Is anyone traveling from Hanoi to Taiwan? Monetary reward and infinite gratitude if you can help bring my laptop (edit: MacBook Air) back for me.
Otherwise, any advice on potentially shipping to Taipei? My concerns are packing it safely, customs/duty, shipping with battery, and having the correct Chinese address. What can I do?
Many thanks!
You’ll need a Taiwan address. A Chinese address won’t help.
The address in written Chinese characters. I know you were joking but I will also be more specific.
Address in English always makes it I’ve found.
www.post.gov.tw has a thing you can use to change address in chinese into something that can be used from overseas.
My relatives who don’t speak or write Chinese have been sending stuff for years with even the English address spelling a bit off, lane and alley around the wrong way (can’t seem to get them to correct it!) and it makes it every time just fine.
#5 is optional
IMO - English address works just fine - as long as it is correct and the full address. I once had something shipped and forgot to include “Zhongshan District”, it still arrived after I called the local Post Office
My stuff is always addressed perfectly and they always fuck it up. They complained to my wife that it is because it was written in English (Pinyin)
When you say fuck it up, do you mean the parcel never arrives?
I had one UPS package sent to Thailand by mistake…
If you’re trying to ship it note that you might need to leave the battery behind, assuming it’s removable. Check with whatever service you decide upon, many will not transport rechargeable batteries.
Here is a pdf for fedex on shipping batteries. There are rules to follow.
I haven’t checked recently and can’t be bothered now, but didn’t DHL used to be one of the few major companies that allow shipping of lithium-ion batteries? Like you say, might end up being easier to remove it if possible.
Personally, once I’ve started thinking about using expensive international couriers, having to worry about customs fees and possible damage, and sorting everything out with the hotel, I’d probably check whether there are any cheap flights back to Hanoi for a night or two. If I’m spending a chunk of money anyway, I might want to turn it into another holiday!
Postal service might be better, my dad sent phones and laptop to me from the states through the postal service. Obviously you’d use EMS or something to get it quicker.
Was talking to @SuperS54 and OP.
I’m aware that postal services and EMS exist. I just wouldn’t necessarily trust cheaper options with a laptop because of the possibility of loss or damage, and if I’m forced to remove the battery and/or use an expensive service like Fedex or DHL for better reliability, that’s where I’d be considering whether it makes sense just to turn it into a night or two away instead (would likely be more expensive, but from the prices I’ve seen for flights to Vietnam not hugely so, and more fun).
I would also imagine there are cheaper couriers in Vietnam that ship to Taiwan (e.g., for migrant workers sending stuff over – I know they exist in the Taiwan to Vietnam direction), but organizing that from abroad or expecting hotel staff to do it for you is probably a hassle.
Most laptops made these days do not have removable batteries, so it’s not an option. I believe Fedex and UPS have procedures to follow to ship laptops/phones. I am not sure if hotel staff necessarily know how to follow them.
I said other stuff besides the minor point of potentially removing the battery, if that’s possible.
Anyway, I’ve got little interest in continuing this particular pointless discussion with you. Neither of us knows what laptop OP has or how much it’s worth to them, and I’ve added what I wanted to add to the thread — I’m not looking to get into an unrelated conversation about something that doesn’t really affect either of us.
They deliver it to the wrong address normally. An address that is close by and similar.
Been to the post office and they told us it is because it isnt written in Chinese.
Weird. My stuff has always been fine when the address was written in English.
In any case, given that it’s being sent from Vietnam, I think I’d prefer to write the address in English/Roman script and risk the thing getting lost in Taiwan (or possibly Thailand), as opposed to writing it in Chinese and risking it getting lost in Vietnam or China…
What works for me, when my parents or other family members want to send something from North America, is to send them a jpg with the address in both Pinyin and Chinese characters. Shipping to or from there requires “English” addresses, as they call them. Easy to print out and no issues with file formats. The extra “Chinese” at the bottom is generally ignored by shippers abroad, but very much appreciated by local, Taiwanese couriers.
One issue I’ve run into with USPS in particular, in terms of shipping from abroad, is that they have a specific index of romanized street names, which is not consistent with other systems. The package was undeliverable because ĺż was written as Zhong, not Jhong (their system requirement). Thankfully, the shipper and I figured it out and the package got shipped.
DHL, UPS, FedEx, &c packages arrive consistently. This may be due to the customs process, during which my street name is written on the package in ä¸ć–‡ (unpopular opinion: despite/because of the hassle, EZWay makes my life easier???).
Lesson: better to confirm the official Pinyin address (which may vary by courier), and it doesn’t hurt to include the ä¸ć–‡ address as a supplement.
Related to other stories above, I once (20 years ago) received a package in error. The package was from Thailand and was written partly written in Thai script (possibly sender information, it was long time ago). NOTHING except the city (including name, street, number, postal code) was even close to my address. The writing was English cursive, so the local post office just gave it to the “local foreigner”… I personally delivered it to the apartment building, since the cursive script wasn’t that difficult to decipher 
.