Land’s End Orders Shipped to Thailand

[Suradit69]

If you’ve ordered from Land’s End in the past, you may be surprised to learn they’ve managed to make the experience more expensive and the transactions less transparent.

I’ve occasionally bought clothes from Land’s End to be shipped to me in Thailand. They've been reasonably priced, decent quality and the sizes didn't offer any surprises.

Prices were shown in US dollars, which was OK since I charged them on a US credit card. They shipped through the post office. Sometimes I ended up paying some customs duty when I collected them from the P.O., sometimes not. Now, like eBay, they’ve “improved” (i.e. screwed up) the processing of international orders.

First of all prices now appear online in Thai Baht. Somewhat disconcerting since there’s no indication I can see of what exchange rate they use or if my US credit card will charge me a foreign currency transaction surcharge since the invoice shows everything in Baht.

Then they’ve switched to a courier service that is more expensive than the post office and which was set to pre-charge me customs duty at a rate of about 75% of the cost of the clothes ordered. I compared the invoice total to a similar order sent in the past and, depending on the exchange rate, the total was about 50% more.

I sent them an email congratulating them on their new marketing strategy and to let them know it was going to cost them some customers, including me.

[Suradit69]

Further to my first post. Land's End customer service replied to my rather caustic email.

Apparently if you click on the Thai flag near the top of the online catalogue you can switch to US $ billing, although there was no indication of that shown anywhere on the page.

It's also possible to get things sent by mail and avoid the pre-charge for customs, but not online. You have to telephone them in the US at your expense.

Click on a Thai flag to be billed in dollars and place your order by phoning the US at your expense rather than using their new and improved online ordering system. I wonder how much they're paying the people in marketing to come up with these ideas.

[ExPratt]

I don't know if they have any shops here or not but if you are looking for online stores have a look at Timberland.

[Rooo]

Moved to Expat Life.

[impulse]

Is Land's End still owned by Sears, or did they spin it off? That could explain some of the issues.

[noahvail]

Lambert, who owns 48% os Sears, spun off Land's end a year ago. Oddly enough, he owns the same prcentage oof LE stock. Sears is on a rather swift decline, but LE is still prfitable.

[pmarlin]

Try L.L.Bean similar store and they ship using the Post.

[Suradit69]

Well I discovered that Land's End operates a branch out of the UK. They ship by post office and do not pre-charge customs duty.

The shirts worked out to be a few dollar more expensive, but the US outfit wanted me to pay about $30 for shipping and $55 (baht 1800) to cover customs.

The shirts from the UK were delivered by the post office to my condo in about a week from the order being processed. Shipping worked out to be about $18. Customs was zero, but the condo office staff collected some post office charge from me ... and I still haven't figured this out. 7 baht.

Not a typo ... Baht 7. I asked the girl did she mean 700 ? 70 ? No, she had to collect 7 baht.

So about $12 less for shipping (and probably faster delivery) and Baht 1793 less for clearing or whatever it was.