Advice On Sea Freight - Istanbul To Phuket

Hello,

I've read through the forums on shipping household items to Thailand to realize I'm about to enter a world of pain. We are shipping around 7 m3 of household items - some appliances, used furniture, clothes, baby books and toys, etc. - from Istanbul to Phuket. They are charging us about $1700 for the shipment, which I think is reasonable and I haven't found a better deal.

However, the Turkish company will only ship to Laem Chabang and we have to take it from there. I'll probably rent a truck and a driver to help me load the items. But this all seems too simple and I wanted to ask some advice on the best way to ship the stuff to Phuket. Can I just walk up to the customs office without any kind of license and collect our stuff? What are some tips on avoiding outrageous duties on used household items?

Alternatively, we'd be open to working through a Thai company to pick up our items and deliver to our door in Bangtao. If anyone has suggestions on reasonable companies, please let me know.

Thanks,

Corey