Help Needed in Bangkok, Thailand - URGENT Please!!

[teapotone]

Hi Folks,

I'm in a real pickle here in Bangkok. I thought I'd sorted out the air freight of my bike from Tokyo to Bangkok last week. The agent in Tokyo stated the bike would fly Tues or Wed so I booked my flight on Thurs. Tues came and he said the bike wouldn't fly until Fri as there were problems with getitng the bike into Thailand customs.

Low and behold, he then said it wouldn't go until Saturday and that I needed an agent in Bangkok to receive the cargo. He put me in touch with one but they said I couldn't use the Carnet so had to pay duty, quoting me over £10,000? I said that was ridiculous and it went down to over £800 to get the bike in to Bangkok - on top of the £1,500 I pay to the agent in Tokyo to fly the bike out of Japan?

All the sites I've looked at online show people simply turning up at the airport in Bangkok and going through the process themselves, with payments of no more than $250 max to get the bike through.

Does ANYONE out there actually know what the real score is here? Everyone I speak to gives me a different answer that differ wildly.

I just want to get my bike into Thailand so I can continue my journey around the world!!

I'd really appreciate any help here folks.

I look forward to hearing from you.

My email is brucesmart76 (at) btinternet (dot) com

Cheers,

Bruce

[Keith1954]

Originally Posted by teapotone

He put me in touch with one but they said I couldn't use the Carnet so had to pay duty, quoting me over £10,000? I said that was ridiculous and it went down to over £800 to get the bike in to Bangkok - on top of the £1,500 I pay to the agent in Tokyo to fly the bike out of Japan?

Bruce, I feel your pain.

You don't need a carnet for Thailand.

I've only temporarily imported by entering Thailand over a land border. There was no big hassle with this and I took care of the procedure with the Customs Officer myself. After 10-15 minutes and some dollars - nothing like the sort of money you've mentioned - and the job was done and I was good to go.

I smell rats here - not decent honest export/import agents!

Ask your question again on the RideAsia.net forum. They're a good bunch over there and very knowledgeable concerning all biker issues, especially in-and-around Thailand.

Best of luck. Keep us informed.

Keith
.

[hayallerde]

Hi Bruce,

We shipped our motorbike from Kathmandu to Bangkok on May 2013. And we didnt faced with any difficulty to take our bike from the custom of airport. We didnt need any agency to do it for us, we did all the process by ourselves and just paid aprox. 1300 baht to the warehouse for 1 night.

İf your bike hasnt been shipped yet, it is better to ship it on week days except friday. At weekend you cant take your bike from the custom, and you have to pay for 2 nights.

As Keith remind you, in Thailand you dont need carnet. Only documment you need is shippment document that the agency (in Tokyo) gave you. Most probably the agency shipp the bike by Thai Cargo.

Just go to the custom early in the morning. beacuse it takes 2-3 hours to complete the paper works and may be 2 more hours to remontage your bike.
For entering custom area, you need to get an enterance card for 50baht (as i remember )

Dont worry it is not so hard, warehouse officer and workers are so friendly and helpfull, dont worry about it.

good luck, all the best.

if you need more information our e-mail adress is : hayallerde@yahoo.com

Hakan & Sandan

[pecha72]

That does sound a bit fishy. Thailand is not in the carnet system, but there should be another temp import paper used, means you should not have to pay import taxes. I got my bike flown in from India to BKK Suvarnabhumi in Jan-08, and had no problems with the customs. I did have a thai-speaking person with me, though, and this was probably a big help. Took about 2-3 hours total to get the package from the cargo side, and cost me... can´t remember exactly, but not more than 100 euros (and probably even less).

[teapotone]

Cheers for the help folks. The bike is now flying tomorrow and I've got a Thai speaker coming with me to the airport on Monday to hopefully get the bike out.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

[niello8]

Don't worry, it's not too hard. Takes a few hours and some running around as the place is big but people there are pretty helpful. They even let us leave the wooden crate there when we got our bike earlier this year. Good luck.

[Snoah]

I'm curious to see how this pans out. I'm in Japan right now and will be shipping to Thailand, or somewhere else in south east Asia in October. Good luck. Pleas update when you have more info

[Hemuli]

Did also same thing last year. Just running around at the airport.
They took a copy of my carnet.
Going through the landborder is much faster and easier.

[TravellingStrom]

I flew mine from UB to Bangkok last year and documented the process on my blog site.
I initially hired an agent, then I was told by the chaps in th ecustoms office that it is OK to do it yourself, there are English speakers there to help the process, but not many speak English at the bike section in Cargo.

The most important part is to pick up the rlease documents from Customs yourself.

You can read the process here

Cheers
TS

[teapotone]

Cheers folks, I'm off to the airport in the morning to hopefully get the bike out. I elected to do it myself but need to meet the Bangkok agent to get the paperwork that the Jap agent sent over.

We'll see how it goes eh.

Cheers for everyone's messages and help.

Bruce