Experience importing with UPS

[Arkady]

Like many other TV members I am wary of importing stuff through couriers due to experiences of being charged excessive amounts of fees and/or tax, including several attempts to charge import duty and VAT on books which are tax exempt. I will always choose the postal service, if there is a choice, and have had very few problems with that over the years. In addition, the post provides a huge advantage for small items, since Thai customs allow Thailand Post to deliver items with a value of up to B1,500 tax free, whereas couriers are not granted this exemption and also have to charge import duty and VAT on the full landed cost, inclusive of freight and insurance. For packages with values over B1,500 Thailand Post only has to collect duty and VAT on the value of the item.

Recently I imported a telescopic sight from Europe and ticked the EMS option with the seller, only to get an email back to say that the package was rejected by the post office because the value of the product was over 420 Euros, which is the maximum Thailand Post will insure items for. The seller didn't want to take the risk of sending the item underinsured. So my only option was UPS or to try to sell the scope, a special order item not kept in stock, back to the vendor at a discount. Before committing to UPS I called their Bangkok office for an estimate of miscellaneous charges and tax. I was transferred to a very aggressive and unpleasant sounding male who refused to give any information over the phone but gave me his email address and told me to send him a photo and a description of the goods and he would get back to me. A week later, after sending him several more emails and trying to get through to him on the phone, I had still heard nothing back. However, I was confident that no import licence was required, having visited the office in the Interior Ministry responsible for this sort of thing. So I decided to go ahead anyway.

After a couple of days I received a call from UPS Thailand from a man who spoke painfully bad English and asked my email address "to send an invoice". I received nothing but two days later I received a call from a female voice at UPS in good English asking again for my email address. It turned out her colleague had written down my email address incorrectly which explained why I hadn't received anything. Because the item was over B40,000 the lady said I needed to go to a customs office and do paperless registration with them. Since I told her, it was not very convenient for me to take half a day off work to do that, she said she would send a messenger to pick up my original passport or ID card (copies not acceptable by customs) the next working day to do the registration for me. She sent me the email that her colleague had been sending to the wrong address which included a list of UPS charges for receiving packages in unclear English and a form to fill in and sign which no one ever asked for after that. The next day no one showed up and I emailed the lady at UPS again to ask when the messenger would come. No reply and no one answered her extension for another 3 days, then she emailed to say the messenger would come the next day which he did. Four more working days after that someone else calls from UPS who can hardly speak any English at all but at least is willing to speak Thai. She gives me the total price including duty and VAT and miscellaneous charges and we agree on a delivery time. Soon after she calls back and informs me they have inspected my package and found that one small item is missing. The next day the van arrives with my package minus the missing item and minus my ID card and collects the tax and fees.

The good news is that that the rate of tax charged is absolutely correct - 10% import duty plus 7% VAT. I had given UPS the correct harmonised tariff code in advance which might have helped and I think it is advisable to do this for anything out of the ordinary and/or of high value. Of course, I am disappointed about the missing item on which I have already paid tax but I think it was probably forgotten by the vendor and don't blame this on UPS, who actually flagged it to me. It is absolutely useless to anyone who doesn't have the main item anyway.

All in all it is a bit better than I expected because my expectations of UPS, DHL, Fedex local Thai franchisees were rock bottom. But I was disappointed by the delays and lack of responsiveness, as well as the storage charges (invoiced by Thai Airways) of B90 plus VAT a day for 11 days, caused by UPS's dilatoriness. The cost to me excluding tax was equivalent to 80 Euros which more than doubled the freight cost. Nevertheless, I have still obtained a high quality European scope that is not sold in Thailand for less than the US price all told. So I am not totally unhappy, although I am still wondering when I am going to see my ID card again. Natually there has been no reply to my question about this. Would I do it again? Yes, if there was something I wanted to import badly enough and the price was right and I was very sure about the tax rate etc - as long as I was not in a hurry.