Relocating Advice-moving

[JohnRichard]

When we relocate to CM ,from the USA, sometime late next year we are planning on bringing mostly personal and small household items. Moving companies we've contacted here have quoted two prices for a 200-300 cuft container. One price is for door to door delivery and the other about $700-800 less for door to port (Bangkok). Realize would have to get small truck/van to get the stuff out of Bangkok, but would savings be worth the hassle? -If you have any experience/ideas would like to have them-thanks- JOHN

[Ajarn]

Everybody I know who has gone to the Bkk Port to get their stuff has always regreted it... So many 'paperwork' hassles at Customs, and you end up paying so much more for 'sevices'...

I would recommend the door to door option...

[jomama]

Everybody I know who has gone to the Bkk Port to get their stuff has always regreted it...  So many 'paperwork' hassles at Customs, and you end up paying so much more for 'sevices'...

I would recommend the door to door option...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with Ajarn. My wife is working in shipping and the companies all have "connections" at customs. In fact it's cheaper to use "connections" than to do everything on the up-and-up. You don't want to get caught with special "handling" or "storage" charges.

[earlofwindermere]

I have relatives moving into the country as well. Make sure to look into the rules about paying duty. Apparently, if you don't have a work permit when the container arrives, you have to pay duty on all your items. However; I'm no expert and I suggest reading the posts on this and other threads.

So, if the door-to-door includes all the duty fees, I would likely choose it over the door-to-port option.

Edited December 10, 2005 by earlofwindermere

[stateman]

curious to know the quoted rate for both services. :-)

[Steve2UK]

Based on my researches/chatting to people who have already made the move, I definitely echo what others have already said - do anything you can to keep yourself out of the clutches of the BKK port customs "set-up".

I'm also planning to ship smaller household/personal stuff to CM (from London, UK). It seems like doing it as separate boxes works out way too expensive, so I'm reckoning to use a small (20ft) container - which I think is the capacity you're looking at - even though I'll no way fill it. But - on the experience/recommendation of another forum member, I'm aiming to load the container myself and use a UK shipper just to send the container to BKK, where it will be received by a CM shipping agent for clearance through BKK customs and transporting to Chiang Mai.

I went to see the CM agent last week and met the main guy; he speaks pretty good English and is also helped by his lady assistant who speaks English better. It's a sizable operation (he also handles a lot of CM exports) and he plainly knows all the "wrinkles"; for instance, he advised me not to declare a total contents value for that size of container of less than 100,000 baht (otherwise customs will want to open it check the contents to make their own "assessment"); in my case (no work permit etc), I'm looking at about 20% "duty" payment on the content value. The CM agent will advise me how much detail to put on the paperwork (even re-writing it if I inadvertently mention something that might attract undue attention/payment e.g. Japanese electronics).

PM me for the contact details if that idea sounds interesting.

[The Dan Sai Kid]

A Thai company called Santa Fe shipped our handled the Thai side of our move. They were very proffesional, even the delivery driver spoke excellent English. I haven't got their card, but they're based in Klong Toey - you can probably google them up.

They weren't cheap, but if you want all your stuff broken before you get it you can probably find somewhere cheaper.

Oh, also I don'tknow your marriage situation, but if you have a Thai wife who has been resident abroad for more than one year you can get one sea shipment duty-free.

Don't listen to people who say you should sell stuff and buy again in Thailand. Anything decent in LOS will cost. Eg. I brought over a cappucino machine - cost in UK 5000 baht, cost in LOS 15,000 baht. And that just makes every cup of coffee taste a little bit better...

Edited December 12, 2005 by Grant

[JohnRichard]

Thanks for all the great advice- the fact that it was totally consistent was reassuring. The question was asked about costs. Here is a brief breakdown on what we are doing and the initial quotes we got from some of the services:

Relocating: From Pittsburgh, PA to Chiang Mai

Services: We will be packaging the items ourselves and will be packing the container. The companies will deliver the container to our home and pick it up

when we request.

Shipping: The company will handle all the paperwork for customs on both ends.

It will be delivered to location we desire. The time involved is 5-7 weeks. We of course would be responsible for duties that might be required.

Cost: The door to door delivery on a container of 200 cuft.- we estimate that we could pack 50-60 plastic storage bins (very popular and cheap here in the USA)

in that space- Won't be moving any appliances or furniture only personal items

and odd household items. Cost for this size was quoted by several sources at around $2500 US- the door to port cost was around $1800 US. Another service offered 300 cuft. at $3000 for door to door.

Hope that this info. is useful. JOHN

[just_Elaine]

Don't forget that electricity here is 220 volts 50 hertz (actually anywhere between 0 and 250 volts according to my husband). So be sure to check personal appliances like hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, shavers to make sure that they are compatible.

Elaine