Buying Books From Amazon

[a1falang]

Hello, I'm looking to order some English-language books about Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS from Amazon for personal use, which are either not available in Thailand or horrifically priced at the local bookstore. If I buy from Amazon, are Customs going to slap on such a high duty that I'll be paying more or less "retail" price? Anyone ever had books shipped here before and would be able to tell me what extra charges are applicable? Alternatively, where's the best place in Bangkok to buy English-language software tutorials that has a wide selection to browse?

Edited February 1, 2005 by a1falang

[Sunny Valentine]

I had a Sony Vaio (older model) until a Year ago. It was allright, but I considered it not too great for the price. Had some Problems with Configuaration, and the Sony Helpline did suck big time.

I have a Dell Latitude right now, probably with higher Specs than you're looking at; and have to say this is the best Windows machine I had so far.

Bought it back in Europe last May, and took it to Thailand with me. Have bought an international 3 Year warranty, and had to call Dell Thailand about a Software (driver) problem once. Received good help.

I don't know anything about the Vaio model you're looking at, but I'd say: Go for the Dell!

Sunny

Edited February 2, 2005 by Sunny Valentine

[LadyinRed]

I had a Sony Vaio (older model) until a Year ago. It was allright, but I considered it not too great for the price. Had some Problems with Configuaration, and the Sony Helpline did suck big time.

I have a Dell Latitude right now, probably with higher Specs than you're looking at; and have to say this is the best Windows machine I had so far.

Bought it back in Europe last May, and took it to Thailand with me. Have bought an international 3 Year warranty, and had to call Dell Thailand about a Software (driver) problem once. Received good help.

I don't know anything about the Vaio model you're looking at, but I'd say: Go for the Dell!

Sunny

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I lost you totally Sunny V.

a1falang: buying from Amazon is fine. Don't forget you have to pay shipping on top so the price may end up the same as buying here. If the postman rings and you answer then there is no duty charges (or so far I haven't paid any). If you are not home they leave a note asking you to go to the post office to collect it.

You may want to try ordering from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur there are tons of online book shops you need to google it.

Good luck.

[Storekeeper]

Good luck with Amazon. They provide great service and expeditious delivery, but...my credit card has been compromised both times I used Amazon on-line.

[LadyinRed]

but...my credit card has been compromised both times I used Amazon on-line.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How do you know your card was compromised because of Amazon purchases?

[Crushdepth]

Hello, I'm looking to order some English-language books about Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS from Amazon for personal use, which are either not available in Thailand

I recommend the Adobe Photoshop Bible by Deke McClelland (the CS version is a white hard cover book, I think its around 1,800 baht but the memory is a bit rusty). It is excellent - easily the best IT book I've come across - and written in an amusing style that is actually enjoyable to read. You can get it from Se-ed or the IT Bookhouse (the small one) in Fortune IT Mall.

As for importing, don't bother. Thai customs is possibly the most corrupt part of the government. They impound everything then call you and ask you to come in and pay various 'duties'. Its really not worth the effort. My workplace (an international org) has tax-free status, but do you think they care ? No, they just impound it anyway.

Once the Australian government sent us a single poster to display at a conference. The Customs's asking price to release it ? $ 600 dollars. We got it back without paying, but only after getting the Oz government to write an official letter of protest, and dragging embassy staff out to harangue them. We have many horror stories like these ranging from brochures to temperature-sensitive scientific samples. Basically, Customs Are Scum, and a major impediment to trade and economic development in Thailand. Why they haven't been cleaned out, I'll never know.

Edited February 2, 2005 by Crushdepth

[Shola]

Good luck with Amazon. They provide great service and expeditious delivery, but...my credit card has been compromised both times I used Amazon on-line.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In what way? I recently borrowed a credit card for use on Amazon so details please?

[a1falang]

Thank you to everyone for input.

Yes, Crushdepth, after browsing all the Amazon reviews, I decided if there was ONE book to get, it would be Adobe Photoshop Bible by Deke McClelland. I have a friend in Singapore who's coming up in a week or so, so I'm going to ask him to buy some books including this title locally and bring them up. I should be able to avoid shipping, customs and VAT that way.

Regarding duties, yes, I had a run-in with DHL about the ludicrous duties they said I had to pay for a gift my mother sent me. I explained the items were *presents* for *Christmas*, as clearly indicated on the form, and if they wanted me to pay the ridiculous amount I was asked, I'd just return the gifts and DHL would lose, since it would cost me less to buy at local Thai prices what my mother sent than they wanted in duties!

Sorry to hear about your credit card fraud, Storekeeper, although, like LadyinRed, I'd like to know more. It might not have been Amazon's fault. If you bought online at an internet cafe in Bangkok, or some other unsecured computer, then maybe there was a "keylogger" installed on the PC you used which recorded your credit card number when you completed Amazon's order form online.

Sunny Valentine, um, thanks for trying to help.

[Sunny Valentine]

Well, sorry to all for the confusion about my post.

I use Firefox, and for some reasons I still cannot figure out, this forum locks me out (unregisters me) ever so often. Some days all works fine, and some others I have to relogin over and over again.

Exactly this happened earlier today. I posted an answer on another thread, and after four or five errors I got it posted.

Then wanted to answer here, and got locked out again, and again and again.

Finally I made it, but had the wrong text (from my post before) cut and pasted.

Then I wanted to try to edit the post; it did not let me. Got logged out again multiple times.

After some while I just gave up ...... Now it seems to work again.

My Original post here was meant to read like this:

I recently (1 or 2 month ago) received a total of 6 Books (valued 120€ or 6000 Bt) from Amazon Germany.

No customs chrged, and it took about 10 Days from the date Amazon confirmed the shipment until arrival at my house in Pattaya.

Sunny

[a1falang]

I recently (1 or 2 month ago) received a total of 6 Books (valued 120€ or 6000 Bt) from Amazon Germany.

No customs chrged, and it took about 10 Days from the date Amazon confirmed the shipment until arrival at my house in Pattaya.

Sunny

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting, Sunny Valentine. Danke schon. Tell me, were the books in German or in English, as I'm wondering whether maybe duties are charged on English-language books only, whereas there might be very little demand in Thailand for books in German, and hence duties don't apply? Also, was the package actually valued at 6000 baht, or was it purposely undervalued, maybe classified as a gift?

[Ajarn]

but...my credit card has been compromised both times I used Amazon on-line.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How do you know your card was compromised because of Amazon purchases?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've been ordering from Amazon on almost a monthly basis over the last three years by credit card without ever having a problem. Amazon also has a fraud guarantee in case your card really is compromised because of your order... "Credit card security is guaranteed" on their site....

[camerata]

There's no customs duty or VAT on books coming into Thailand as long as the package contains ONLY books. If the package contains dvds as well, you may get taxed on the whole lot.

There seems to be a 7 baht fee (kha thamniam) if the package can't fit through a letterbox.

I've been ordering stuff from Amazon since it started and never had problems with fraud.

[aaaaaa]

There's no customs duty or VAT on books coming into Thailand as long as the package contains ONLY books. If the package contains dvds as well, you may get taxed on the whole lot.

There seems to be a 7 baht fee (kha thamniam) if the package can't fit through a letterbox.

I've been ordering stuff from Amazon since it started and never had problems with fraud.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think you are right. it should be send as book or printed material. I was made to pay 172 Baht tax for book send by friend few weeks ago - coz it was packed differently and wasn't specified that it was a book

[joebuzzard]

Have ordered nothing but CDs and DVDs from Amazon in US. No extra duties, though shipping is pretty expensive. Could have gotten another couple of titles for the cost of regular air mail shipping. Ordered my last batch of stuff during the Christmas rush and seemed to take forever. Will avoid doing that in the future.

[Storekeeper]

Good luck with Amazon. They provide great service and expeditious delivery, but...my credit card has been compromised both times I used Amazon on-line.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In what way? I recently borrowed a credit card for use on Amazon so details please?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I only have one credit card and only use it about 3-4 times per year. Both times my card was compromised my Credit Union traced it to my use of Amazon. I have no idea how they accomplished this but both times I ordered books on Amazon I hadn't used my card previously for several months. I will tell you that both times the compromised purchases were being made in Seattle and London.

Both times the purchases were for high priced electronics and fashion wear also. I was amazed both times that my Credit Union picked up on this and notified me before I even knew it was happening. I feel lucky because both times I never had to pay a cent. Just close the account and re-start a new one.

Add-on: I placed both orders using computers onboard US Naval vessels.

Edited February 3, 2005 by Storekeeper

[buadhai]

I think your credit card problem must be an isolated incident and I doubt it has anything to do with Amazon. I have been ordering from them via credit card since they first opened and have never had any problem. If there were a widespread problem with Amazon and credit cards it surely would have been reported elsewhere.

I think Amazon does an excellent job of protecting on-line privacy. If they didn't they would have gone out of business quickly. Instead they are one of the world's leading on-line retailers.

[Tattytam]

I have ordered many books and a couple of videos, not dvds, from Amazon. I have never had a problem with my credit card and have never been charged tax.

I also have had many parcels from home with gifts for my son and myself and again have had no problems.

I am in Samui, maybe it depends whereabouts in the country you are?

The biggest problem I have had is the postman not knowing where my house is!! It's a new house - not built by me - and no-one informed the post-office of the new address!!

[Storekeeper]

I think your credit card problem must be an isolated incident and I doubt it has anything to do with Amazon. I have been ordering from them via credit card since they first opened and have never had any problem. If there were a widespread problem with Amazon and credit cards it surely would have been reported elsewhere.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're probably right and I would never claim to be an internet expert. I've recently ordered books a couple of time from a university bookstore...and so far, so good

[Sunny Valentine]

I recently (1 or 2 month ago) received a total of 6 Books (valued 120€ or 6000 Bt) from Amazon Germany.

No customs chrged, and it took about 10 Days from the date Amazon confirmed the shipment until arrival at my house in Pattaya.

Sunny

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting, Sunny Valentine. Danke schon. Tell me, were the books in German or in English, as I'm wondering whether maybe duties are charged on English-language books only, whereas there might be very little demand in Thailand for books in German, and hence duties don't apply? Also, was the package actually valued at 6000 baht, or was it purposely undervalued, maybe classified as a gift?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Books were 3 German, 1 English, 1 English - German Dictionary.

The Package was valued at 6000 Bt (stated in Euro) including shipment charges.

Hope this helps!

Sunny

[bkk_mike]

Since it's computer books you're after are you absolutely certain you can't get them in Thailand.

It's just the computer bookshop in Pantip has a pretty reasonable collection and they're mostly the South Asia editions, so are cheaper than buying them in the UK. (Although the UK isn't a cheap place to buy anything).

[Harmonica]

Hello, I'm looking to order some English-language books about Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS from Amazon for personal use, which are either not available in Thailand or horrifically priced at the local bookstore. If I buy from Amazon, are Customs going to slap on such a high duty that I'll be paying more or less "retail" price? Anyone ever had books shipped here before and would be able to tell me what extra charges are applicable? Alternatively, where's the best place in Bangkok to buy English-language software tutorials that has a wide selection to browse?

Photshop, Pagemaker, Illustrator (?) -- perhaps Quarkexpress too (although not sure on these 2) study books are called "Classroom in a book" -- book+CD .... outstanding stuff.

Deke McClelland should be read AFTER the Classroom series.

NO custom charges on books to LOS -- absolutely zip.

Amazon is on the ball -- fraud? rare if at all!

If you've got some extra moolah, contact Mac Academy (in Florida) and have them ship out the Photoshop video series -- used to be 10 videos from Beginner to Advanced @ $50/each -- haven't kept in touch but everything is probably available on DVD now.

Ditto for Pagemaker, CorelDraw, Quarkexpress, Illustrator etc.

[jerry921]

Add-on: I placed both orders using computers onboard US Naval vessels.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aha! It's Bush's fault!!

j/k

But seriously, that could still mean it's due to doing it on a public/shared computer.

I don't have any hesitation to order from Amazon and have never had a problem, but I'd never order anything using a shared computer.

[a1falang]

Since it's computer books you're after are you absolutely certain you can't get them in Thailand.

It's just the computer bookshop in Pantip has a pretty reasonable collection and they're mostly the South Asia editions, so are cheaper than buying them in the UK. (Although the UK isn't a cheap place to buy anything).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, after my friend brought from Singapore, I compared the prices and they weren't that much different, not really worth the extra effort. Where I went, all the books on display were sealed, so I couldn't browse any others I found interesting, which seemed a bit stupid.

I did recently find an old CD in the office of various "Bible" software guides (e.g. The Adobe Photoshop 6.0 Bible), which presumably contains the entire contents of the book using OCR to convert to text after someone scans the pages manually. Are these CDs still produced?

Edited February 9, 2005 by a1falang

[Phil Conners]

Anyone tried ordering electronic gadgets in Amazon? I just tried ordering a Creative Zen Micro - it's not available in Thailand, and judging by the price of what /is/ available here it would probably be at least 40% more expensive - but the Amazon website says they don't ship to Thailand.

Any alternative ideas? Could it perhaps be ordered from S'pore or Hong Kong? Would they slap import duties on it (I'm not a resident... yet).

Maybe the easiest would be having someone going to Thailand on holidays bring one