Customs Won't Let Me Retrieve Shipment

[HMSBeagle]

Take my advice, send your stuff back and leave Argentina.

 

[steveinbsas]

Take my advice, send your stuff back and leave Argentina.

He would still have to pay the storage fees which he already said he can't afford to pay, as well as the return shipping fees.

Unless the shipping company can get the storage fees reduced to a figure the sender can afford to pay, he will never see his "personal affects" again.

If the shipping company knows enough to be able to negotiate the storage fees with migraciones, they also should have known enough to inform the sender about import taxes on international shipments, even if they weren't legally required to do so.

It's possible the shipping company recommended using a customs broker. The sender indicated he did not use a broker in order to "save money" so he knew that was an option, one that would have actually saved him a lot of money in the long run and/or prevented the loss of his stuff, as any customs broker would surely have made it clear that he couldn't receive the shipment " duty free" in Argentina without first obtaining temporary or permanent residency,

 

[Gringoboy]

When I moved here over ten years ago, I seem to remember that my residency process, which I kicked off at the Arg consulate in Barcelona, was at least six months down the line. I hadn't by that time got my DNI but my temporary residency had been approved. I also appointed a guarantor and used a customs broker this end appointed by the broker in Spain.
I do recall handing over the odd brown envelope, but my personal effects, including furniture, computers, pictures, tools etc were never actually held up.
The part that took the longest and which was the most bizarre, was trapsing around government buildings in cap fed for an entire week ending up at a building in the port known as EMBA.
That experience (EMBA) was akin to a Nazi interrogation...was I importing works of art etc etc? And yes, a bribe was paid.
I finally got my belongings no more than a month after they were unloaded off the ship, but the key was the temporary residency.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Bienvenido Argentina !! This is only the first in a long line of bureaucratic robbing thieving ignorant stupid people you will deal with on a daily basis for things that in other parts of the world are quite easy. Get your patience hat on and have low expectations and accept things are going to cost a lot more than you think.

Right! Do the same in the US and see what happends: Jail!

 

[Bajo_cero2]

When you have issues at customs, to abandon the shipment usually is the best solution. You can buy it later at the auctions of customs for peanuts because nobody is interested in your personal belongnings, they are after the contraband of notebooks, Rolex, etc.

 

[wineguy999]

Right! Do the same in the US and see what happends: Jail!

Funny, I've never heard of someone going to jail for having low expectations.