pattayasnowman Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 (edited) For those of you not aware of this, if you have something shipped to you with Fed Ex or UPS you will pay customs duty Not only on the value of the Goods but also the shipping Charges. So if something costs you $50.00 and the shipping with Fed Ex is $30.00 your Friendly Thai customs will access you duty on a combined value of $80..00 !!! Apparently ,This is the customs law and it applies only to this type of courier service and NOT to the postal service Thus, if you ship using the postal service ie USPS, or SingPoost etc, This will not happen . Your assessment will be on the Value of the Goods only.. When you combine this with the appalling service you get with Fed Ex (my experience) then my advice is to avoid shipping with them untill the customs law is changed Edited June 20, 2011 by pattayasnowman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crossy Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Being charged duty on the CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) value is pretty standard the world over (probably even in your home country), like it or not. Yes indeed, if you go with a postal service then the charge will be nearer cost only as the freight cost is significantly lower, many if not most parcels get through with no charge at all. Agree, avoid the couriers as you cannot avoid the charges Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ang Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Get a company who care for their customers. This BIG ones don´t care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
citizen33 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 OP is quite correct. Last time my secretary made the mistake of shipping a small (and used) electronic item to me from the UK by DHL with an inflated estimate of value (she thought for insurance purposes) the customs claim was about five times the new cost of the item - so I left it where it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yaaklenmai Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 (edited) UPS is the company that informed me that when they are shipping documents they open them to "see what is inside"! Not Thai customs - UPS!! (and we all know what that means in Thailand). Also, if they find a passport that they will NOT send it to the addressee but either return to sender or forward to the nearest Embassy! They are a joke!!!!!!!!! Edited June 20, 2011 by Yaaklenmai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MTH Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Sorry to say, but that’s not true. If the postal service apply custom charges to a letter or package, they will do it on the total of the declared value and the postage. At least this has been the norm for every package that I have picked up at the post office with a duty on it. Granted that it won’t be nearly as much as it is for UPS or FedEx, as their shipping charges are substantially higher than regular postage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inthepink Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 I recently had some nutritonal supplements sent via one of the big courier firms and the amount of duty I paid on them was significantly less than it should have been (going by the value of the goods only) when I checked on the Thai government website for the appropriate rates, so the OP's experience is not shared by everyone (well, not by me at least) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farang000999 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 thai gov is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thanyaburi Mac Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 I've found FedEx to be fine for documents, delivered right to my door. But, agree, I'd not use them for hard goods. Re USPS, there's a "Priority Mail International" service that they have that's quite good. Especially the "Flat Rate Envelope," magazine sized, everything you can stuff in it up to four pounds for $13.95, comes airmail. Can stuff a few smallish hard goods in between magazines. I used to get meds this way from the U.S. but stopped after I found a decently priced option here. Did have one package held up at Thai Postal Customs down near Hua Lamphong, got it out for about baht 200. http://www.usps.com/prices/priority-mail-international-prices.htm Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 This seems this is a thread about evading customs charges and I anticipate it being closed shortly; I'm sure most of us would pop round our local exciseman if the Thai Post were to overlook our package and forget to pass it to the excisemen for levying. I expect that the reason Thai Post are slightly more lax about this than the courier companies is that they feel that they are unlikely to lose their license to do business, regardless of how poor is their legal compliance, and perhaps they believe that they enjoy crown immunity. SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTumTiger Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Always ship using the regular postal service of your country. Always mark the contents vaguely, and don't overestimate the cost. "Religious Materials" always works great - no one wants to screw with another person's deity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h90 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 OP is quite correct. Last time my secretary made the mistake of shipping a small (and used) electronic item to me from the UK by DHL with an inflated estimate of value (she thought for insurance purposes) the customs claim was about five times the new cost of the item - so I left it where it was. And without the proper customs tariff number, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiPauly Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 If FedX and UPS merged as one company I suppose they could call themselves FED-UP like thier customers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tfc Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I dunno how FedEx Thailand work out the extra charges but I've paid more than the cost of the items + shipping before. As a result I don't use FedEx for Thailand anymore. In Australia however FedEx is great and I never have to pay any extra charges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alantheembalmer Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 The practice of adding all costs onto the customs form, including insurance, is pretty much standard universal practice. When I imported goods into the UK, I used to declare them at Heathrow at the HMRC MIB Section, ("merchadise in baggage", not "men in black", although the latter would have been more approppriate). They first calculated the cost of duty, and then added this onto the total merchandise cost, and then charged me VAT on the total. Now that's a rip-off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarloKnight Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 UPS is the company that informed me that when they are shipping documents they open them to "see what is inside"! Not Thai customs - UPS!! (and we all know what that means in Thailand). Also, if they find a passport that they will NOT send it to the addressee but either return to sender or forward to the nearest Embassy! They are a joke!!!!!!!!! Asked hubby who works for UPS and he said they do not open documents? All parcels are scanned/xrayed and if it is suspect it will be opened due to the fact that a person could be shipping anything, we use UPS to send docuements to Thailand and from Thailand and they have never been opened. Do you mean UPS staff in Thailand open documents? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now