Receiving Mail From Uk, How Best Sent?

[lifemagic]

OK, I'm in Krabi Town for a few weeks. I need to receive a software cd for a course I'm doing. My neice will send it from the UK. I've searched the forum here for advice, which seems to be: avoid Bangkok and avoid couriers.

So I'm going to have it sent to post restante here. There are two ways it can be sent.

1 - Royal Mail 'Airsure' service, 'from 5.98'

2 - International signed for service, Airmail postage plus 4.95.

Is one better than the other? Any issues with post restante here? If it's marked as a 'gift', reckon they'll tax it? It's from Open University, so will likely be a proper printed thing.

[snuggzzz]

Being honest, I've tried Royal Mail, but there is no guarantee of delivery, I've always stuck with DHL that can be tracked including from arrival in Thailand to delivery address......

Edited January 22, 2012 by snuggzzz

[maprao]

DHL FEDEX or EMS

[trainman34014]

In nearly four years I've never had a problem with bog standard Royal Mail service. Thai customs will charge duty based on value so just get the sender to put a value of below about 15 quid and they will not bother with it. Delivery normally 7 to 10 days.

[lifemagic]

Thanks for these replies, though they complicate things. There are a LOT of posts on these forums, that Thai customs target anything couriered. Bog standard might work for me as the disc is of no value.

[sappersrest]

One of the best ways to ensure quick and safe delivery via Royal Mail is to get the address written in Thai ( ie copy and paste a word doc in thai to an email address in the uk). this will make the thai end of the deal painless all you have to do in the UK is make sure THAILAND is in bold letters at the end of the address that will take of the UK end.painless works every time 5-7 days UK to a remote village in Chiang Rai.

[cdnvic]

Being honest, I've tried Royal Mail, but there is no guarantee of delivery, I've always stuck with DHL that can be tracked including from arrival in Thailand to delivery address......

I won't use anything but DHL to send stuff to/from Thailand.

[NanLaew]

The first thing the OP should get his niece to do is burn 2 copies of the CD, check they are readable and keep the original at home.

Then send one-each of the copies via the two methods that he has already researched. Both of these will enter the Thai EMS service on landfall in Thailand. Don't worry with having the address in Thai as Krabi town isn't in the boonies. Just make sure the post code is correct.

When considering couriers, check with them first as some countries do restrict the inclusion of CD's and DVD's. For example I have contractors in Singapore where DHL prohibits the inclusion of CD type media in their bid documents sent by courier to Thailand.

Oh yes, don't declare that it has 'no value' as that is a license for the odd Thai Custom prole to see it differently and make up a ridiculous value. Say it's worth a fiver. You can afford it.

Edited January 24, 2012 by NanLaew

[AyG]

Save time and money by transferring the files electronically.

[NanLaew]

Save time and money by transferring the files electronically.

Possible if the files are small enough; unlikely on a CD. Transferring the CD data as an .iso file would guarantee data integrity on reburn at this end. But one would have to find a reasonably priced 'free' large file transfer service as most email clients won't allow large file attachments.

[Camelot]

The BBC Click Online programme gave details of wetransfer.com this week. It handles up to 2 gb at a time. Seems painless.

[AyG]

Just upload the .iso image of the disk to a free file storage website. (There are dozens to choose from. See http://en.wikipedia....osting_services.) Then give the user name and password to the intended recipient.

Optionally (depending on the nature of the content of the disk) compress the .iso image first.

(Actually, compressing the .iso image will also add a checksum to the file, making it easier to discover if the file has become corrupted during transfer - though this is a pretty remote possibility.)

An alternative approach would be to seed the .iso as a torrent.

A third approach (which is a little more tricky to set up) would be to use FTP to transfer directly between computers.

Edited January 24, 2012 by AyG

[Bpuumike]

Just upload the .iso image of the disk to a free file storage website. (There are dozens to choose from. See http://en.wikipedia....osting_services.) Then give the user name and password to the intended recipient.

Optionally (depending on the nature of the content of the disk) compress the .iso image first.

(Actually, compressing the .iso image will also add a checksum to the file, making it easier to discover if the file has become corrupted during transfer - though this is a pretty remote possibility.)

An alternative approach would be to seed the .iso as a torrent.

A third approach (which is a little more tricky to set up) would be to use FTP to transfer directly between computers.

Have you tried www.dropbox.com I don't know the file size limits but my son sends me entire music CD's that way. Nothing illegal there mods, I sometimes like to have original CD's rather than Suk copies so my son buys them in the UK and for the meantime he sends me the tracks via Dropbox.