Sending Laptop To Thailand (for College)

[heartinhands]

Hello All! Long time no talk! Hope you are all well!

Im continuing my studies in Thailand and want to have my sisters laptop sent to me. I don't have the money to purchase a Laptop and will have just enough for living expenses and cost of tuition, otherwise I'd buy one myself.

Its around 2.2kilos, I think, so kind of heavy. Im looking for info on the most affordable, and safest way to ship the laptop. It will be sent from the east coast of America to Pathumthani Thailand, and will be used for my classes here at Rangsit University. Are there any taxes involved with this even though it is a second-hand laptop?

Any help or information would be appreciated!

Thank you kindly!

feel free to email me at: shane.ernest(@)gmail.com

just remove the parentheses! ;-)

with Love and Gratitude

shane

[heartinhands]

someone must have some shipping knowledge! =)

bump bump, keeping it to the top!

[GungaDin]

UPS or Fedex, expensive but safe, insure it as well. no other choices really.

[Crossy]

UPS or Fedex, expensive but safe, insure it as well. no other choices really.

Be aware that using any of the courier services will almost certainly land you with extras for duty, tax, VAT, storage, delivery and 'additional fees'.

Make sure the contact number given to the courier has a Thai speaker available to give directions, delivery chaps always fail to find our place despite it being the tallest building for miles

Unfortunately I can't see any alternative that is likely to arrive unless some kind TV member happens to be coming the same way

[heartinhands]

Thanks for the replies! I was worried that fedex and the like would be the only options, koht paang luy! but cheaper than buying a laptop.

my main concern is the duties and taxes. its a used laptop that will be for education purposes, so I was hoping that any fees would be waived. . . I asked my school and they didnt know. Im going to visit the post office and see if they can help at all too. .

I was looking into seeing if someone was traveling this way and wouldnt mind lugging the laptop with them, but a. i only know of some new students at our international college that will arrive in early september, and 2. i don't really trust them as I dont know any of them . .

if anyone else has any ideas, or knows about the VAT and such even on secondhand/school items, please let me know! =)

thanks again everyone!

[heartinhands]

I found that it is cheaper to send through USPS, only 50 dollars us, approximately, not counting fuel surcharge.

Any cons to using the USPS instead of a private carrier?

[tangcoral]

I found that it is cheaper to send through USPS, only 50 dollars us, approximately, not counting fuel surcharge.

Any cons to using the USPS instead of a private carrier?

We used DHL and yes DHL fedex and UPS are all pretty safe especially with the insurance option.

However I declared it as $1500 cause my Dell laptop was 2 month old.

Costed me about $70 to ship but...

It got stuck at customs for week and half with a customs value tax of $120 which I paid to have it released.

They sorta kinda like to add tax on electronics stuff...or maybe my customs agent was having a bad day...

In any event do not be shocked if they add a certain percentage of customs tax to to your declared value. Hopefully you declared value is as low a you can write considering you do want to value it as high as you can for insurance purposes.

Hopefully that made sense

And I have shipped at least 17 times through USPS and havent lost a thing or even a taxed upon entry maybe cause the stuff i shipped I declared at $50 or less.

Didnt want to take a chance with Laptop but I am sure it wont get lost....BUT thats up to your own risk.

Edited August 23, 2008 by tangcoral