Iphone 3gs For Foreigner Through Truemove.?

[thaiphone]

I am landing in thailand during my transit to india.I have 9 hrs before my next flight.I want to buy iphone 3gs officially unlocked phone from truemove.So can you let me know if a foreigner like me can buy directly from truemove shops?And also let me know if there are any truemove shops in suvarnabhumi airport and whether they are selling iphones there? How much would the cost be in airport? Can i get duty free on the same?

[Nio]

Take a taxi from Suvarnabhumi Airport to the Fashion Island mall in Minburi. Have the taxi use the motorway and it is about 20 minutes or less

Fashion Island is a large mall and you can buy the IPHONE unlocked 3G anywhere there and test it to see it works etc.

Stick with a reputatable store, not a kiosk!

Easy to get back to the Airport from the mall in Minburi.

[moonoi]

Agree with Nio, both TrueMove and DTAC have shops at Fashion Island on the 2nd floor and 3rd floor respectively where you can purchase an unlocked iPhone, avoid the kiosks as most of them sell jailbroken iPhones for more than the cost of a legit one!

[richardt1808]

Hi,

First question is WHY you would want to buy your iPhone in Thailand. The duties and mark-up here makes this one of the most expensive places on the planet to buy an iPhone.

Anyway, you may have some special reason for doing it this way, but you may have a problem buying the phone as a stand-alone item. Normally it is sold together with a True Move airtime agreement; and for this you will need proof of a local residential address. I may be wrong on this point though, but have not heard of anyone else ever wanting to do it this way round. Normally folks bring in the phone purchased elsewhere and then need to look for a local Sim card.

[thaiphone]

Hi,

First question is WHY you would want to buy your iPhone in Thailand. The duties and mark-up here makes this one of the most expensive places on the planet to buy an iPhone.

Anyway, you may have some special reason for doing it this way, but you may have a problem buying the phone as a stand-alone item. Normally it is sold together with a True Move airtime agreement; and for this you will need proof of a local residential address. I may be wrong on this point though, but have not heard of anyone else ever wanting to do it this way round. Normally folks bring in the phone purchased elsewhere and then need to look for a local Sim card.

I am planning to buy in thailand because it is factory unlocked and not attached to any carrier unlike in india,where it is completely locked to carrier.

[moonoi]

No you don't need to buy a contract, you actually get a discount with True or DTAC if you do....my wife bought one for work for application testing, so needed a proper non-jailbroken one and bonus is you get a warranty too!!!

[thaiphone]

No you don't need to buy a contract, you actually get a discount with True or DTAC if you do....my wife bought one for work for application testing, so needed a proper non-jailbroken one and bonus is you get a warranty too!!!

moonoi and noi,Thank you very much for the exact directions, can you also let me know what would be the exact price after all the vat.

[Big Guy]

do a net search on true as the prices are there it is something like 27000bt, which going by australian prices is pretty reasonable

[TheLaughingMan]

Hi,

First question is WHY you would want to buy your iPhone in Thailand. The duties and mark-up here makes this one of the most expensive places on the planet to buy an iPhone.

Anyway, you may have some special reason for doing it this way, but you may have a problem buying the phone as a stand-alone item. Normally it is sold together with a True Move airtime agreement; and for this you will need proof of a local residential address. I may be wrong on this point though, but have not heard of anyone else ever wanting to do it this way round. Normally folks bring in the phone purchased elsewhere and then need to look for a local Sim card.

Not trying to be rude but you dont know what you are talking about. It is quite common to buy the iphone from true a la carte, everyone I know has done this. Also, the price of the iphone is fairly standard and actually cheaper here than some countries.

Edited April 26, 2010 by TheLaughingMan

[thaiphone]

Thanks for everyone who has given such amount of information which made me feel safe to buy the iphone in bangkok.

I have one more query, since there are some tensions going on in bangkok now, is it safe to take a transit visa go out and buy iphone?

I came to know through truemove website that there is an truemove shop in concourse A of the airport, i want to check if anyone knows whether they sell iphones there...?

[richardt1808]

Hi,

First question is WHY you would want to buy your iPhone in Thailand. The duties and mark-up here makes this one of the most expensive places on the planet to buy an iPhone.

Anyway, you may have some special reason for doing it this way, but you may have a problem buying the phone as a stand-alone item. Normally it is sold together with a True Move airtime agreement; and for this you will need proof of a local residential address. I may be wrong on this point though, but have not heard of anyone else ever wanting to do it this way round. Normally folks bring in the phone purchased elsewhere and then need to look for a local Sim card.

Not trying to be rude but you dont know what you are talking about. It is quite common to buy the iphone from true a la carte, everyone I know has done this. Also, the price of the iphone is fairly standard and actually cheaper here than some countries.

Hi,

Actually, I do know a little bit about the subject since my partner is a manager at a True Move outlet. There is the official policy, and also the one which dealers prefer to follow. The latter, whereby the phone is sold with an airtime agreement obviously earns them more revenue so they normally try to push for it. As regards the price, I was in Singapore in February and did a comparison there on similar models and found a very large difference in price. There is indeed a world-wide price average, but the retail price in countries can vary vastly, depending on the duties, taxes and mark-ups applied.

It's nice to know that you hold True in such high regard, but I would definitely prefer to be transiting in someplace other than Bangkok for this particular purchase.

[Blake7]

Hi Richard,

Do you know if it is possible to get an Iphone with a PAYG contract? As I understand it to get a regular contract one needs a WP (which I dont have)?

[Griizley]

You can always contact their customer support here using the LIVE chat option.

http://www.truemove.com/iphone/eng/support.htm

Cheers!

[TBWG]

Hi Richard,

Do you know if it is possible to get an Iphone with a PAYG contract? As I understand it to get a regular contract one needs a WP (which I dont have)?

Hi

I have purchased an Iphone from a True outlet store in Thailand, I paid full price to be sure of getting a Pukka factory unlocked phone on a PAYG tariff of my choice.. I paid 24,000 baht plus tax 7% which you could avoid if buying airside.

I know deals are available at lot less price but with punitive contracts, for myself I rather pay up front and then please myself on tariff. I do not have a WP all they required was a copy of my passport.

FYI Truemove are not part of the tourist tax refund scheme so no chance of recovering the tax, I know I tried and failed.

TBWG