Shipping My Stuff From Los Angeles to Chiang Mai

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

For anyone moving their home here from abroad, what to bring and what to leave behind is always a dilemma.

Coming from the U.S., the fact is, Thailand has nowhere near the quality of selection and prices that are available for many things in the U.S.

Among the things I brought, and am glad I did:

--Laptops and PCs with dual voltage settings, which work fine here and are easily less expensive back home.

--Quality cotton bedding, which is either hard to find here or very expensive by comparison, depending on where you are.

--Good quality small kitchen appliances like electric food processors, which have very poor selection here and are overpriced for the quality. I also brought a lot of good quality pots and pans I had back home, simply because I didn't want to part with them, and replacing the same quality here would have been very expensive.

--In my case, all my clothing and shoes, since I'm quite tall, and Thailand simply doesn't have tall sizes readily available.

--Important documents from the U.S. that you might find yourself needing in the future, like past tax returns, court documents like past divorce decrees, original academic diplomas, etc.

Everyone's going to have a different kind of list depending on their particular needs and preferences. I like to cook, and knew I was going to be cooking, so I brought my own quite good quality dishware and glasses, which survived the ocean trip with almost no damage. But some people here don't cook at all.

[buji]

Doing the move early next year, but wise to avoid all Thai moving companies as they are all corrupt. I will bring my main computer transports as checked & the rest through either DHL, UPS or FEDx as they are all insured & sent special agent (3rd party thru Thailand). Gotta remember these private companies here in Thailand do not have to fulfill (& many don't) their contracts/Insurance with foreigners. However International companies do. Siam-Movers looks familiar, the worst & most corruption Thai movers are those who 1. Have Farrangs on their website & 2. A fully literate English speaking Thai on the other side. Dealt with moving companies for 5 major moves (30-40k ea), inside country all Thai, outside, all your homeland with a major international shipping service.

I know at least a dozen retirees here in Chiang Mai who have worked with Siam Move Management and been very happy. They're people who have come to Chiang Mai for a short visit to check it out for retirement, decided it was for them, met with Alan Dick the western owner of the company and then returned to their home countries to sell off their unneeded stuff and kept in touch with him about moving over the rest. None of them have been sorry.

Conversely, Hubby and I were very sorry when we worked with a firm near our home in the U.S. that promised door-to-door service and did a great job of packing our delicate items and making arrangements with DHL. But that's where it ended. With our goods held by DHL at the airport in Chiang Mai and the news from customs that the paperwork was all wrong. In the end we had to hire a Chiang Mai agent (this was before we knew Alan) to straighten out the mess, at considerable expense. It would have been good if the firm in the U.S. had known what was required of the paperwork while they were doing such a great job of packing and working with DHL.

Whatever floats your advertisement, personally I was quite screwed by them...only dealt with the English speaking Thai boss. All my furniture was damaged & they denied having to pay any insurance claims. Guessing you're an advocate for the company...a weasel, a cheat, a liar. This forum is to help foreigners, not line your pockets.

[NancyL]

Doing the move early next year, but wise to avoid all Thai moving companies as they are all corrupt. I will bring my main computer transports as checked & the rest through either DHL, UPS or FEDx as they are all insured & sent special agent (3rd party thru Thailand). Gotta remember these private companies here in Thailand do not have to fulfill (& many don't) their contracts/Insurance with foreigners. However International companies do. Siam-Movers looks familiar, the worst & most corruption Thai movers are those who 1. Have Farrangs on their website & 2. A fully literate English speaking Thai on the other side. Dealt with moving companies for 5 major moves (30-40k ea), inside country all Thai, outside, all your homeland with a major international shipping service.

I know at least a dozen retirees here in Chiang Mai who have worked with Siam Move Management and been very happy. They're people who have come to Chiang Mai for a short visit to check it out for retirement, decided it was for them, met with Alan Dick the western owner of the company and then returned to their home countries to sell off their unneeded stuff and kept in touch with him about moving over the rest. None of them have been sorry.

Conversely, Hubby and I were very sorry when we worked with a firm near our home in the U.S. that promised door-to-door service and did a great job of packing our delicate items and making arrangements with DHL. But that's where it ended. With our goods held by DHL at the airport in Chiang Mai and the news from customs that the paperwork was all wrong. In the end we had to hire a Chiang Mai agent (this was before we knew Alan) to straighten out the mess, at considerable expense. It would have been good if the firm in the U.S. had known what was required of the paperwork while they were doing such a great job of packing and working with DHL.

Whatever floats your advertisement, personally I was quite screwed by them...only dealt with the English speaking Thai boss. All my furniture was damaged & they denied having to pay any insurance claims. Guessing you're an advocate for the company...a weasel, a cheat, a liar. This forum is to help foreigners, not line your pockets.

We are not talking about the same company. The boss is from Scotland, and worked professionally in removals in England, Europe and Australia. I'm afraid you're confused.

And no, I'm not personally benefiting from posting about Siam Move Management. I just know many people who have been happy customers.

[HenryB]

Call them Chiang Mai Removals great Service and very Reasonable

Google Search then they are located in Chiang Mia

[VnSP]

Use the U.S. Postal System for anything that isn't very delicate. Somehow the Thai Postal System isn't very picky about collecting duty. FedEx/DHL/UPS is and the customs charges will kill you, even for used household stuff.

Consider bringing items as extra checked luggage. They aren't very picky about charging duty with personal luggage that comes with you. Yes, I know there's a charge, but you should have factored that in when selecting an airline. It could have made Korean Airline look better in the long run because they have a more generous luggage allowance.

Use DHL.FedEx, UPS as a last resort.

I'd suggest you email Siam Move Management, rather than working with a company in the U.S. You want an advocate here in Chiang Mai, someone who will get your stuff out of customs: http://siammovemanagement.com/ They can contract with someone on your end to do the package and getting your goods out of the U.S.

Cool beans.

Gotchoo.

Sold.

NOW THEN...

How would you rank the contenders?

---USPS to Thai Postal

---SiamMoveManagement

---Checking extra bags into checked baggage at China Southern Airlines, 110$usd per 20-22kg (not clear in rules)

---Khanon Thai in Hollywood (slow ocean freight) at 70$usd small box, 100$usd big box, extra if stuff is new (per my above post)

Personally, I am good with any of these. But how would you rank them? (Your guess-timates are welcome of course, this is certainly not an exact science with permanent laws!)

Thanks

BamBam

I am in the same situation here - looking at sending a few boxes of personal items to Chiang Mai from USA (either Los Angeles or Las Vegas) in the next 10 days. Can I please ask which option you went with? Have you received your items yet? Im trying to cut back on the packing but Im moving for 2 people so I can't take it all on the flight (Ive already got 3 large suitcases lol)! Appreciate your review. Thank you.

[BKKdreaming]

is the Thai newspaper from LA online ?

might be another place to look

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

is the Thai newspaper from LA online ?

might be another place to look

For a list of local Thai shippers in the Los Angeles area, look at the link I posted above in post #9.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/866103-shipping-my-stuff-from-los-angeles-to-chiang-mai/#entry10011989

[elektrified]

I think the issue there, Nancy, was whomever's choice to send your things from the U.S. to Thailand via DHL, which in my experience is among the worst carriers when it comes to import customs duties into Thailand.

By comparison, for the two times I used Rama International in L.A., one time I paid no customs duties at all, and the second time, I paid a total of about $200 U.S. in customs duty (a rate of $2 per cubic feet) for about 20 packing boxes worth of household belongings of all sorts. Both of those shipments went the ocean shipping route, and were delivered to my door in BKK by Rama's agents in BKK.

In both cases, I had absolutely zero contact or involvement with Thai customs at all. Everything was handled directly by Rama. I just had to be home on the delivery day.

I used RAMA recently and was very happy with their service. Cost US $4,900.00 to ship 12 X pallets to Bangkok. Each pallet was about 2.5 meters high. No tax. Took about 2.5 months to arrive. We arranged our own trucking from Nonthaburi to C.M.

[buji]

Same boat but will do. Thai Foreigner companies are usually a "NO" for me but given how insanely corrupt this country is, will use.

[bnzgrl]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I need to ship a used, 3 year old laptop (17 inch) from LA to Chiang Mai. I am having my friend send it USPS. What should my friend put on the custom form as well as value to minimize any fees and problems on this end?

Also, I'd like to ship some supplements, herbs I can't get here in the box with the laptop. Should I do that or just ship the supplements in a seperate shipment? I've had my friend ship a small box of supplements twice before thru USPS with no problems, but not sure if it's better to send with laptop or not.

Thanks.