusing USPS (United States Postal Service) with UPS (a private courier). All your points are valid for UPS but surely not for USPS (the regular mail).

[LivinLOS]

On 2/24/2019 at 8:08 AM, Katia said:

I haven't been on eBay in years... I don't understand what it has become.  It started out as a sort of vast online garage sale for people to sell their stuff, and had an auction type format (which, really, is sort of silly-- just price your item and let the first person who sees/wants it buy it, without the auction runaround, but I suppose it was some sort of game people enjoyed playing or something), but then it started becoming inundated with commercial vendors selling new items en masse (and went more and more to fixed-price, not that that was necessarily a bad thing but it wasn't the model eBay was built on), which is when I stopped using it-- I got sick of sorting through new stuff in search of unique items.  If I want new stuff, there are plenty of stores around, both online and "in real life," and all are easier to use than eBay.  These days I imagine it's pretty much all the new-stuff vendors, so I don't even know what its point might be anymore, since it's not different than other sites like Amazon.

All of that is user defined. 

Theres a simple checkbox.. new used reconditioned etc.. 

 

Theres also a payment option.. auction, auction with buy it now, fixed. 

 

Baffling how people can struggle with such simple things. 

 

[LivinLOS]

36 minutes ago, tyler28 said:

No, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I don't mean to be rude, but why would you post such misinformation about services you clearly haven't used, without taking the time to do even the most basic of research?

 

I use Planet Express. I have never paid any kind of joining fee or membership fee. After I made an initial $5 deposit (later used applied toward my first shipment), they provided me with a mailing address in California. I have Amazon and Ebay ship to that address. When a package arrives, Planet Express informs me by email. I then log into their site, fill out the customs declaration myself, and then select a shipping option. I do have the option of using couriers, but there are also several options using the US Postal Service. I nearly always choose one of those.

 

For illustration purposes, the last two Amazon packages I had forwarded by Planet Express each weighed less than one pound and each cost less that $10 to ship to Thailand. This is Planet Express's cheapest option. In my experience, it takes about two weeks. I have never been charged any customs fees when using this service, and I have never had a package go missing.

huge fan of services like this.. long term shipitto user, tho I refuse to keep credit in it for monthly aggregation fees. 

 

The tax saved and combined shipping on multiple item orders pays for itself 10x over. 

[tweedledee2]

In Dec. the internal lithium battery in my HP laptop failed.  I took the laptop to a repair shop in Surin that removed the battery but didn't have a replacement and it wasn't available from their suppliers.  They reassemble the laptop without the battery at no charge and suggested I buy a battery off eBay.  A factory replacement from HP was over $100 but I found one listed on eBay as a genuine/original factory HP replacement for $30.99 with free shipping with estimated mail delivery between 14-21 days. The seller was Top Rated and located in Guangzhou, China.  Within 3 hours of placing the order at 5 pm, I received an email order confirmation that it would be shipped the next day. The next afternoon, I was emailed that the package was in transit and a tracking number was provided.  It was delivered to my home 7 days after placing the order with no extra charges. Side by side I saw no difference from the original. All the markings, logo's, part numbers and the manufacturing processing marks appeared the same. I took the laptop and the new battery back to the shop and paid 200 baht for installation.  This was my 1st purchase from eBay and I have since placed 3 orders each arriving on time without extra charges or complaint.

[Suradit69]

On February 23, 2019 at 7:32 PM, FolkGuitar said:

Interesting.... I've never had a problem with ebay shipping to me here in Thailand, and I order 3-4 times a month. But Amazon... My word! 95% of the time I try to order something I get the message "this item doesn't ship to Thailand," and I have to have it sent to my re-shipper in the US to be forwarded to me. Extra expense and extra two weeks time!

 

Yes, both eBay and Amazon can be a pain in the a$$ at times or sometimes function quite smoothly.

 

On either one if they want you to prepay for customs clearance using courier delivery  it's a major rip-off.

[Pedrogaz]

3 hours ago, Jumbo1968 said:

I used Shopee the other week, I bought a Samsung J6 mobile phone, straightforward after getting my head round how to change the language to English.

I have checked out the Shopee site and have not found a way to convert it English....can you help? Thanks

[Jumbo1968]

2 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

I have checked out the Shopee site and have not found a way to convert it English....can you help? Thanks

I used the Shopee App, go to settings on the top left hand corner, you can change the language there.

[Pedrogaz]

25 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

I used the Shopee App, go to settings on the top left hand corner, you can change the language there.

Thanks Jumbo. I am using my laptop...I'll download the app onto my tablet and try that.

 

[eddysmit]

On 2/23/2019 at 7:20 PM, FritsSikkink said:

Prefer Lazada

Yes,same here,very good,had a problem the other day,wrong item arrived,reimbursed my cash instantly,and told me to keep the wrong item that had arrived.

[MuuKondiao]

On 2/23/2019 at 7:32 PM, FolkGuitar said:

Interesting.... I've never had a problem with ebay shipping to me here in Thailand, and I order 3-4 times a month. But Amazon... My word! 95% of the time I try to order something I get the message "this item doesn't ship to Thailand," and I have to have it sent to my re-shipper in the US to be forwarded to me. Extra expense and extra two weeks time!

 

I have had mostly nothing from Amazon in the two months I have been back in Thailand, I dropped eBay long ago,, while in the U.S.A. but I thought it was a communication problem between them and me and my computer. Now I see that other people have had problems with eBay.

Amazon has shipped one thing to me here. It came from Germany, way ahead of schedule - I don't remember what it was - nothing vital - but everything else that I have tried to order was not available in this country. 

On top of that they claim now that none of the movies I want to watch are available in Thailand - even the movies that I bought and own I cannot  see. 

And not only that, they blocked me from listening to my music. Even the songs that I had purchased were blocked.Now I am able to download - some of them - from their site, after arguing with different reps a lot.

I do blame Amazon. They have become too big to care about their customers and if things can be forwarded by a shipper then Amazon could take the trouble to deal with these forwarders to make a sale. They are too busy counting their profits to honor their commitments. 

[BigT73]

3 hours ago, tweedledee2 said:

In Dec. the internal lithium battery in my HP laptop failed.  I took the laptop to a repair shop in Surin that removed the battery but didn't have a replacement and it wasn't available from their suppliers.  They reassemble the laptop without the battery at no charge and suggested I buy a battery off eBay.  A factory replacement from HP was over $100 but I found one listed on eBay as a genuine/original factory HP replacement for $30.99 with free shipping with estimated mail delivery between 14-21 days. The seller was Top Rated and located in Guangzhou, China.  Within 3 hours of placing the order at 5 pm, I received an email order confirmation that it would be shipped the next day. The next afternoon, I was emailed that the package was in transit and a tracking number was provided.  It was delivered to my home 7 days after placing the order with no extra charges. Side by side I saw no difference from the original. All the markings, logo's, part numbers and the manufacturing processing marks appeared the same. I took the laptop and the new battery back to the shop and paid 200 baht for installation.  This was my 1st purchase from eBay and I have since placed 3 orders each arriving on time without extra charges or complaint.

Just becareful with the chinese batteries that are sold as originals as they usually are counterfeits. Once a pc or phone get outdated manufacturers stop making replacement parts. Biggest problem is they have inferior cells that have been known to catch fire when charging.  The most common issue is they dont last long.

[BigT73]

Sometimes for cheaper shipping prices log into different ebay sites.  I found with ebay Australia asian sellers often advertise free shipping and include Thailand in that zone.  i.e do your searches in ebay.com.au