I will be shipping a container load or two of personal effects to Thailand soon. Some of the stuff is very valuable, eg 57 inch rear projection TV. It will be arriving in my wife's name as a Thai national returning from living abroad for more than 1 year. My son aged 10 and daughter aged 5, will also be returning with there personal possesions.

I need a good agent to deal with all the importation paperwork and to arrange to ship the goods to Chiang Mai. My wife is very worried and insists that everything is going to be stolen when it arrives at Thailand. She says she is Thai and knows what will happen. All her friends say the same!

I believe the law is that there is no import duties on personal posessions except for things like TV's where you are allowed 1 of each.

Has anyone been through this and knows of a way where I will not be ripped off.

Thanks Chris

[email protected]

http://www.heatonweb.me.uk

I was in precisely the same setup as you sent it in my wifes name and even had a visa myself..

I made a post about it recently in this forum (should be easy searchable I am in a net cafe in Penang on a visa run) but in short despite any and all papers I was held ransom for bribes.. Got out of it fairly cheaply but no amount of having the papers and legal side fully printed made any difference..

Direct quote 'Of course that may be the law, but it may take many months for that method of clearance, during which time we would need to charge you storage' I could also point out that at this point they had broken open the shipping pallets and spread 50k's worth or electronics and home theater / speakers / computers etc through out an unsecured area where anyone could walk past and pick it up.. Some of it was even outside exposed to the elements (a 4k USK Home theater audio processor ) just pay the money and get it cleared was my experience.

just had my furniture delivered today after a great deal of stress.

mainly done due to myself.

but in the end all was good and only had to pay undertable money of 4500 baht.

which i was happy to pay. and they didnt get everything out of the container.

the company who did it for me is:

Ally maritime company

tel:016250366

office:02 711 4499

his names Mike and speaks very good english.

they do need passport and workpermit for cleareance.

good luck

My wife and myself imported a secondhand gearbox a few years ago from Aus for my wife's car.

We spent two days at Klong Toey in the Customs House or sheds or in the Port.

For those who have not been there the Customs House consists of two open halls about 150m long with a central staircase and reception.

You go to a desk to have your papers checked, chopped, next go to the far end of Hall 1, get a chop, now far end Hall 2, get a chop, back to desk at far end, get a chop, etc. etc. etc.

You may see some characters hanging round in the Hall. these guys will do the running up and down for you for 300 to 500 Baht per day. THEY ARE GOLD.

The tax was set based on the class of goods and the CIF value declared on the documents. Some haggling took place on the class. 5,000 Baht in import duty as secondhand car spares. Funnily enough they never questioned the authenticity of the invoice.

At the end of Day 1 after 8 hours of running up and down my wife was at the point of mental and emotional collapse. She started crying, sobbing her little heart out. An older lady at a far desk saw this and came over.

I will translate the next bit into English:

"What is the matter, dear?"

"Boooooohh hhhpooo, I wantttt a gooo hooome."

"Why?" gives me a nasty look as in what have you been doing to the poor girl.

"Beeeeen alllll dayyyy. I wannna die."

"never mind. come with me it will all be OK."

She carries her off to her desk, sits her down, gives her a slice of cake. She then opens a drawer, pulls out a box of 30 chops and stamps up all the forms.

"Here you are, all finished. Just go to the Port tomorrow and pick it up."

At the Port the wife goes by herself and picks up the gearbox. A Customs guy wanders over, checks her documents and says, "This looks new to me"

He was a bit shocked that such a nice little girl knew those kinds of words.

Needless to say she drove off and left him to it. Not one penny paid.

And the motto is, if you want to do it yourself don't bother, get an agent.