With online companies like eBay and Amazon, you don’t have to do without that many products that you miss whilst living in Thailand. You might even get friends and family from your home country to send you some care packages now and then (and you feel like it’s Christmas morning again!).
Thailand’s postal service is more or less reliable; most expats I’ve talked to, and my own experience has been an overall good one with parcels and packages arriving in good condition and in a reasonably timely manner.
Some overall tips to consider, especially when receiving packages from people you know:
- Have them send your parcel in regular mail, instead of a service like FedEx, DHL or UPS. These companies usually have a higher chance of getting a duty fee attached.
- They should declare the contents as being of small value, ie ‘toiletries’ and declare them as gifts and/or under 1,000 baht in value.
- Don’t have them send you anything liquid. Expats have consistently said that parcels containing liquid items have either not arrived at all or have been thoroughly inspected, taxed and delayed.
- If you are having something expensive shipped, then pay the duty and have it shipped via courier (if the package is heavy) or a service such as UPS.
Keep in mind that TIT (This is Thailand) and many of the laws and rules for receiving parcels duty free are hit and miss.
A website you should take a look at is the Thai Customs site. On this site are information on shipping and receiving postal parcels and another topic of interest to expats is info on shipping household effects.
One more bit of advice, if you’re looking for books, before ordering from Amazon, please check out in-country bookstores for the book you’re looking for as the shipping will be considerably less, your wait time is also less and, of course, no duty!
June 8th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I’ve had the same experiences too. Thailand’s post has been extremely reliable for me, and I’m a regular user. I haven’t exactly figured out how it works though as sometimes a package from amazon.com will come to my condo and other times I’ll have to pick it up at the post office. And this with full time condo security and office so it’s not like they can’t drop it here.
I’ve noticed that the cut off point for being charged for my packages seems to be around US$100. I’m not 100% sure, that’s what I aim for when importing anything.
Oh, and never, ever mark anything antique as it opens up a whole can new of worms!
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