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Buying things from Amazon what do I need to expect.

Samacha

By Samacha
in IT and Computers

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Samacha Rookie Member

Samacha

Posted
Posted

Hello community,

 

I have a question about customs and regulations when I order things from Amazon.com. I want to buy a laptop and a phone. My friends told me not to buy laptops or computer from Thai shops. He said that's they sell quote" 2nd quality stuff", I don't believe it much lol. But to be on the safe side I don't mind ordering things from Europe or USA.

IMG_4615.PNG

 

Here they said customs it's paid, :) but just want to make sure if it's really paid lol. Not end up paying double. When I was living in Europe and USA for 28 years, Amazon and eBay was my number 1 shopping place. I do trust them more then some local business here:). I am Thai myself(dad Aussie), but when I go myself to the shop lol, I be treated like a farang:).

 

So in short what's are your guys experience on buying things from Amazon and dilivered to Thailand.

 

Thanks for Infos

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

TallGuyJohninBKK Star Member

TallGuyJohninBKK

Posted
Posted

I'm an American and I shop online from Amazon all the time, but never have Amazon handle the delivery. Always have Amazon deliver to my mail forwarding service in the U.S., and then they send the items here -- at far less cost than Amazon's delivery and customs charges, and usually with little or no customs fee.

 

So, it depends on if your planned purchases are just one-time things and you're not particularly concerned about the cost, in which case go ahead and buy from Amazon and have them ship it themselves (though a lot of different products they won't actually ship to Thailand). But if you want to pay a reasonable price and plan future purchases, then setting up an account with a U.S. mail forwarder for handling Amazon purchases makes sense. Plus that way, Amazon's entire inventory is available to you, not just their "international shipments" items.

 

But if you're only looking to buy a mobile phone and a laptop, and that's it, there are reputable sources for doing that here in Thailand at reasonable prices where you don't have to worry about getting "gray market" or fake products. InvadeIT is a reputable online seller for computers, as is the Thai shop JIB computers. And as for phones, you can usually go to an AIS or DTAC or True shop and find them running some promotions on new phones bundled with their mobile service. Depends on what model of phone you're looking to buy. They're always selling Samsungs and usually some Chinese brands like Oppo or similar.

 

Hereinthailand Explorer Member

Hereinthailand

Posted
Posted

Key word in your invoice - IMPORT FEES DEPOSIT, wait until somchai opens the box and decides he likes your new phone or computer. It up to customs to determine the value not amazon. Just buy here from a reputable shop and its brand new stuff from the manufacturer. The only thing I dont like is the computers here are sold without licensed copies of windows so you either get linux dos or pirate windows installed which I dont get because volume licenses for resellers are dirt cheap from microsoft.

Samacha Rookie Member

Samacha

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Key word in your invoice - IMPORT FEES DEPOSIT, wait until somchai opens the box and decides he likes your new phone or computer. It up to customs to determine the value not amazon. Just buy here from a reputable shop and its brand new stuff from the manufacturer. The only thing I dont like is the computers here are sold without licensed copies of windows so you either get linux dos or pirate windows installed which I dont get because volume licenses for resellers are dirt cheap from microsoft.



What I pay Amazon the import fees for then omg?
This is the update version what I want to buy,
IMG_4617.PNG
Info about what kind of itemsIMG_4618.JPG
IMG_4619.PNG

I used to live in Europe and the ZOLL just open the parcel in some cases and if they do,I pick it up and they know I paid the fees aready and its get passed. My question it's does it get past here too? and Amazon handles all the customs problems? I don't have the time or want to have the time to go to the Thai post office and try to speak with Thais that supposed have learnt English at school and then end up don't understand what I am talking about.



Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
TallGuyJohninBKK Star Member

TallGuyJohninBKK

Posted
Posted

With Amazon and their international delivery service, assuming the item you want is available for international delivery, you pay their estimated customs fee at time of purchase, and AFAIK, Amazon guarantees that you will not owe any more than what you pay them at the time of purchase. And if the actual customs amount charged ends up being less, Amazon will refund the difference, although that process takes some time. With Amazon prepaid customs as the shipper, you shouldn't have to do any haggling or negotiating.

 

But what the prior poster said about Thai customs is correct when you're sending the package yourself -- outside of Amazon. Thai customs isn't necessarily bound by whatever value is listed on the invoice in/with your package. I've had a few cases in the past where I bought something on sale at a very good price, declared that actual price on my customs form, and then Thai customs taxed it on an entirely different valuation that they somehow determined. It's those kinds of things that tend to happen when you send something yourself via FedEx or DHL.

 

TallGuyJohninBKK Star Member

TallGuyJohninBKK

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, yankee99 said:

Understood in the past that hasn't been the case as the USA lte band is different from thai.  Im gonna look at a s8 too if there the same

There are a variety of versions of the S8 for different regions and countries. But the unlocked U.S. version appears to have a very broad range of LTE band coverage, including the 2100 and 1800 bands (#s 1 and 3) that are the main ones used in Thailand now, as well as other secondary ones that may be used in the future.

 

wump Advanced Member

wump

Posted
Posted

Major phones like the S8 support all bands for every region. Just some Chinese bands always leaving out band 20 etc.

reallybigken Rookie Member

reallybigken

Posted
Posted (edited)

The issue comes down to...each frequency and band is licensed and a fee is payed for each one. Both payed by the cellular carrier, usual paid to the government, and to the IC (Integrated circuit) manufacture license owner (mainly Qualcom). If a manufacture is trying to save money they will only license the frequency/bands for a particular country and provider. The Cellular provider may request that their version of the phone only work on their frequencies and bands (Verizon in the USA has done this in the past), This is done to lock the user to their network only. Some manufactures only sell a particular version of they phones to a particular country and/or provider. The are a few manufactures that license as many as possible (like Apple iPhone) and make up the cost in the price of the phone or contract.

 

Samsung is know, in the past, to have specific versions of the phones for each country and carrier.

 

Because of this it makes it very difficult for the end user to determine if the phone will work for their Cellular provider or not.

 

For reference:

http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks

 

You need to find out which frequencies and bands are supported by your particular phone for the areas you want to use it. I bought a phone that basically covers them all (no not an iPhone).

 

As a last note ... if you are going to be using the phone in multiple countries you may want to look for phones listed as "international version". It doesn't guarantee anything, but more often they cover more bands and frequencies, and are design for travelers.

Edited by reallybigken
Minnehaha Silver Member

Minnehaha

Posted
Posted
41 minutes ago, reallybigken said:

The issue comes down to...each frequency and band is licensed and a fee is payed for each one. Both payed by the cellular carrier, usual paid to the government, and to the IC (Integrated circuit) manufacture license owner (mainly Qualcom). If a manufacture is trying to save money they will only license the frequency/bands for a particular country and provider. The Cellular provider may request that their version of the phone only work on their frequencies and bands (Verizon in the USA has done this in the past), This is done to lock the user to their network only. Some manufactures only sell a particular version of they phones to a particular country and/or provider. The are a few manufactures that license as many as possible (like Apple iPhone) and make up the cost in the price of the phone or contract.

 

Samsung is know, in the past, to have specific versions of the phones for each country and carrier.

 

Because of this it makes it very difficult for the end user to determine if the phone will work for their Cellular provider or not.

 

For reference:

http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks

 

You need to find out which frequencies and bands are supported by your particular phone for the areas you want to use it. I bought a phone that basically covers them all (no not an iPhone).

 

As a last note ... if you are going to be using the phone in multiple countries you may want to look for phones listed as "international version". It doesn't guarantee anything, but more often they cover more bands and frequencies, and are design for travelers.

True DAT. 

I got a Samsung mid range phone as gift and it never worked with AIS 3G service and frequently dropped so badly I investigated with ais and blamed them.......  Until I went to Samsung shop and they took one look at it and said it was a model designed for sale Vietnam and supported only couple of the bands necessary.  It was basically useless 7000 baht phone.  It was bought at some shop at central Rama 9.

KhunBENQ Star Member

KhunBENQ

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, casinoexp said:

Pick up any power supply or hard drive laptop motherboard and guess what it says.  Made in Thailand 

Thailand, Malaysia, China ...

Tell me which phone is NOT assembled in the Shenzen region.

 

So this stuff does a long round the world trip from SEA/China to US and then back to Thailand :biggrin:

KhunBENQ Star Member

KhunBENQ

Posted
Posted
25 minutes ago, Minnehaha said:

It was bought at some shop at central Rama 9.

Samsung shop or AIS would have been safer options.

These "some shops" might be what the OP refers too.

Selling "grey market stuff", refurbished etc.

 

I would never order such a trivial thing like a smartphone from abroad.

Fully agree with post #3.

For laptops the OS installation is somewhat of an issue.

 

CaptHaddock Gold Member

CaptHaddock

Posted
Posted

I bought my laptop and kindle from Amazon USA.  In neither case did I have to pay customs, although I did pay I think around 6% which must have been VAT, but didn't match the 7% VAT that I expected.  The kindle was much cheaper even after shipping.  I ordered the laptop from the US because of the much larger selection available.

 

When Amazon Global Shipment is available, I select that, otherwise I have my mail forwarder do the shipping.

Dan5 Senior Member

Dan5

Posted
Posted

First of all if you are buying a brand name, you are almost certainly getting the same thing you would get in the USA.

 

I've been buying things on Amazon for many years.I found that for most products they wont ship international. But I have a mail forwarding service in the USA. So I ship to that address (since I have Prime, the shipping is free) and then my forwarder sends to me in Thailand. I've found that If I ship USPS Priority International with tracking, Customs almost never checks the shipment and collects duty, they just pass right on through without stopping at customs.. I've done somewhere between 50 and 100 shipments USPS and only 2 were stopped by Customs to collect duty. On the other hand with FedEx, UPS, etc., I've had to pay duty on almost every shipment.So I stick with USPS now.

KhunBENQ Star Member

KhunBENQ

Posted
Posted

Even though the thread has developed somewhat far:

moved to IT and Computers forum, leaving a link in the Isaan forum where it had been started.

soisanuk Advanced Member

soisanuk

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

With Amazon and their international delivery service, assuming the item you want is available for international delivery, you pay their estimated customs fee at time of purchase, and AFAIK, Amazon guarantees that you will not owe any more than what you pay them at the time of purchase. And if the actual customs amount charged ends up being less, Amazon will refund the difference, although that process takes some time. With Amazon prepaid customs as the shipper, you shouldn't have to do any haggling or negotiating.

 

But what the prior poster said about Thai customs is correct when you're sending the package yourself -- outside of Amazon. Thai customs isn't necessarily bound by whatever value is listed on the invoice in/with your package. I've had a few cases in the past where I bought something on sale at a very good price, declared that actual price on my customs form, and then Thai customs taxed it on an entirely different valuation that they somehow determined. It's those kinds of things that tend to happen when you send something yourself via FedEx or DHL.

 

I have ordered clothing and electronic items from Amazon many times.  The package has been delivered to my address with no problems - no dealings with Thai customs.  Also, so far,  I have always received a refund of the customs duties collected by Amazon at time of purchase/shipment - usually a month or so afterward.

wpcoe Platinum Member

wpcoe

Posted
Posted

On another thread I mentioned how Amazon's Import Deposit Fee for a computer I was considering went from just under $100 to over $250 in the matter of a week or so.  Makes me wonder what would have happened had I ordered it when it was quoting ~$100 -- would I have been charged more when it actually hit Thai Customs?  For that matter, what about the >$250 -- is it the result of a dart board toss or should it be considered a reliable estimate?

 

I ended up buying locally in Thailand since with the higher Import Deposit Fee Amazon's price was actually higher than buying at IT City.

Dan5 Senior Member

Dan5

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, soisanuk said:

I have ordered clothing and electronic items from Amazon many times.  The package has been delivered to my address with no problems - no dealings with Thai customs.  Also, so far,  I have always received a refund of the customs duties collected by Amazon at time of purchase/shipment - usually a month or so afterward.

Send them USPS, they almost never get checked by Customs, they just go right on through with no duties or taxes. Like I said in the previous post out of 50 to 100 shipments I only had to pay duties, taxes on 2 using USPS.

wump Advanced Member

wump

Posted
Posted

On a side note, the op should not use Amazon's currency converter if it is as bad as the Paypal one. You can lose a significant amount by not paying in the original currency. Check your credit card fees but in 99% of cases they are lower if letting your card company do the conversion instead of the shop (unless using Amex).

buwiro Newbie

buwiro

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, yankee99 said:

A little off topic but does the usa S8 work on thai LTE bands

I have the s8+ from USA (Verizon) with a Dtac SIM and it works great. Sometimes it shows 3G and sometimes 4G

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