The Saga of the FedEx Box

Fully a month after it was supposed to arrive, the saga of the FedEx box has finally come its finale, and we got everything back! It’s a drama that I wish upon no one.

FedEx Flat Rate International 25kg Box

Shipment Advices

First of all, we did read that FedEx and UPS shipments always got stopped by Thai Customs, and that it would be best to take everything you want with you, in your luggage. We also read that US Postal Service packages did not get stopped as often. These are really good advices, and have we followed those advices, maybe we could have saved ourselves a lot of hassles and headaches, not to mention money.

So for those of you who are thinking about shipping your items as part of your move, here are the advices (in order of preference):

1. Take everything you need with you! If they don’t fit into your suit cases, they don’t go. (I wanted to take more books with me and they were heavy, and that was what prompted us to do the shipment).
2. If you really must ship something, use a local Thai shipper as your first choice. We have heard good things about Asian Tigers once we were in Thailand, though we did not use them. We did contact them once while we were going through our troubles with FedEx and asked them to be our Customs Clearance agent, but they did not get back to us. Therefore, my personal experience with them was not that great. Again, USPS is probably not a bad choice as we have been told again that a lot of these boxes don’t get that much scrutiny. However, if they do get stuck in Customs, you will have to deal with that yourself as USPS shipments don’t allow clearance agents.
3. If you have a Work Permit, then your used household effects are duty free. Anyone else would have to pay duty according to the duty rates. The “funny” thing is that on the Thai Customs site, it looked like people holding retirement visas (O-A) can import things duty free as well, but the FedEx agent said no. I wrote to the email address on the Thai Customs site, and they responded the next day saying the same thing, but pointing me to a slightly different site (www2.customs.go.th). I asked them whether this was a new rule as that was not what came up in the search, and no one answered! My theory is that this is really there should be no duties for those retiring to Thailand, but unless you know someone, you’ll pay.
4. If you don’t have a Work Permit and would like to minimize your duties, study the HS system (click on the Integrated Tariff Database link on the left menu at the Customs site) and understand the Customs calculations. Books in general should be exempted, and there are other items that are exempted, but you will have to study them. Furthermore, just because they should be doesn’t mean that you will. We were charged duties on our books. Write the HS code down for each of the items in your shipment as you have no idea how your shipper and/or clearance agent may classify them.

The Saga – Part 1: Shipment

So back to our own experience. We searched online for the shipment rates and decided that the FedEx flat rate international shipment was the best option for us. There were 10kg and 25kg boxes and none of the FedEx offices had them (nor heard of them). We had to sign up with FedEx for an account ourselves, and then called them to order these boxes. The online order form did not show them at all.

We tried to go with just the 10kg but the books were so heavy that we switched to the 25kg box. At first I was going to pack just books (which would have turned out to be a good idea), but the box then went over 25kg and it wasn’t even full. I took out some books and started putting some misc. items in there to make the box lighter and to fill the box so that things did not move around. As such, I added some large photo prints, a biofeedback device (big mistake, some of my medical records (big mistake again!), a few clothes etc.

We packed the box nicely and took it to the local FedEx office. Then we ended up having to reopen the box in the FedEx office in order to fill out a Commercial Invoice (even though it was for personal effects) to itemize everything in our box. I did not know what to do with the retirement shipment (since I was under the impression that it would be duty free, and indeed the FedEx website would have you believed so as well). I had to call FedEx while in a FedEx office (because the office people were clueless). They told me to make a copy of the retirement visa and put it on the commercial invoice. Furthermore, it is not possible to put down $0 for anything you include on a commercial invoice. Therefore, I had to put down $1 for those items that cost nothing, such as the retirement visa copy, the medical informational booklet for travel and vaccines etc. So after an agonizingly long time (over 1 hour!), we were finally done and shipped it Priority International Flat Rate for $356.90. It was shipped on July 2 and it was supposed to arrive on July 5, one day before our arrival to the Spa Resort where we were staying, and Robin (property manager) was notified to look out for it.

The Saga – Part 2: Stuck in Thai Customs

Needless to say, the package did not arrive by the time we got there on July 6. I checked the tracking number the next day and it said it was stuck in Customs in Bangkok (and we were in Chiang Mai). We called FedEx and couldn’t communicate with them properly on the phone. Since that day, we were in communication with them almost every day to try to get some movement. In the beginning, Rhys (the lawyer we use for some of our Thai visa work) had someone from his office call FedEx to speak in Thai, but after a couple calls, he pretty much told us that we were on our own.

First, we got a fax at the Spa Resort asking us to authorize FedEx to be the clearance agent. You would think that since they were the shipper, they would perform this duty automatically. Anyway, we filled out the form and faxed it back (50฿, ~$1.67).

Then we got an email from them asking us to fill out the FDA Form and the FDA Power of Attorney, as well as a medical certificate in order to import the biofeedback device. We tried to explain that this was not a FDA device. It was something you could order over the counter anywhere in the U.S. We told them to just open the box in Customs to verify and they resisted at first. It took them over 2-3 days to do so.

Then we got another email asking for an Amendment since WE “incorrectly” stated The Spa Resort as the importer. However, it was really a mistake made by FedEx, as the importer was stated as Gary for the contact, and the address included “The Spa Resort” as part of the address since that was where we were staying. Unfortunately, the FedEx form had Company/Address as the title, so they interpreted “The Spa Resort” as the importer, even though it was shipped from Gary to himself and all the items were identified as personal effects. The amount of thinking these people do! And for their trouble, they would charge us 1374.50฿ (~$49) to process the amendment letter!

And at the same time, we were told that we would have to pay Customs duties unless we had a work permit, and they would need that and Gary’s passport as proofs.

We were advised by Mr. Li to go to the Chiang Mai Customs at the Chiang Mai airport and have them call the Bangkok branch to try to sort things out (or at least get the items to Chiang Mai first). We stopped by Samantha’s school on the way there (to run some errands) and the very nice people in the Admission office actually called the Chiang Mai Customs for us. They (Chiang Mai Customs) told us that they wouldn’t be able to help and we would need to continue to deal with Bangkok.

So we continued our daily ritual with the FedEx agent and trying to answer a seemingly never-ending array of questions. During that process, we tried to talked to Asian Tigers, but they did not help. I wrote to the Thai Customs, not much help either. At the end, we figured that we only had ourselves to depend on and tried our best to answer all the questions posed by FedEx as best as we could. We also stopped arguing about duty free and just try to get our package.Here is a flavor of the questions (the spelling and grammar mistakes included as-is):

• what kind of medical booklet, ? material ? pue pose of used ?
• What ‘s  meterial of mouse coushion?
• what is cufflink? meterial?
• what kind of notebooks ? is it IT device or it just a book?
• What is the last item , meterial ? (the O-A visa print out)

By the way, these were questions they asked AFTER they opened our box! Couldn’t they tell that the notebook was a very old notebook with writings in it (definitely not a computer notebook)? Couldn’t they tell that the last item was a simple paper print out?

After some further emailing with them, it was confirmed that a copy of the passport would be fine. However, they were still asking for some doctor’s note or something to that effect for the biofeedback device, as that was still classified as some medical instrument. One of the main agents we dealt with actually called Gary’s phone and Gary tried very patiently to explain to him on the phone what a biofeedback device was and how it did not give any digital readings etc., just a beeping noise. Gary was quite convinced that he wouldn’t see that thing again.

We kept asking what the duty would be, and they sent us an example calculation and using a 30% duty rate. We emailed back and saying that looked completely incorrect. For examples, the books should be exempt and that was the majority of the value. No responses for a couple days. Then we got an email asking us to confirm and approve the attached Customs Entry Form. Well, it was all in Thai and we had little idea what was going on. We asked for an English copy but then they told us only Thai was available. We did not do anything else on that day.

Then the next day (towards the end of July), we got an email from FedEx saying that the package had cleared Customs and would be delivered to us the next day! We only half believed this and decided not to get our hopes up until we actually got the box. I took another look at the Entry form and sorted of figured out what it meant. The books were incorrectly identified and was charged a 10% duty rate. I tried to email them about that and Gary said just to forget about it. It would not be worth the effort.

The Saga – Part 3: The Aftermath

So on July 30, we finally received our FedEx shipment! It was pretty amazing. We almost gave up hope. We were too exhausted to open the box that day to confirm everything was there.

The next day (July 31), I opened the box and found most items, except my medical records, with some surgery notes! I did not need those notes right now but it would be nice to have them. We wrote to FedEx about the missing medical records and asked them to check since at one point they told us that they pulled out my medical records. They wrote back saying that everything was there and was checked by Customs. They also told us to contact some generic FedEx link to report missing items. Gary wrote back again, saying that they did pull this out and should check their site again. If they did not find the records, then he would like the name of the Customs agent who went through this shipment. FedEx checked and then said that they found the records now and would send them over to us ASAP.

We did not get anything on Thursday nor Friday. We emailed them on Friday and asked for a tracking number. and no response. This morning, we called them and they said that they would check. We called the Reception at the Spa Resort as well to check if there was something for us. After a while, a man knocked on our door carrying an envelop. So it seemed that the package may have been there on Friday or so, or maybe even this morning, but no one was going to let us know if we did not keep checking and asking!

Money Matters

Well, for all our troubles, here are the charges:

FedEx shipment freight: $356.90 flat rate for Thailand

However, FedEx actually charged my credit card for $592.15. I only found out about this on July 26 when I checked my credit card charges. I tried to open a dispute online for that charge and it was not possible. So I wrote to FedEx through the Contact Us link. I got an email back saying that regrettably, this was not an issue that could be resolved via email, and that I would need to call them. I wrote back and asked them to give me the difference back and resolve the issue by email since we were traveling. Finally, after a few days, they did give me that credit back. What a mess!

Customs related costs: ~ $320

1.  Service charge THB 1284- (~$43)
2.  Custom charge THB 200-  (~$7)
3.  Amendment name THB 1374.50- over 48 hr (~$49)
4. Customs & Duties: 6,646.00฿  (~$221)
   • Duties: 4,047.00฿
   • VAT: 2,599.00฿

Total cost is about $677, for a value of about $550 of books and misc. items. They actual duty calculation includes what is referred to as CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight), so one will have to pay taxes on the freight to get your used items to Thailand! Moreover, the freight charge used in the calculation needs not to be the actual freight charge if they have a “zone charge” that is higher than the actual freight you pay. This was what happened to my shipment. The freight charge used in the calculation was actually about $490. I could understand that the CIF being charged on new items you purchase and send to Thailand, but for used items? That’s a complete ripoff!

Then after adding CIF in the duty calculation, the VAT charge is 7% of the sum of CIF plus Duty! How many times will you be charged on the freight? Exactly 4 times!

So if you want to save money, don’t ship your used items to Thailand, especially household items. If you want to ship books, ship only books, via USPS.

Epilogue

Just writing about my FedEx experience makes me exhausted and annoyed. I doubt that I will be using FedEx again in the near future. At least now we get everything we are supposed to get in Thailand, and we can start planning forward. Getting out of the USA has been an extremely expensive experience for us, but I will have to save up some more energy to write about that at a later day.

Is This What We Were Looking For?

The kitchen sink was finally fixed this afternoon! I never knew I would be so glad to be able to just wash dishes. The FedEx shipment is still no where in sight and no movement on clearing the Customs. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will eventually turned out okay but Gary told me to just forget about this package. We were told by Rhys that all the foreign shippers like FedEx, UPS, DHL are all pretty bad. We should have used either a Thai shipper or USPS, funny enough. Oh well, I don’t think I will send anything else but I will keep this in mind.

We went to look at some housing options today. Given our current experience, we are leaning towards newer condos, so most of the units we looked at today were condos, 2-3 bedrooms. They ranged from THB 28,000 to THB 45,000 a month (about $900-$1,500). I don’t want to spend more than THB 30,000. One condo I liked somewhat was a 2-bedroom with views, but it was not very big. Gary and Samantha preferred another 2-bedroom with no views, but bigger space with 2 floors. Unfortunately, the price was THB 42,000, so unless the owner was willing to lower the price, I don’t think that would work out. All of these are still about 30 minutes away from Samantha’s school, which is in the countryside close to the Resort. Gary and I keep thinking about changing Sam’s school to another one closer in town, but we just can’t think of good options.

We also looked at a house in a development that was 3-bedroom. The space was good, but none of us really liked the environment. We were looking out onto trash from the neighbor!

On our way back to the resort, I saw the sign for Sabu Sabu, a place that Robin told us that sells natural products, including mosquito repellants. It took Gary 2 tries (2 U-Turns on highway 107) in order to turn onto that side road leading to the store. It is quite off the beaten path and it took us many small turns on a country road before we got to the store. It is a very neat place though and we got a few things and I hope that they’ll work out.

As we were resting in our bedroom, Gary asked me, “Is this what you were imagining the experience to be?” All I could say was that it was too early to tell. The experience of the last few days certainly is not soul-searching nor inner-calming. If this were all Thailand had to offer, then I could not say that it would be worth the effort for us. I would lying if I said that I had no doubts that this was the right move for us. However, I have faith that there is much more than this, that something good will turn up once we get through this madness of finding a more permanent place and settling in.

I reminded myself of my time as a Fulbright student in Paris. For the first few weeks on campus, I was alone and depressed. I had no friends and felt stranded in a strange place. I actually cried once, wondering why I was fighting so hard to get here. However, once I settled down more and made new friend, that turned out to be one of the happiest times in my life! I tell myself now that Chiang Mai will turn out the same, just more challenges this time, as I am now also a wife and a mother, with more people to worry about.

A lot of people have asked me and Gary why we’ve decided to move to Chiang Mai. Many thought initially that maybe we had a job here, a business, or that this was where I came from. It was shocking for many people to hear that we had no jobs, no business deals, no family nor friends here, and that none of us spoke Thai! It was even more shocking to people that I was giving up a high paying job and that Gary was giving up his real estate practice to do this. It would make a little more sense to people if we were moving to China since that was where I came from and my parents retired and went back there. I myself had thought many times about moving there, and in fact, almost did. However, doing business in China seems so complicated, with so many relationships involved, I am not sure if I want to handle that. Moreover, the food safety and pollution issues really make me pause about bringing up a child there. If there were only Gary and me, maybe I would still consider, but with Samantha, I felt that we should give somewhere else a try first. Thailand is a good location for Asia, not too far from most other countries within the region. The economy is growing but the cost of living is still moderate. People are very friendly in general. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand and not as crazy as Bangkok and more family friendly. Given all these reasons, it seems to be a good choice for us. Frankly, I just needed some new experience, a place safe and cheap enough for us to do this for a year or two without jeopardizing our whole financial future, and there were very few places that seem to fit the bill.

Moving to Chiang Mai has also given me more insight into how my parents must have felt many years ago, giving up the safety of their well respected jobs and moved the whole family from China to America. They had a lot less resources than we have today. They were well respected educated people in China and they worked in the garment factories in America, never really able to speak English. I’d always known of their great sacrifices for my brother and me, but living through a big move myself right now, it has given me even more respect for what they had done. So if I had doubts that this would not work out, I should take courage from my parents’ experience and make this work!