How Am I Supposed To Order Things Online From Thailand?

[meatballs]

I am trying to buy some stuff online and it is a nightmare. Every time I purchase something it says it is fraud. How do other expats manage this? I have tried using a proxy but sometimes the fraud screen will detect if it is a corporate type proxy. I have to request each site to stop blocking my order as it is NOT fraudulent. Sometimes they just ignore me as if I am some credit card fraudster. It is all very frustrating!!

[manarak]

try to contact the stores before you order

[davejones]

I use boxpn and connect to UK server, as that's where my credit card is. I've ordered lots of things and the only time I have a problem is if I enter my card details when connected to Thai ISP. But even that works most of the time. But who is rejecting the orders - the company, or is your card being rejected. If your card is being rejected, talk to the card company and they can lift the block on individual retailers. Have you told them you're in Thailand? If not, then tell them.

But some retailers won't send to Thailand, so not much you can do about that. Amazon will send their products here, third party sellers on Amazon don't send here. I assume those are Amazon rules.

Edited January 19, 2013 by davejones

[ETatBKK]

some online shops check your IP location and match it with your credit card issue country, then they desired what to do.

for years I had problem of purchasing Norton 360 from home country Norton website, just managed since 2 years ago. some other websites are more flexible.

[monty]

I have ordered loads of stuff online here in Thailand (from sellers abroad).

Get yourself a Thai bank account, a Thai Visa Electron card (Bangkok Bank Be1st card does just fine), open a Thai Paypal account and go through the verification procedure and your pretty much set for buying anything online you wish.

The key mainly is that most sellers only want to ship to the address your card is registered at.

With the Bangkok bank Be1st card you can also register for the Verified By Visa system (where Bkk bank sends a one time password to your phone), with that one active I have yet to come by an online seller not accepting the card...

All the above perfectly doable for foreigners just on a tourist visa. With Bkk bank you need to get upgraded to "residence" status if you wish to use their internet banking. Non immigrant visa of any type or work permit should do the trick there.

No experience with other Thai banks, but from reports Kasikorn also seems to be perfectly usable, through their internet banking system and their virtual online shopping card.

You cannot really blame the online merchants, there is simply too much fraud going on, they really have to be very careful or they're out of business in no time!

[tommyuk77]

anyone order supplement from other country?need to pay tax ?

[wpcoe]

The standard strategy to avoid customs duties (plus VAT tax on top of that) is to use the regular postal system, e.g. the USPS from the US. Apparently the couriers like FedEx and UPS are required to route all inbound international shipments via Thai Customs, whereas inbound postal shipments are not. Some inbound international postal shipments do get routed to Thai Customs, but anectodal reports across various internet forums indicate it's very few of them. I believe it helps to make the inbound shipment look as innocuous as possible: "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down," as they say in Japan.

For US purchases, there are established intermediary shippers like Shipito which specialize in overseas shipments and you can specify method of shipment -- such as various USPS options -- and even consolidate shipments from different merchants into one shipment to Thailand.

I did a bit of research and even set up a Shipito account when I was preparing to build my current computer system, but ended up finding most components locally (in Thailand) at a comparable cost and on a trip to the USA picked up the rest.