"Medical" device ordered outside Thailand being held by Import Export Inspection Division

[jakow]

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this. My wife ordered a small electronic device from Korea called the "Medicube AGE-R Booster Pro Home Skin Care Device" that supposedly makes your skin absorb lotion better. It cost about 8,000 baht. It's being held up with the Import Export Inspection Division because they say it's in the "medical/massage" category and they want a prescription from a doctor. We went to the local hospital, but the doctor said he doesn't know about this product and won't write a prescription. I talked to the seller and they said this is not a medical product, it's just for personal skin care, and they should not be holding it. They're charging us every day that they hold it, and they won't send it back to the shipper. So basically we're about to lose a whole bunch of money. Has anyone dealt with this before?

Edited 22 hours ago by jakow

[Puccini]

Medical devices are covered by Thailand's Medicine Act, aka Drugs Act, and a licence is reqired for their importation.

 

In your wife's case it is possible that a custom's official has tken a shine to the device and plans to keep it.

[jakow]

38 minutes ago, Puccini said:

Medical devices are covered by Thailand's Medicine Act, aka Drugs Act, and a licence is reqired for their importation.

 

In your wife's case it is possible that a custom's official has tken a shine to the device and plans to keep it.

 

That's definitely what my wife is thinking 🙂 Not so much that one particular official wants it, but that this whole thing is set up so all the officials to get a constant flow of free imported products.

 

I guess our only recourse aside from bribing a doctor to write a prescription is to convince them that it's not a medical product. I talked to the seller and he's contacting the shipping company because he says they should not be holding it. He said it's probably because the product's name is "medicube" but that it's not an actual medical product. This is going to be difficult. Plus we're getting charged something like 100+ baht a day while we try to sort it out.

[Puccini]

1 hour ago, jakow said:

…I talked to the seller and he's contacting the shipping company…

 

Parcels shipped via a shipping company or a courier service are routinely routed to customs for examination, where as postal parcels with a low declared value apparently rarely get checked. THB 8,000, however, probably does not count as a low value.

 

There have been news, though, that Thailand wants to start collecting at least VAT for all shipments valued at THB 1.00 or more, including for postal parcels, if they have not already started. In your case, though, there is the added complication of the classification of the product as "medical/massage"

 

Unless the courier can convince customs to return the parcel to them for return to the sender, I see little chance for you to recover the money.

[Celsius]

2 hours ago, Puccini said:

Medical devices are covered by Thailand's Medicine Act, aka Drugs Act, and a licence is reqired for their importation.

 

In your wife's case it is possible that a custom's official has tken a shine to the device and plans to keep it.

 

Please. Most  countries would send such devices to a trash bin. You simply don't import anything even resembling a medical device. 

 

Ordering on lazada would be my only choice.

 

[Puccini]

Unfortunately, your helpful comment about ordering from Lazada comes too late for the OP.

[GammaGlobulin]

Perhaps, the guys checking this product mistakenly believe this might be some sort of mechanism used for self-gratification.

 

This confusion might cause problems.

Just a thought.

 

[Puccini]

Do you suppose that this is the reason why customs is asking for a doctor's prescription?

[rwill]

10 hours ago, Puccini said:

Parcels shipped via a shipping company or a courier service are routinely routed to customs for examination, where as postal parcels with a low declared value apparently rarely get checked. THB 8,000, however, probably does not count as a low value

Officially it is items below 1,500 baht in value that are exempted, except for restricted categories.

[thesetat2013]

12 hours ago, Celsius said:

 

Please. Most  countries would send such devices to a trash bin. You simply don't import anything even resembling a medical device. 

 

Ordering on lazada would be my only choice.

 

I do not agree.. I got a TENS device sent to me from a US medical supply company. I had no trouble getting it sent to my door. 

I think the first post is more accurate. One of the Customs officers have taken a shine to owning it and has decided to confiscate it to collect later..

[newbee2022]

17 hours ago, jakow said:

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this. My wife ordered a small electronic device from Korea called the "Medicube AGE-R Booster Pro Home Skin Care Device" that supposedly makes your skin absorb lotion better. It cost about 8,000 baht. It's being held up with the Import Export Inspection Division because they say it's in the "medical/massage" category and they want a prescription from a doctor. We went to the local hospital, but the doctor said he doesn't know about this product and won't write a prescription. I talked to the seller and they said this is not a medical product, it's just for personal skin care, and they should not be holding it. They're charging us every day that they hold it, and they won't send it back to the shipper. So basically we're about to lose a whole bunch of money. Has anyone dealt with this before?

Yes, that's the law here.

No prescription = no import.

And sure, it will probably impossible to get a prescription for a Vibrator 😁. 

Could be now a bit costly. If you get your Vibrator once you have to pay taxes too.😂. 

 

[newbee2022]

14 hours ago, Celsius said:

 

Please. Most  countries would send such devices to a trash bin. You simply don't import anything even resembling a medical device. 

 

Ordering on lazada would be my only choice.

 

Did you see a "vibrator" on Lazada. I read it's strictly forbidden to sell??😱

[john donson]

that's an expensive vibrator

[fvw53]

Can somebody provide the name of the Authority granting import license. I want to import a stoma care product not sold in Thailand

[NicoBKK]

9 hours ago, Puccini said:

Do you suppose that this is the reason why customs is asking for a doctor's prescription?

Because they know no doctor will issue one 🙂

[jcmj]

A friend had a cane ordered for bigger people and had to go to Laem Chabang and fill out forms to register in order to get it. He said it was pretty easy but surprised he had to do it for a cane. It is considered a medical device so I would imagine you’d have to do the same thing.