Shipping From Chiang Mai To Australia

[thailanddoula]

Does anyone have any good advice for shipping personal goods from Chiang Mai to Brisbane, Australia? I have heard some horror stories of money not being forwarded to agents and having to pay huge amounts to get goods from the wharf in the destination country. Has anyone had a good experience shipping door to door from CM to Australia, and can recommend a good shipping company?

Much appreciated.

[Chuckler]

When we moved from CM to Australia, it ended up costing far more than it was worth. My only recommendation is to not do it, unless you've got serious furniture here. Like teak tables and stuff.

My experience was that we shipped around 1 cubic metre of personal effects. It cost 14,000 baht. In our case, the weight didn't seem to matter, presumably they use the industry standard of 250kg/m^3. When it arrived in Australia, we started getting charged "dock storage" from the moment it was unloaded, even though it wasn't customs-cleared yet. We hired an Australian customs agent and had it all cleared for around AU$1000.

Then they attempted to deliver the box, but since it's a house we didn't have a forklift. So it was returned to the freight company, and we had to hire a forklift and pay redelivery.

So in a nutshell .... it costs more at every single turn. I don't believe that the Australian customs clearance is the responsibility of the sending freight company. You need a freight/customs agent hired on both sides.

I would think very carefully about whether the gear your transporting can be replaced new for a similar cost, and consider that as the best option.

[CMwanderer]

I am in the exact same situation at the moment so have been trying to research on this. I am happy to share what we find as we go. We contacted an Australian agent and while each may differ, they explained that we get 5 days free storage, excluding weekends. There is a fee for transporting the goods from the airport to the warehouse $82, then you have to be there for customs and if they want to inspect your stuff its $102 and goes from there as to what customs need to charge you after that. Then its your problem to get it to your house.

We also found that Thai Air Cargo has a good rate for freight.

Our problem at the moment is sourcing packaging for our goods and sorting out insurance.

I hope we are going down the right track with all this.