Battery issue with shipping phone back to US

[smo]

I got a Nokia phone 920 from a NY ebay seller DOA (not charging or showing any sign of life; the charger accompanied it is a Samsung charger, I tried with a HTC charger and still it doesn’t charge.) Seller agreed to let me ship it back. At the post office they don’t want to take it, saying pretty sure it would not make it past US customs since the battery is not removable. My farang neighbor says that if I want to ship via DHL or FedEX, chances are even higher it won’t make it. So what are the alternatives:

1) Go back to the post office and if asked, say that the battery has been removed. What are the odds then of it going through US customs and reach its NY destination?

2) What my neighbor says is not true. Shall I use DHL and FedEx?

3) Write this off as an expensive lesson and get the phone repaired (if it is repairable) here in BKK?

Thank you in advance for your input and advice.

smo

Edited December 15, 2014 by oilinki
Reseted font size to default

[Guest]

There might be also another options. I used to have Nokia N900 (Maemo phone), which was very picky when it came to the charger. Cheap chargers did not work with that Nokia model while the original Nokia charger worked fine. Also USB charging from a laptop seemed to work.

Before sending the device back to the seller, try charging it with a Nokia charger. Maybe some of the shops have one available.

To make the bulk chargers to work with the mobile phone I had to solder two of the 4 cables within usb cable together.

Another trick is try to do a reset to the phone.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/support/faq/?action=singleTopic&topic=FA141364

• Lumia phones with integrated battery: Leave the phone connected to charger, then press and hold the power and volume down keys simultaneously until the phone vibrates. Release and the phone will reset.

[worgeordie]

The Postal services world wide it seems do not want to accept parcels that

have Lithium ion batteries in them,(not sure about other kinds),

I ordered some electrical products from China,and about a week later the

supplier said China post would not accept them as there might have batteries

in the parcel (there was not),so they had to send them by Swedish Post,don't

understand how they did that,but it took nearly a month for the parcel to arrive.

Then my daughter in UK was sending me some computer parts, she said the

person asked several times are there any batteries inside,if so they could not

accept.

Regards Worgeordie

[thedemon]

There is quite a bit of confusion about this issue because USPS did have a ban on Lithium Ion batteries. However that was partially lifted a year or 2 ago. I believe that they still don't allow shipment of LI batteries alone but if they are built-in (ipad, mobile phone etc.) then USPS allows up to 2 LI battery powered devices per shipment. There are some other restrictions on the size and power output but a mobile phone is fine.

http://pe.usps.com/Lithium_Battery_Update.asp

DHL, Fedex and UPS have more liberal rules about LI batteries. I have a DHL shipment on the way from the US now that contains 6 LI powered computers and they are all declared. I think it is because those carriers use their own aircraft whereas TNT buy space from other carriers. I once had a notebook that should have been shipped here from the US by TNT which turned into a drama. I will never use TNT again for a shipment from the US.

My experience is only of LI devices being shipped into Thailand not outbound so I suppose it is possible the rules are different that way. But they are handled by USPS/Thai Post so I don't see why they would be.

[Thaijack2014]

Why don't you just go to MBK near Siam and go to the third floor. There are many small shops that do phone repairs. Maybe they can help you with a charger as well. It doesn't cost much and you don't need to try to send the phone back to NYC.

[smo]

Thank you all for your advice and input, especially thedemon's update on USPostal allowances re : lithium batteries.

I took the package back to the post offce and told them that the battery has been removed. They then shipped with no futher issues.