Problems With Buying Electronics Online From USA?

[tig3rtig3r]

I want to buy a laptop from the USA from an online store. The store is legit and does ship to Thailand, that is all fine.

 

Will there be any problems shipping the laptop to Thailand in regards to customs, corruptions, fees, duties, theft etc etc?

 

Or, is it normal and common. I am in Chiang Mai, if that helps you to answer.

[KittenKong]

17 minutes ago, tig3rtig3r said:

Will there be any problems shipping the laptop to Thailand in regards to customs, corruptions, fees, duties, theft etc etc?

 

Probably.

[Crossy]

Is a machine of suitable spec. not available here?

 

Anyway, expect duty, computers are supposed to be zero duty, but ...

 

Duty will be applied to the CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) value.

 

And VAT at 7% on the total.

 

 

[hemskasven01]

Buy from Aliexpress, less problems. I have bought more than 100 orders from them. No costom fees or VAT ever.

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[tig3rtig3r]

1 hour ago, hemskasven01 said:

Buy from Aliexpress, less problems. I have bought more than 100 orders from them. No costom fees or VAT ever.
 

 

Did you order big and expensive items like Surface Pro 4 or iPhone 7?

[wpcoe]

As Crossy, "computers are supposed to be zero duty but..."  To minimize the possibility of Thai Customs intercepting your shipment and imposing custom duties, "conventional wisdom" on the forum is to not ship the item(s) via a commercial courier like FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc, but rather by plain old USPS.  The couriers apparently are bound by contract to direct all incoming overseas shipments to Thai Customs, whereas the post office isn't.  It's still possible a mail shipment can be snagged by Customs, but experience reported here is that most shipments are not. YMMV.

[Langsuan Man]

18 minutes ago, wpcoe said:

The couriers apparently are bound by contract to direct all incoming overseas shipments to Thai Customs,

No, everything has to go through Customs, it is the fact that the "couriers" want quick service so they pay for the total value of the container's contents and then they split up the individual costs to the receivers and then blame Customs  

[wpcoe]

6 minutes ago, Langsuan Man said:

No, everything has to go through Customs, it is the fact that the "couriers" want quick service so they pay for the total value of the container's contents and then they split up the individual costs to the receivers and then blame Customs  

 

Interesting.  Never heard that before, but would explain why using courier shipments consistently see customs duties applied when similar/same shipment via post office avoids customs duties.

Edited May 12, 2017 by wpcoe

[MJKT2014]

6 hours ago, tig3rtig3r said:

USA from an online store. The store is legit and does ship to Thailand

Can you suggest the name of store that does ship to Thailand? I am interested in a laptop upgrade import (don't want the Thai/ENG backlit keypads for one thing). Last time I used Amazon but they only ship within US so I had to pay for an additional shipping agent to do the international part. Thanks.

[tig3rtig3r]

Well I am using a shipping agent as well.

[MJKT2014]

2 hours ago, tig3rtig3r said:

Well I am using a shipping agent as well.

OK, well to answer your first point 

>Will there be any problems shipping the laptop to Thailand in regards to customs, corruptions, fees, duties, theft etc etc?

 

I used Shipito agent and they shipped (by my choice) using FedEx. The import costs were exactly as quoted on the FedEx web site (i.e. added 7% to my declared cost incl shipping cost) and no more. That was 5 years ago now, and I'm planning to do same again.

[hemskasven01]

 
Did you order big and expensive items like Surface Pro 4 or iPhone 7?

I am a poor retired man, and my pension is to small for Apple.

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