Avoiding Customs Headaches

[Sheryl]

Some years back I boght a portable home jaczzi which was shipped to me. Getting ot of csoms it proved a 6 month nightmare. basically becase cstoms didn't nderstand what it was and I foolishly let FedEx handle trhe clearance.

About a year ago I ordered some filters and other minor spplies, made sure they were shipped reglar air mail, and again had all sorts of headaches -- 3 months instead of 6 since FedEx was no longer in the middle, but still quite a hassle, again apparently becase customs didn't know what the stuff was. I had to trek ot to the Aranayaprathet Customs House (5 hors r/t) only to find they had already retrned the parcel, then I had to travel another 5 hrs r/t to the Bangkok Customs Hose...yo get the picture

Well, the jaczzi broke when my hose recently flooded, I had to mail back the relevant parts for repair, they've now been fixed and are ready to vbe shipped back to me. I'm having it sent first to my mother who will re-wrap it so as to avoid the commercial return address.

My question is: what should the customs declaration read so as to be clear and avoid all the prior hassles? Since I paid a considerabl;e duty on it new coming in, it seems to me there shouldn't be a duty now on the same thing, sed and back from repair, but duty is a lesser concern mainly I want to get it delivered to me withot delay or lengthy trips to customs to try to extricate it....

The only thing I can think of is "Spare parts for jaczzi, used (repaired" bt since they didn;t seem to nderstand "jaczzi: in the past am not sure this won't lead to problems. Open to sgegstions from anyone who has had any kind of spare parts or repaired equipment shipped, thanks

(Please no suggestions that are outright lies....ethics aside, would create havoc on the sending end. It has to be shipped from the US and they are very touchy about the contents of parcels these days.)

[mosquitoman]

Dear Sheryl,

Why not get a customs clearing agent, to do all this work for you.

I beleive they can negotiate the import duty before the goods even reach Thailand, as they should have some sort of working relationship with customs.

In some cases you may have to provide photos and invoice translated to Thai of what it is you wish to import, this I am told can also speed up the whole process.

Good Luck

MM

Edited November 12, 2006 by mosquitoman

[Axel]

Invoice and packing list is a basic requirement for any customs clearance. They even want to see an 'invoice' for personal effects/household removals.

But a very good idea PHOTOS, as mosquitoman mentioned. Better even, a catalogue. Customs is always happy with a catalogue with pictures. For a jacuzzi this would hav helped, incl. a picture with a lady using it, full bathing suit, not bikini.

[guardian]

Don't have any experience with shipping repaired equipments, but have first hand experience with carrying them in on person (at Don Muang)

I was carrying a really expensive weighing machine back from Hong Kong where I had taken it for repairs. The machine was originally brought into Bangkok by a friend in the same way, hand carried. There was no checking when it was bought in new. After a few months, it had problem with caliberation for which I had to send it back to HK. On one of my trips there, I brought it along with me back here. Since it was big and easily identifiable as something electronic, customs asked me about it. Told them that I was bringing it back from repairs. The machine was almost brand new, except there was no original packagings. They did not even ask to see any type of invoice or receipt for the repair. Simply waved me through.

So, I think it would be a good idea to tell the shipper to remove any packaging before shipping. Hope this helps.

BTW Sheryl, dropped coffee on the keyboard? Seems you are having problem with your "U"s.

Edit: added " " for the U

Edited November 12, 2006 by guardian

[Maizefarmer]

Get hold of the Thai Customs handbook – in which just about everything under the sun from spares blades for pencil sharpeners to spare parts for the space shuttle are listed – and find the code that best suits the article been shipped.

Have all the paperwork filled in accordingly.

Failure to include the code for the goods is ….well lets put it this way, Thai customs barely keeps its head above the water when everything is 100% in order, but is totally lost when it comes to having to correct a problem – the whole system grinds to halt for as long as it can with no-one having any idea what to do.

[Maestro]

Some years back I boght a portable home jaczzi...cstoms didn't nderstand what it was...

...parts for repair...

It all boils down to my standard recommendation that when dealing with bureaucrats, you have to speak their language.

The problem, you see, is that there is no Jacuzzi, which is a trademark, in the customs tariff book – which is written in Thai language anyway for the Thai customs officers. For them it is all tariff numbers.

The foreign shipper should always attach a standard, international customs declaration to the item, regardless whether is shipped by regular mail (letter mail or parcel post), by courier, sea freight or air freight.

Thailand uses what is generally called the Harmonised Tariff system. This link brings you to a PDF document (3.9MB, hope you’ve got a fast connection) with the tariffs in the EU. I understand that the first 6 digits of a tariff number are the harmonised tariff number, while the remaining two digits can be added by individual countries to create sub-categories if there are different duty rates for different items in a category.

If the shipper of your spare parts is used to selling internationally, he knows the tariff number for his goods. If not, you should tell him what number to put on the form. The post office and courier services make available the customs declaration forms, and this form always has a field for the tariff number. In fact, with couriers, it is part of their packaging, with postal dispatch the sender has to ask for the form CN22. For sea and air freight, the tariff number gets put on the packing list, I believe.

The beauty of the linked PDF file is that you can do a text search in its 886 pages. Fist I searched for “Jacuzzi” and obtained no result, then for “bathtub”, again without result. A search with “bath” did the trick. If your Jacuzzi is made of “PLASTICS AND ARTICLES THEREOF; RUBBER AND ARTICLES THEREOF” (probably high duty rate), it has the harmonised tariff number 3922 10; spare parts for it, if also made of plastic, probably number 3922 90; if it is in the category of “RUBBER AND ARTICLES THEREOF “ the Jacuzzi has number 6910 10 or 6910 90, spare parts 6914 90; if it is in the category of “ARTICLES OF IRON OR STEEL” the Jacuzzi has number 7324 21 or 7324 29, spare parts of the same material probably number 7326 90.

See, that’s how complicated it can get.

---------------

Maestro

Edited November 12, 2006 by maestro

[helicoptor]

About to ship personal effects to LOS for arrival Jan 07, company offers door to door service (i.e. they sort out customs clearance) will let you know how it went

[Sheryl]

Many thanks Maestro for the link, just what I needed.

Helicopter -- I've had personal effects sent twice with no problem (although not cheap), the agents who handle that know what they are doing. I've just never been able to find a company that can do likewise for small imports. Sure as he_l is NOT FedEx! Or DHL.

Apologies for the dropped "U"s, my keyboard has taken a dislike to that vowel for some reason.

[Maestro]

Sheryl, in another thread cclub75 has posted the link to

http://www.customs.go.th/Tariff/Tariff.jsp

where you can look up the import duty rate for any type of goods. Perhaps first look up the HS number in the EU list then go to the Thai customs site to search for the rate of duty.

---------------

Maestro

[Sheryl]

Thanks!

Actually I am not so much concerned about the amount of duty due - in my experience they are rather capricious abioyut it and whatever amount they assess, there's no getting out of it. What I am concerned with is being able to receive the package and pay whatever is needed without a huge hassle and long distance trips to customs which seems to occur whenever they are not completely familiar with the contents. And worse yet, having them decide it is something they want to get off their desks by sending for all sorts of unnecessary licenses and clearances (happened with the jacuzzi the first time) so that one trip doesn't do it, it disappears into a black hole and I have to make repeated trips to track it down.

I never have a problem with CDs, books, vitamins, cosmetics etc. But anything unusual is a real headache.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. It's been shipped, so we'll see what happens.

[h90]

Some years back I boght a portable home jaczzi which was shipped to me. Getting ot of csoms it proved a 6 month nightmare. basically becase cstoms didn't nderstand what it was and I foolishly let FedEx handle trhe clearance.

About a year ago I ordered some filters and other minor spplies, made sure they were shipped reglar air mail, and again had all sorts of headaches -- 3 months instead of 6 since FedEx was no longer in the middle, but still quite a hassle, again apparently becase customs didn't know what the stuff was. I had to trek ot to the Aranayaprathet Customs House (5 hors r/t) only to find they had already retrned the parcel, then I had to travel another 5 hrs r/t to the Bangkok Customs Hose...yo get the picture

Well, the jaczzi broke when my hose recently flooded, I had to mail back the relevant parts for repair, they've now been fixed and are ready to vbe shipped back to me. I'm having it sent first to my mother who will re-wrap it so as to avoid the commercial return address.

My question is: what should the customs declaration read so as to be clear and avoid all the prior hassles? Since I paid a considerabl;e duty on it new coming in, it seems to me there shouldn't be a duty now on the same thing, sed and back from repair, but duty is a lesser concern mainly I want to get it delivered to me withot delay or lengthy trips to customs to try to extricate it....

The only thing I can think of is "Spare parts for jaczzi, used (repaired" bt since they didn;t seem to nderstand "jaczzi: in the past am not sure this won't lead to problems. Open to sgegstions from anyone who has had any kind of spare parts or repaired equipment shipped, thanks

(Please no suggestions that are outright lies....ethics aside, would create havoc on the sending end. It has to be shipped from the US and they are very touchy about the contents of parcels these days.)

I had on all my previous imports pictures of it (before shipping), invoice, proof of money transfer and knowing what it is in simple words.

not much problems till now.

Good Agent may help a lot, bad agent my make it much more difficult.

FedEx sux...

[Sheryl]

Hallelujah, it arrived. Duty was charged but no need to go down to customs or other nightmares. I think having the code made all the difference.

[Chang_paarp]

I recently sent a pool cleaner to Chonburi from Australia. Wrapped it in Xmas paper, and put birthday present on the customs declaration. It arrived and no tax or duty paid. Declared value for insurance and customs Au$700.

As others have said, consistency is not the strong point of the system.

I used the links in this thread to forewarn the recipient what codes they should use if questioned.