Big Difference In Price For Surface Mail

[Khun Bob]

I need to send a few things back to the UK, and have sent boxes before from both Thailand and Malaysia. I had a hunch that Malaysia was cheaper than Thailand and looked further into this. When I found the actual prices I was surprised at the difference in amount.

First Surface Mail (By Sea) from Thai Post

Weight Cost (THB)

1kg 950

5kg 1650

10kg 2525

15kg 3400

20kg 4275

You can send up to 30kg with thai post

Next Surface Mail (By Sea) from Pos Malaysia

Weight Cost (RM)

< 1 Kg 34.50

< 3 Kg 43.40

< 5 Kg 54.30

< 10 Kg 71.30

< 15 Kg 95.50

< 20 Kg 116.60

To do approx currency conversion - typically there is about 10 baht to 1 ringit.

So as you can see there is a significant cost difference - so much so the cost of sending a 10kg parcel from thaiand is similar to the cost of me sending from malaysia and will pay for my train tickets there and back to thailand...

If anyone knows a cheaper way of sending things from Thailand would like to know...

Cheers

[solo siam]

Those prices aren't a good representation of Thai postal rates, Below are the prices for 1kg. The surface mail in Thailand costs more than the Air mail.

For anything 1kg and not too huge, you can simply send it by "small packet" mail, which by surface is only 215 baht.

Postage Rates

From : Thailand

Destination : United Kingdom

weight : 1000 gram

Service name Service Extension service

Int’l EMS-Package 1340

Int’l EMS-Document 1300

Int’l Parcel-Surface 950

Int’l Parcel-Air 900

Int’l Parcel-SAL 800

Int’l Letter-Air 710

Int’l Printed Paper-Air 506

Int’l Printed Paper (Book)-Air 506

Int’l Small Packet-Air 506

Int’l Letter-SAL 367

Int’l Printed Paper (Book)-SAL 367

Int’l Printed Paper-SAL 367

Int’l Small Packet-SAL 367

Int’l Letter-Surf 260

Int’l Printed Paper (Book)-Surf 215

Int’l Small Packet-Surf 215

Int’l Printed Paper-Surf 215

Also are you sure about those Malaysian rate, $25-30 seams awfully cheap to send a 20kg package anywhere, yet alone half way around the world.

[qualtrough]

Those prices aren't a good representation of Thai postal rates, Below are the prices for 1kg. The surface mail in Thailand costs more than the Air mail.

For anything 1kg and not too huge, you can simply send it by "small packet" mail, which by surface is only 215 baht.

Sorry, but it is the 1 KG rate that is not representative. Once you move up the scale surface becomes cheaper. For example, 5 kg. surface to the UK costs 1650, while Airmail costs 2420. 20 kg. surface costs 4275, while Airmail costs 8120.

Small packet is good for up to 2 kg., but the package should not be sealed by tape or glue. I end up stapling them. Reason for that is that they may inspect the package to see that it does not contain printed matter.

There is an Economy Air that is in between the two but my experience has been that it can be as slow as surface. To the US that can be two months or more.

There is a lot of difference between individual post offices. I have found staff who are not even aware of the small packet rate. Some offices insist you wrap parcels in string, others don't care, etc. and etc. I find the service at the two Airport post offices to be very good, and the one on the upper floor is open every day and I believe (?) 24 hrs.

Rates I quote above were obtained at the Central Post Office and were accurate the last time I went to the PO, which was Saturday (Airport PO). The fellow who mans the info booth at the Central PO has been there something like 20 years and is very knowledgeable and friendly. He speaks excellent English as well.

Edited July 3, 2006 by qualtrough

[fisherd3]

Doesn't matter how much it costs if it never arrives, I sent 2 x DVDs wrapped in a bit of bubble wrap and put in a biggish envelope posted airmail to England six weeks ago and it has not arrived yet and I doubt if, based on my previous inward experience it will. I suppose I could have sent it EMS for about 9600bht but then I could buy UPS for a little bit more................

[h90]

Doesn't matter how much it costs if it never arrives, I sent 2 x DVDs wrapped in a bit of bubble wrap and put in a biggish envelope posted airmail to England six weeks ago and it has not arrived yet and I doubt if, based on my previous inward experience it will. I suppose I could have sent it EMS for about 9600bht but then I could buy UPS for a little bit more................

forget normal post from Thailand to UK, we lost a lot shipments even registered mail.

Thailand post to any other country works well

Austria to UK works well so the problem must be somewhere at the interface between the two posts.

[qualtrough]

Knock on wood, but I have very good results mailing to the US. I usually send registered, which is only 50 B additional.

[Khun Bob]

The malaysian prices for surface mail are correct - you can check on their website - www.pos.com.my - also had the prices confirmed by pos malaysia customer service today. The prices are valid at any post office in malaysia. Had good experiences at the PO in padang besar (right next to thailand and close to the railway station) and at a local PO in Penang.

My interest is in sending 10 to 20kg to the uk - not bothered how long it takes - surface mail for both malaysia and thailand is between 4 to 8 weeks - typically 6 in my experince. Just want to get the stuff there in the cheapest way possible.

Have sent several parcels from malaysia and 1 or 2 large ones from thailand and not had one lost yet - best to get cert of posting as well and be careful on the customs description and pricing (not for customs but for the benefit of the few light fingered post office staff)

Below is the email i received back from pos malaysia :

We thank you for your e-mail which we received on 03.07.2006.

Here is the answer of your questions.

* are these prices still current ?

- Yes

* are these prices available at pos malaysia post offices in padang besar,

perlis and in penang ?

- All this prices is available at any post office in Malaysia

* is the 3000 RM insurance built into the price of sending the parcel or do

i have to pay extra for this ?

- For your information, if you want to insured your parcel, RM3000 is the

maximum. Every RM100 you want to insured, you have to pay RM1.50

* if i need to make a claim on the insurance how do i go about doing that ?

- If you have any inquiry regarding status (after 1-3 month ), or claim for

missing item/damage item, you have to make an official inquiry at post

office by filling the inquiry form R&P 67 attached together with copy of

proof of posting.

[Khun Bob]

bump - anyone got any other ideas on cheaper ways of sending parcels from thailand?....

[solo siam]

Send them to malaysia first and then et them to forward them to the UK?

[geoffphuket]

Send them to malaysia first and then et them to forward them to the UK?

I wouldn' trust the Thai postal system with anything important. Almost all my mail goes missing to and from the UK and even bills posted just 2 klm down the road go astray or are delivered a month or so late! .... But then I guess I'm opening a new can of worms with this subject

[steveromagnino]

Send them to malaysia first and then et them to forward them to the UK?

I wouldn' trust the Thai postal system with anything important. Almost all my mail goes missing to and from the UK and even bills posted just 2 klm down the road go astray or are delivered a month or so late! .... But then I guess I'm opening a new can of worms with this subject

True. And also coming from Thailand it gets checked at customs like crazy.

Fisher D

For 10kg box from UPS to UK, rate is 4,023b + VAT. Why you would use any other butchers like EMS I don't know.

3 days delivery including customs clearance. You can get about 30% discount off the bat for other weights (10kg is promo price) if you are doing more than about 5kg a month. 1 kg would be about 1500b with less discount than this. Easily enough to cover 2 CDs. Do your homework and I think you might end up using UPS type firms next time :-)

[qualtrough]

I wonder if the problem with sending items to the UK resides on the UK side? In more than 15 years of sending and receiving letters and packages to the USA I don't recall ever losing a shipment. Three times when customers did tell me that they did not receive something it turned out that the the item was returned by US postal authorities as undeliverable for some reason or other. I suspect a big factor here is the local post office used. Judging from other people's comments I think there are some bad post offices or areas. I recommend using one of the airport post offices if you are anywhere near that location. Always used registered for packages too, only 50 Baht.

Further to couriers, my experience in receiving goods by Fedex, DHL, etc. has not been good. Amost a quaranteed method of getting hit for duty. On the other hand items coming in by US Priority Mail, which generally reach me in 4-5 days, are almost never hit. Fedex were hopeless finding my location even though the post office had no trouble using the same address. In fact, several times Fedex just sat on the package and did not even make an effort to contact me.

I have good service using DHL outbound.

[thankuverybig]

i am pretty sure the problem lies on the uk side,as ive had problems in sending stuff home from other countries to the uk,eg new zealand.ive tracked the packages down & each time its been a balls up in the uk.

the thing i dont like about thai post is that for sending small items as a regular buisiness,it can be

expensive.

fed ex have 10kg boxes,3500baht

25kg boxes,4700 baht its on their thailand website.

one thing to consider is that if youre boxes are big,but light,then couriers tend to charge youre shipment by the volumetric weight= lxwxh divided by 6000.obviously thai post,just charges by the weight.

i think tnt thailand seems like a good option for bigger size boxes,it also has about 5 different rates,economy express being the cheapest.

simple to use website aswell to check rates.unlike someothers where they ask you to much,when all you want a simple quote.

PS IF ANYONE KNOWS OF A GOOD AIR FREIGHT AGENT (OVER 45KGS) DOOR TO DOOR TO UK.I'D APRECIATE IT.

Edited July 8, 2006 by thankuverybig

[qualtrough]

PS IF ANYONE KNOWS OF A GOOD AIR FREIGHT AGENT (OVER 45KGS) DOOR TO DOOR TO UK.I'D APRECIATE IT.

Ditto

[Khun Bob]

So - looks like thai post is the cheapest in thailand - well i'm off to malaysi in a few weeks and will be posting from there.

For anyone who is interested - the malayspis post office in padang besar is very close to the railway station and quite helpful - their prices are well worth it as for over 10kgs it pays for my journey there and back by train - and on the train you can take as much as you like - just a case of getting past malausian customs and they do check...

Sent many packages from malaysia and a few from thailand - large boxes - usually 10 to 20 kgs and not had one lost yet - if they are over a certain size then parcel force deals with them and they may be better than the uk royal mail (which tend to be sh1t now)

if anyone knows of a cheaper way to send around 20kgs from thailand to the uk than the thai post office - would be great to hear from you...