What do you Like/Dislike most About Your Stay in Thailand?

[JamesWest]

The online shopping bit sort of puzzled me as well. I've been doing online shopping here for years; everything from audio equipment to computers to to clothing to bike gear, etc., etc. I'm smiling now because I just received two cases of imported beer which I ordered online from WishBeer.

one thing to think about is in the USA everything is ordered from the web. It is so easy and fast with no problems and free shipping, even on small items. No customs of course and in some cases no taxes. 48 hours later you have your computer or whatever while tracking your package in near real time as it travels across the country. All my stuff would come to me at work. I lived in LA and ordered cameras from NY because they cost less. No worries at all. Damaged? Reject delivery. Lost in transit? Order cancelled, money refunded right away or replacement sent. I once ordered $20,000 worth of silver coins and had them shipped across the USA via UPS. No problems at all. I think this this is what some of the members here are taking about.

Maybe you could talk about your experiences here with shipping companies, damaged goods, missing orders, customs...
who do you use to ship? what about duty? how do you know costs? what type of address do you use? does it come to the house/work? or do you pick it up?

I have yet to receive my Bangkok Bank statement in the mail here. "no have"

[Ratsima]

I've had zero problems ordering online both from within Thailand and from other countries. I bought a camera lens and soundbar from the Sony website. I bought a couple of Raspbery Pis from Allied Electronics. I've bought computer equipment from Invade IT. I order lots and lots of stuff from China from AliExpress. I did have to pay a small amount of tax and the Vero (video player) I ordered from the UK. I've ordered swimming gear from Decathlon in Singapore. I've ordered clothes from both Tarad and Lazada. I've ordered many items from eBay sellers in the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. I order Coffee from Aka Ama in Chiangmai. I've purchased gear from Apple online which is shipped from either Singapore or China.

I use a home address. I track the shipments online. Almost everything comes by mail. The beer comes from a small shipping company selected by WishBeer. Sometimes a seller will use DHL or TNT, but this is becoming very rare.

I always pay with a US credit card so if something goes wrong or never arrives I have the protection offered credit card users under US law.

[hhfarang]

One example would the comment about not be able to shop freely on the internet. As far as I'm aware, there is nothing in Thailand to prevent you from doing online shopping.

I've had zero problems ordering online both from within Thailand and from other countries.

You guys certainly must have better luck with online shopping from there than I did. Whenever I ran into any product that I needed in Thailand that wasn't available locally, I tried to find it online.

90% of the time what I was looking for would not ship to Thailand, at least 50% of the items I found that would ship internationally, would not accept payment from a credit card with a Thai billing address, and finally, the few items that I did successfully purchase and get shipped to Thailand exorbitant duty was levied on most.

Example; I bought a shirt from Brooks Brothers (who ship anywhere) at $70. The shipping ran it up to $100 and I was charged import duty of $80 bringing the grand total of a $70 piece of clothing to $180! One product I purchased was held up in customs where they demanded a duty of 140% of price paid so I just told then to destroy it as I wasn't going to be held hostage again. These were real experiences and they were far more frequent than success stories so I gave up trying to buy anything internationally over the web from there.

In contrast, I've bought 90% of everything from the internet in the last 6 months from clothing to furniture to tools to cosmetics, even contracted labor, etc., with low or free shipping, no tax except N.C. state tax in some cases, and with fast delivery, guaranteed returns and no hassles.

[STEVE G]

I don't think I'd risk ordering online to our house in Hin Lek Fai, we've been there about three years and I don't think the post office knows it even exists, I don't remember ever seeing any mail there at all.

[hhfarang]

Rats and snakes? To the best of my knowledge these creatures exist all over the world.

Yes they do Takiap (although I heard there are no snakes in Ireland) but my entire list is based on personal experience and my own comparisons based on locations I've lived.

In 50 years of living in the U.S. including many vacations and weekends spent outdoors in the wilderness camping, fishing, hiking, biking, etc., I can only recall seeing 2 snakes in the wild, and only wild mice or rats on a couple of occasions. I had ongoing battles with both of those in Hua Hin with violent encounters at least twice a week! Take a look at a couple of threads where I documented the snake wars in our garden with my 2 dogs who both got bitten, as well as a snake in the space between the ceiling and the 2nd floor. Also my battle with rats and mice is well documented on here. They tried (and were partially successful) to eat the engine out of my Honda SUV, ate holes in my gypsum ceiling, ate metal can lights in the ceiling, tore up expensive drapes and ate the wiring out of a speaker in my home theater, damaged an air conditioning unit, and on and on. As stated, my time there was a constant battle with these animals as well as flies, ticks, ants, termites and mosquitoes. I've seen a literally a couple of flies here, no mosquitoes, no ants, no ticks, no termites, no snakes and no rats or mice. I have seen rabbits, lots of birds including owls and hawks, deer, a fox, lots of squirrels as I live on the edge of the woods, but no destructive or annoying animals or insects.

[migrant]

Example; I bought a shirt from Brooks Brothers (who ship anywhere) at $70. The shipping ran it up to $100 and I was charged import duty of $80 bringing the grand total of a $70 piece of clothing to $180! One product I purchased was held up in customs where they demanded a duty of 140% of price paid so I just told then to destroy it as I wasn't going to be held hostage again. These were real experiences and they were far more frequent than success stories so I gave up trying to buy anything internationally over the web from there.

In contrast, I've bought 90% of everything from the internet in the last 6 months from clothing to furniture to tools to cosmetics, even contracted labor, etc., with low or free shipping, no tax except N.C. state tax in some cases, and with fast delivery, guaranteed returns and no hassles.

The contrast between the posts is interesting. I hope to be able to order online, but think I will ship to my son in the states who can repackage and send.

I've looked, and inquired, to a couple sites I use and they state that the goods will have the customs declarations, whereas my son can ship "tshirts" etc. My credit card is also based in US so hopefully can avoid duty on most!

[Ratsima]

Example; I bought a shirt from Brooks Brothers (who ship anywhere) at $70. The shipping ran it up to $100 and I was charged import duty of $80 bringing the grand total of a $70 piece of clothing to $180!

Why would you even attempt such a thing? It's almost as if you were asking for failure.

I've done well ordering stuff online because I do my homework on things like payment policy, shipping costs, import duties, etc.

It would never enter my mind to order something from the US and have it shipped here.

On the other hand, almost everything available in the US is also available from either local suppliers or suppliers within Asia.

It's not luck, it's due diligence.

[hhfarang]

On the other hand, almost everything available in the US is also available from either local suppliers or suppliers within Asia.

That is not even close to the truth or fact. If that were true, I would not have had to try to order anything from the U.S. The quality and sizing of clothing is not close. Sure you can buy electronics in Asia but the cost is 50% higher on things like cameras, shavers, etc., because of that import duty into Thailand. Many of the things I needed or wanted to live a normal life there were simply either not available or the cost was much higher than the same or a better item in the U.S. I always had a list of things I wanted or needed and could not get there ready for the next friend or family member coming over and bring it for me. Here as said by me and others, I can get literally anything I want in 3 minutes on the internet and have it sitting on my front porch in 2 days. That's convenience.

[Ratsima]

Here's what I've learned after years of online ordering from Thailand:

• Avoid ordering from places that use logistics services like DHL, TNT, and FedEx. Items shipped by these services seem to receive extra scrutiny from Thai Customs.

• Avoid ordering from America or Europe for the same reason.

• If you can handle the agony of dealing with poorly designed websites, have a look at Thai online retailers like Tarad and Lazada. They carry a huge range of products, both local and imported. Things I've recently ordered from Thai retailers:

• An AeroPress coffee maker
  A Hario coffee grinder
  A couple of Japanese-made floor chairs

I'm very happy with all of the above. The prices were close to Amazon prices, shipping was nominal and there were no customs charges to worry about. The Thai online sales market is changing rapidly. It's worth a look.

As I mentioned before, I've been ordering imported beer and excellent quality coffee beans online for a very long time now. Extremely pleased with the service and quality of both.

• Give AliExpress a shot. I know many people are wary of ordering from China, but I've used them for several years now and have yet to be disappointed. But you have to be diligent about researching both the product and the seller. Things I've recently ordered from AliExpress:

• A digital Lithium Ion battery charger
  An Archon dive torch
  A high quality microfiber towel

I could not find either the charger or the towel locally. The dive torch was available here, but at almost twice the cost of the one from AliExpress.

As was noted, there are a very things that are simply not available locally. Here are a few things that I regularly buy from the US and pick up when I visit:

• Trader Joe's "Pound Plus" dark Belgian chocolate
  Solid stick deodorant
  Large containers of petroleum jelly, aspirin, Cetirizine and Ibuprofen

That's about it. As far as I'm concerned, the higher prices we pay on some imported items (and even locally produced items like automobiles) is more than offset by the extremely low prices we pay on things like food, housing, clothing and transportation.

I can get literally anything I want in 3 minutes on the internet and have it sitting on my front porch in 2 days. That's convenience.

And it also fully explains why you were not happy here.

[Homer]

90% of the time what I was looking for would not ship to Thailand, at least 50% of the items I found that would ship internationally, would not accept payment from a credit card with a Thai billing address, and finally, the few items that I did successfully purchase and get shipped to Thailand exorbitant duty was levied on most.

Over half the time I can find a firm that ships to Thailand, but it takes time and the prices are often not the best. So I send purchases from a single source to my mail forwarder. Shipping for what I've bought averages $35 (1200 thb) because I always select USPS + EMS. Shipments have always arrived intact and within 2 - 3 weeks, except one letter sent by the cheapest USPS international option took 10 weeks.

Mail forwarders usually don't consolidate shipments into a single box, so in those situations I impose upon my sister once a year. There are US companies that receive and hold one's purchases, then consolidate into a single box, e.g. https://www.expatexpress.com/ . Not cheap. If your location or credit card is rejected, they can order and pay for you - at a price.

Why use a Thai credit card with a Thai billing address? I've rarely met a Yank expat, in any country, who didn't keep at least one US bank account with debit and credit card.

Yep, gotta pay duty. That's a feature, not a problem. Duty is never "exorbitant" IMHO, it's 'motivating', because the purpose of duty is to motivate those who don't want to buy local to reconsider.

In Japan, Rakuten ( http://www.rakuten.co.jp/ ) is similar to Amazon. It's a single site with oodles of vendors of all sizes. I've ordered about 6 times from them. Processing was fast, the product was as stated, shipping was cheaper and faster than from the US. Use Chrome browser for automatic translation. Persistence is sometimes required for searching. If English searches don't bear fruit, use a translate site to get the Japanese language version for your search terms. Rakuten has a 'global' site. Poor selection and high prices for my searches.

[Name Taken]

On the other hand, almost everything available in the US is also available from either local suppliers or suppliers within Asia.

That is not even close to the truth or fact.

[dtaai-maai]

It's all getting a bit personal, which is unfortunate. Seems quite simple to me: some people are able to find most things they need, others aren't. No need for criticism or defence on that score.

Having said that, there's some very useful advice coming out of all this.

Going back to the bartering for a moment, I had to laugh today when Mrs D-M came home very pleased with herself.
She asked for 500 bt of petrol at the gas station and the bloke put 1000 bt in.
Mrs D-M said she only had 500 bt, so what did they suggest? Dunno, says the guy, think you have to pay.
Tell you what, I'll pay 500, because that's all I've got, and you take 500 bt of petrol out of the tank.
[At this point I had to interject and said "Presumably you had a 500 bt note?" No, only 1000... Anyway, back to the plot]
Mrs D-M speaks to the boss, and to cut a longish story short, they agree on 700!
Now tell me you don't like bartering!

[bsdk1960]

It's all getting a bit personal, which is unfortunate. Seems quite simple to me: some people are able to find most things they need, others aren't. No need for criticism or defence on that score.

Having said that, there's some very useful advice coming out of all this.

Going back to the bartering for a moment, I had to laugh today when Mrs D-M came home very pleased with herself.
She asked for 500 bt of petrol at the gas station and the bloke put 1000 bt in.
Mrs D-M said she only had 500 bt, so what did they suggest? Dunno, says the guy, think you have to pay.
Tell you what, I'll pay 500, because that's all I've got, and you take 500 bt of petrol out of the tank.
[At this point I had to interject and said "Presumably you had a 500 bt note?" No, only 1000... Anyway, back to the plot]
Mrs D-M speaks to the boss, and to cut a longish story short, they agree on 700!
Now tell me you don't like bartering!

love it

[caller]

I've ordered stuff from the UK that's got here okay, but I make sure it's sent via Royal Mail (obviously not large items) and these have all turned up ok, albeit a couple of items (a watch and a watch strap), had to be collected from the PO (no customs fees).

[STEVE G]

What I do like about Thailand is the way that they'll deliver large items of furniture and appliances virtually straight away, I've even had them load stuff on a truck and follow me home.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered a pool table from Bangkok and four guys drove down with it on a truck, spent three hours assembling and installing it and drove back again. That sort of service costs serious money in Europe.