Are you receiving your orders from iHerb ?

[zyphodb]

2 hours ago, drbeach said:

If they do that, do they inform you the package has arrived? I would much rather pay the import tax than lose the money for the product I ordered by abandoning it.

 

I mean, it sucks, but if you imported a car to Thailand you wouldn't abandon it just because customs made you pay 300% in tax would you?

Actually I was thinking more of other items that iherb when I made that comment about couriers and customs, such as motorbike parts etc. A car is a bad example as you'd have to do loads of paperwork before they let you import it...

[zyphodb]

2 hours ago, JensenZ said:

I have never had a problem with the 3 different delivery options on iHerb. One package was flagged for duty as it was a bit higher than the duty free 1500 baht limit. The tax was applied correctly and was minimal.

 

Although currently not available, they have a delivery service where you can pre-pay customs if you want larger orders. Again, never a problem. Customs do things by the book and they know that iHerb does everything by the book in terms of declaring the real price. There really is no problem with customs when buying from iHerb. I can always go a bit higher than the 1500 baht duty free limit too.

Customs might do things by the book for iherb as they know is fairly low value, but  I can assure you they are a law to themselves when it comes to other things as many people will tell you...

[mojaco]

5.5 weeks sent from USA to Thailand but stuck in Germany past two weeks.  Sent via DHL.

[JensenZ]

6 hours ago, zyphodb said:

Customs might do things by the book for iherb as they know is fairly low value, but  I can assure you they are a law to themselves when it comes to other things as many people will tell you...

I don't need to be told as I've had plenty of experience with customs. Whenever I've had to pay duty, it has been applied at the correct rate. Yes, that is very high and often 30% plus VAT, but what's the problem you've been having and these other people? I have never been scammed for extra money.

 

May I remind you that we are discussing iHerb shipments here. I have had too many deliveries to count over a period of 8 years. About a shipment a month.

[drbeach]

19 hours ago, zyphodb said:

Actually I was thinking more of other items that iherb when I made that comment about couriers and customs, such as motorbike parts etc. A car is a bad example as you'd have to do loads of paperwork before they let you import it...

True - though what I was trying to say was, if you're determined to import something, you'd rather pay extra to get it than abandon it, especially if you can't find a good alternative locally.

 

Anyway, I'm awaiting an item from Ubuy (just recently ordered from their "Thai" website although the product comes from the USA). I waited until now to order, because I knew there would be more flight options available in July and don't want to use a courier due to several warnings about customs issues (actually, Ubuy didn't even give me that option they force you to use USPS).

 

Either way, I'd rather pay through the nose for the products I'm ordering (also supplements like on iHerb) because to my knowledge they are not available locally and I'm not aware of any equivalent product that can do what the ones I've ordered can. Hence why it doesn't faze me to spend 3000 or 4000 Baht for a small bottle of something that only costs 1500 Baht (excluding shipping) in the USA since travel is out for the foreseeable future. Therefore, I can justify the higher cost at this time. Under normal circumstances, I might just pick up 6-12 months supply of these items on a trip back home or the USA to bring back in my suitcase as usual, but obviously that's not looking like a realistic option until around next year.

 

Ubuy actually lists customs fees of 800 Baht or something so I assume the package will pass through no issue, because fees are being paid. Same whenever I order something from Amazon (even a book) a small customs fee is automatically included in the charges. However, being a book, using a courier like UPS, Fedex or DHL is no issue there. Depends on the type of product being shipped.

[drbeach]

13 hours ago, JensenZ said:

I don't need to be told as I've had plenty of experience with customs. Whenever I've had to pay duty, it has been applied at the correct rate. Yes, that is very high and often 30% plus VAT, but what's the problem you've been having and these other people? I have never been scammed for extra money.

 

May I remind you that we are discussing iHerb shipments here. I have had too many deliveries to count over a period of 8 years. About a shipment a month.

As just mentioned, on all the shipments I've made over the years (mainly through Amazon and most recently through Ubuy for the first time) a "customs fee" or duty, is applied automatically. This should mean the item passes through without issue, as quite often that's what it comes down to: duty. Ubuy does list items that can't be shipped, but the vast majority can be sent (otherwise they wouldn't be offering them on their Thai website). I think iHerb is similar (though I've never shipped anything ordered through them to Thailand). I've used them once to send goods to my friend in the US. He then brought them to me here in Thailand.

[fusion58]

I just received an order from iHerb. It arrived within the normal, pre-COVID time frame, and it arrived a few days before a similar supplement order from a U.S. eBay seller I placed on the same day.

[rumak]

2 hours ago, fusion58 said:

I just received an order from iHerb. It arrived within the normal, pre-COVID time frame, and it arrived a few days before a similar supplement order from a U.S. eBay seller I placed on the same day.

do you remember which  "delivery option"  you checked ?

[Tagged]

Yes 22 days from order to delivered. No complications at all, and never had any problems with them before. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 7/2/2020 at 1:10 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

But thus far, everyone one of the half dozen or so small packages (non documents) I sent from the U.S. via regular postal airmail during the first week of June have yet to be delivered to me in BKK.... which is about two weeks overdue compared to normal.

 

Right now, I wouldn't be mailing any non-courier package from the U.S. to Thailand until they straighten out whatever problems are occurring.

 

 

Just an update on the above post of mine:

 

Yesterday, the Thai Post delivered to my home in BKK on the same day all of the half dozen or so different small packages that I had sent from the U.S. via airmail on different days during the first week of June.  So end to end delivery time was about a month, much longer than the normal 2 weeks I usually get.

 

So it would seem airmail packages from the U.S. ARE getting thru these days...just much delayed compared to past "normal" delivery times.  Dunno if that kind of delay is going to be an ongoing thing, or was just a temporary problem they had because of Thai Air or some other passing issue.

 

[drbeach]

6 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Just an update on the above post of mine:

 

Yesterday, the Thai Post delivered to my home in BKK on the same day all of the half dozen or so different small packages that I had sent from the U.S. via airmail on different days during the first week of June.  So end to end delivery time was about a month, much longer than the normal 2 weeks I usually get.

 

So it would seem airmail packages from the U.S. ARE getting thru these days...just much delayed compared to past "normal" delivery times.  Dunno if that kind of delay is going to be an ongoing thing, or was just a temporary problem they had because of Thai Air or some other passing issue.

 

Not sure why THAI Air would have anything to do with it. Other commercial carriers are flying, so presumably, US origin packages are sent on an airline that is currently servicing both the USA and Thailand, such as Korean Air.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

51 minutes ago, drbeach said:

Not sure why THAI Air would have anything to do with it. Other commercial carriers are flying, so presumably, US origin packages are sent on an airline that is currently servicing both the USA and Thailand, such as Korean Air.

 

I don't know. But there was some scuttle circulating around here that some Thai Post destined mail was running into problems because supposedly Thai Post had some kind of exclusive carriage agreement with Thai Air... which, if it existed, supposedly has been or is now being undone because of Thai Air's lost of government agency status.

 

[fusion58]

22 hours ago, rumak said:

do you remember which  "delivery option"  you checked ?

I remember I chose the least expensive method as I wasn't in a hurry and there didn't seem to be much difference between the two available methods and their respective delivery times.

[drbeach]

13 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I don't know. But there was some scuttle circulating around here that some Thai Post destined mail was running into problems because supposedly Thai Post had some kind of exclusive carriage agreement with Thai Air... which, if it existed, supposedly has been or is now being undone because of Thai Air's lost of government agency status.

 

I see. Pretty ridiculous though, given that even when THAI was flying (it isn't currently, except on limited routes like Hong Kong) it hardly covered the whole globe. For US origin shipments, one way or the other a non-Thai airline has to be used, since THAI stopped flying to the USA in 2015 AND THAI doesn't operate it's own fleet of cargo aircraft nor does any other Thai or foreign carrier operate direct services between the United States and Thailand.

 

Even Fedex, UPS and DHL don't operate non-stop US bound services. Cargo carriers service such destinations as Sydney (Atlas Air), Fedex (Guangzhou, Hanoi, Singapore and others) and that Luxembourg carrier that operates a cargo service between BKK and Luxembourg.

 

Anyway, Thai post has hopefully undone that agreement because it doesn't make any sense. It is totally unworkable during the current times but even during normal times it makes limited sense.

[drbeach]

Just on couriers, which have largely been unaffected by all the flight restrictions and lack of commercial flight operations recently, I've read on this forum that for orders from the likes of iHerb (especially supplements and nutritional products), it is best to use the normal postal route, even if it's just for one small order. This is because couriers may ask lots of questions or request an import permit.

 

I've got a package valued at US$39 waiting in a warehouse in California, with 13 days left to make a decision on how/where to send it.

 

Given there are more flights this month than last and some people here have received recent orders, would it be wise for me to select USPS airmail shipping as opposed to DHL or Fedex?

 

Has anyone had any experience contacting a broker or trading firm that imports supplements from abroad and use them to send the shipment to? Would they be willing to do it ? I would have no problem with paying them some kind of administration fee for their efforts. I know it might seem too much effort for a small shipment, but clearly all sorts of supplements are available locally even if they're expensive, and they can be imported legally in any case. Just that the law is quite vague with regards to small shipments for personal use and what constitutes "commercial quantity" shipments. I'd rather pay a bit extra for piece of mind than take the risk of a seized package even though it's only a small quantity.

 

In my case, I'm trying to ship various supplements in separate packages even though the shipping cost will be significantly higher, but I'm doing this to avoid possible scrutiny, even if I only have 1 item of each type in the package.

[robblok]

Just got one delivered by Thai post ordered 11 jun and it came now. So a bit slower then normal but still acceptable. Price was 91$ .. and i did not have to pay any taxes.

[marvin1950]

$91 for shipping?

[robblok]

4 minutes ago, marvin1950 said:

$91 for shipping?

no for the order inclusive shipping.

[Saltire]

I had a few orders pre-covid all took about 14 days to arrive.

 

Then the pre-paid customs option (SF Express) disappeared. I wrote to them here is their reply from June 7th.

 

There are many items in my basket but I am hanging off for a while.

 

Thank you for contacting iHerb.com.       We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and want to help.   We regret to inform you that SF Express is currently not available as a shipping method and bound to Thailand. Rest assured that we are working on this issue, but as of the moment we don't have a specific time frame when it will be back.  We humbly seek your kind understanding.    If you will choose another shipping method, you need to coordinate with your customs to know the import cost.   If you need additional assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us through live chat or email. Sincerely, William The iHerb Team

 

[thedemon]

I have just had an iHerb package arrive today that was ordered late March so almost 4 months! DHL tracking info said that it had arrived from the US and was at Laksi depot from early April but I am dubious about that. The package hasn't been opened so who knows where it has actually been all this time.

 

I claimed a refund from iHerb about a month ago. They did refund and also said that they believed the package would eventually arrive and in that case I could keep it, compliments of them. So I can't complain. Though in the meantime I have bought locally.

[rumak]

45 minutes ago, thedemon said:

I have just had an iHerb package arrive today that was ordered late March so almost 4 months! DHL tracking info said that it had arrived from the US and was at Laksi depot from early April but I am dubious about that. The package hasn't been opened so who knows where it has actually been all this time.

 

I claimed a refund from iHerb about a month ago. They did refund and also said that they believed the package would eventually arrive and in that case I could keep it, compliments of them. So I can't complain. Though in the meantime I have bought locally.

thanks for the info.   I ordered a week ago so will see what happens.   Not sure i would like to

take vitamins that have been in heat for four months 

[drbeach]

I ordered a package from Ubuy a couple of weeks ago. Arrived in Thailand 3-4 days after sending and took another 4-5 days (including the weekend) for customs clearance. DHL wanted some more info on the product and a copy of the receiver's ID card or passport, but after that it came through quickly.
 

There is a reason I didn't order anything from overseas between late March and the beginning of July. I am starting to order now since there are more flights, Thai Post is operating to more countries but DHL should never really have been affected from the beginning.

 

Still, I'd prefer to use the normal postal system except for very small packages sent by DHL mainly because of the customs issues already referred to. Still, my experience with DHL was very positive so I'm glad it worked out.

[thedemon]

4 hours ago, rumak said:

thanks for the info.   I ordered a week ago so will see what happens.   Not sure i would like to

take vitamins that have been in heat for four months 

 

Yes I agree with you and had the same thought myself.

 

On the other hand we really have no idea of the storage conditions for most of what we buy from Thai suppliers. I have a friend that imports medium to high end wine on a large scale and he does have climate controlled warehousing including when the wine is under customs bond. But it costs a fortune and I'm very doubtful the multitude of small sellers on Shopee and Lazada would pay for that.

[thedemon]

4 hours ago, drbeach said:

I ordered a package from Ubuy a couple of weeks ago. Arrived in Thailand 3-4 days after sending and took another 4-5 days (including the weekend) for customs clearance. DHL wanted some more info on the product and a copy of the receiver's ID card or passport, but after that it came through quickly.
 

There is a reason I didn't order anything from overseas between late March and the beginning of July. I am starting to order now since there are more flights, Thai Post is operating to more countries but DHL should never really have been affected from the beginning.

 

Still, I'd prefer to use the normal postal system except for very small packages sent by DHL mainly because of the customs issues already referred to. Still, my experience with DHL was very positive so I'm glad it worked out.

 

The iHerb package that I ordered was sent via mail not courier.

 

I don't fully understand how it works but as far as I know DHL is now owned by Deutsche Post. There were 2 tracking numbers provided. One is a DHL eCommerce number and the other in the regular mail format ( i.e. UV012345678DE). Thaipost tracking doesn't recognize either of them even though it was finally delivered by Thaipost.

 

This the tracking site for DHL eCommerce: https://webtrack.dhlglobalmail.com

[Millian]

Made an order on the 11th July, they started processing it on the 12th, lst tracking update was on the 15th in the US and jut got delivered today (25th July).

15 days, not bad!