Shipping square meter US to Thailand, any advice

[luther]

I want to ship about 10 pounds or 4 kilos from the east coast of the US to Chiang Mai.

Anyone out there done that in the last 2 or 3 years?

[Dante99]

cubic meter??? if so 4 kilos is light. You can look up US postal rates online and see prices for the different levels of international services.

[HAL9000]

Sea Shipping Lines quoted me $150 per cubic meter plus $75 documentation fee.

[TobiasML]

Can you provide a few more information regarding the size. Is it commercial or private goods? As long as it is within the size limit of the USPS I would use them. For the use of freight forwarders you will need to consider not only shipping costs and documentation fees but as well customs declaration, b/l fee, to name only a few. Further you require an import license for Thailand if commercial. If private you are in need of a work permit. Not sure if it is possible with a retirement visa.

Recommendation would be US Postal otherwise DHL, FedEx or UPS. With all of them you have to door service. Please be aware that there might be charges applying if customs decide to check your package.

[hellodolly]

Can you provide a few more information regarding the size. Is it commercial or private goods? As long as it is within the size limit of the USPS I would use them. For the use of freight forwarders you will need to consider not only shipping costs and documentation fees but as well customs declaration, b/l fee, to name only a few. Further you require an import license for Thailand if commercial. If private you are in need of a work permit. Not sure if it is possible with a retirement visa.

Recommendation would be US Postal otherwise DHL, FedEx or UPS. With all of them you have to door service. Please be aware that there might be charges applying if customs decide to check your package.

I know for a fact with Fed X there is no if. They will send them to customs. I can not see any other way for UPS or DHL.

My cousin had a ATM card sent here Fed X it went to customs because her mother had put a small package of marshmallow bunnies in it. Fed X charged an additional 1,350 baht for the service. That was over and above what her mother had already paid them on the shipping end. No mention there of customs and the extra charge. Plus the customs was worth more than the candy, It took over a week from the time it got to Thailand to get to my cousin while it set in customs. Customs even sent back to her mother asking the value, I think it was around $4 well below the 400 baht customs charged.

I would strongly suggest the US Mail system if there package is small enough.

[luther]

It's private stuff, not commercial. Actually the size and weight depend on the price. I'm selling my house in the states and would like to send some stuff over here. Thanks for the replies.

I'm here on a retirement visa, so Tobias raises a good question.

A 2ft by 1ft by 1ft box through USPS = 77 $

35 cubic ft = 1 cubic meter so that's pretty expensive

If the retirement visa is not a problem, then it comes down to customs.

I've lived in Thailand long enough to have heard dozens of stories similar to hello dolly's

Anybody out there had good luck escaping customs hassles when shipping their personal stuff here?

[wimpy]

I shipped a ton of stuff here by surface mail. Never lost a thing, and never had to pay any duty. Sadly, surface mail is no longer an option with the USPS. Maybe economy air (SAL) is worth a try?

[NancyL]

When we came here on retirement visas, we shipped as much as we could via USPS. They have flat-rate global priority mail boxes that are a good value, especially when you fill them with books or other heavy items. The UPSP boxes arrived almost before we did, in excellent condition with no charges beyond what we paid at the U.S. post office.

Not the case with our fragile items, which we paid a shipper skilled in international shipments of antiques to pack and ship. It was suppose to be door-to-door, but they used FedEx and the shipment (less than 100 pounds, mostly china and ceramics) was held hostage at the CM airport until we paid a local agent a huge fee, which probably included the kickback to the customs people. The upside, is that everything arrived in perfect condition, but the total cost was over twice what the U.S. shipper had assured us was a "total, complete, door-to-door" price.

Being on a retirement visa doesn't make any difference with regard to customs duties.

Be sure you use the return address of a relative or friend and not your old address. At one point we thought about refusing the shipment of the fragile items and telling them to return the items to the U.S. Problem is that no one was at that address any longer and to re-direct it to a relative would have involved paying their blasted duties and re-exporting it back to that other address.

[highonthai]

Depending on where in the states your located.

I have used a Thai shipper that's based in Los Angeles called Rama shipping, and never had any problems.

Used both consolidated shipment and full container. They have door to door service.