Hi there:

A friend of mine, great guy, needs help. Any offer or advise for procedure greatly appreciated:

On a flight from Tampa to Bangkok on Korean Air via Seoul, his new laptop was lost during rushed transfer and security procedures. After 2 weeks we have now located the laptop in the Seoul Airport Police "Lost & Found Section.

Korean Air refuses help, as happened on ground. "Lost & Found" very friendly and supportive, but can only offer their standard international shipper which is VERY expensive and leaves open, how much damage (charge) will happen from Thai customs.

My friend is a pensioner on a limited budget and one of the nicest people I can imagine, this is why I try to help and find some alternative ways.

1) Anybody flying to Bangkok from Korea soon and willing to bring this laptop with him? I offer 100 $ for a nice dinner and be at airport Bangkok to receive.

2) Anybody with any idea how to ship at reasonable fixed cost and pay from here (Thailand)?

Thank you all!

JL.

Try English blog sites that cover that region.

I will be reluctant to fly with Korean Air if it was a transfer from one of their flights to another.

Any more ideas, please!? Any way I can ask/pay DHL to pick it up and send it to Thailand? Thanks. JL.

Sad situation but I think your only option is to ship it in.

I don't think anyone will be too willing to pick it up for a stranger, there's way too many movies about Thai jails featuring such famous lines as "I didn't know the drugs were in there, I was carrying it for someone else".

DHL can arrange a collection but will stick to the formal proceedures for import duty, but it is the declared value that they go on, ie: What you say it is worth. I'm not sure what the going rate would be for a laptop, but I once had my company send me some shirts with my company logo on it and I was stung for 700 baht (30%) import duty by the DHL man.

I think the most likely import duty would be 7% of what you declare on the commercial shipping invoice, payable on receipt (someone here is bound to know for sure).

Thank you kindly. JL.

Sad situation but I think your only option is to ship it in.

I don't think anyone will be too willing to pick it up for a stranger, there's way too many movies about Thai jails featuring such famous lines as "I didn't know the drugs were in there, I was carrying it for someone else".

DHL can arrange a collection but will stick to the formal proceedures for import duty, but it is the declared value that they go on, ie: What you say it is worth. I'm not sure what the going rate would be for a laptop, but I once had my company send me some shirts with my company logo on it and I was stung for 700 baht (30%) import duty by the DHL man.

I think the most likely import duty would be 7% of what you declare on the commercial shipping invoice, payable on receipt (someone here is bound to know for sure).