Job Discussion Forums

[Alexandria]

Learn from my experience and void getting burned!

I ordered some books & videos from Amazon. Their international shipping is only available at one speed/price: fairly fast and extremely expensive.

Also, the Thai customs officials saw the Amazon box and pounced on it. Because the items were brand new and wrapped up in shrink-wrap, they assumed that I was going to re-sell them for profit (?!). So when I went to the post office to pick up my package, I had to pay customs tax in addition to other fees and (don't forget) on top of the ridiculously high international shipping fee that Amazon chose for me. The final result was that the price of the items I'd ordered was less than twice of what it cost for me to get them here. NOT worth it!

So now I order from Amazon and have them send my order to a trusted friend in the states. She then unwraps and breaks the "new video" seals on all the items, repackages them in a plain cardboard box, and ships them to me at a much slower, much more affordable rate (& sends me the packing invoice later in a letter... it cannot be in the box mailed to you!) Good luck!

[Volodiya]

Glad you found a solution. I've experienced the same thing myself, when I placed a private order for materials to be delivered internationally.

As an alternative, try ordering your special materials through an EFL bookstore. They should be able to tell you in advance what the cost will be and you'll be able to compare cost and convenience.