Moving To Ba - Import Container

[kashifarif]

Hi everyone,

I am new in this forum, german national, moving with my chilean wife middle of November, 2014 to BA and looking very much forward to it. I am 41, my wife is 32 and our new born baby is 35 days old. I will be working in BA as Expat in the BA-subisidiary of a german company.

Does anyone has experience in importing a container by ship with household goods to BA? Especifically I am looking for a serious agent in BA, who can do all the process of custom clearance in BA and deliver the container to my home in BA. I have been quoting with several companies, but they are charge around 2,500 USD for the custom clearance including port charges and around 1,900 USD for delivering the container from the port to my home in BA (within 40km radius) and both figures seem to be ridicoulously expensive to me. So any help and contact would be highly appreciated!

Looking forward to move to this beautiful city!

Kashif

 

[lucha54]

How long will you be here? Did you consider leaving the majority of it in Germany until you go back? The importing situation is complicated here and there are two possible problems: 1) not all of your things will arrive. 2) it may take much much longer than you expect, making you very worried and needing to buy the necessities again anyway before the shipment arrives....

 

[Girino]

The quote you received for custom clearance makes sense to me. We decided to bring 4 pallets to save money - and we did.
Basically, the shipping itself cost about the same (4 pallets vs container) but the custom fees and the delivery fees are 3x or more.

Plus, you might want to check whether they unload your stuff at arrival or not (given your quote, I'd say they do).
Usually you can do that part yourself in a given timeframe (1-2 hours, depending on the company).

We didn't have any problem in getting our stuff here, but we sold most of it before leaving. Things you should bring over are electronics (from dishwashers to vacuum cleaners, kitchen appliances, TV, tumble drier, cell phones,... here they S.U.C.K.), bed clothing, clothes, musical instruments.
Also, if you have space-saving stuff, like foldable iron board, foldable ladder, etc. bring them since here they have only cheap and basic models.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Kashif

You gotta love Germans: "I am 41, my wife is 32 and our new born baby is 35 days old" ...that's the level of precise information that you get casually in Germany that you'd need to hire a private investigator to find out here.

Anyway, I have stuff shipped here from a local Irish freight company a few yrs ago. I paid for a door to soor service and quite frankly it was a nightmare. Had to threaten the Irish company with a small claims court, who subsequently paid for their mistakes.

I'll try to be concise, which doesnt come naturally.

1. Paid for a "door to door" service which specifically excluded all charges which were not government taxes.
2. When our stuff arrived here it was nearly 2 months late
3. All your stuff goes into whats known as a "fiscal warehouse"
4. The fiscal warehouse is privately owned, but provides a holding service to the aduana (customs) people to hold your stuff while they do or do not perform a goods inspection.
5. The fiscal warehouse charges a daily rate, likely to be close to 100 USD per day.

So, i got a phonecall from the local agent who the Irish company had subcontracted looking for his fee and the fiscal warehouse fee (nearly a grand, somehow!...all without so much as an invoice).

The only way I could sort this, because I got nowhere by legally threatening the local agent and fiscal warehouse (I suspect they wanted a bribe) was to get very heavy (court summons for breach of contract) with the Irish company explaining they had sold me a door to door service and as per that contract the only charges I was liable for were government taxes and the privately owned fiscal warehouse charges and their sub contracted local agent fees would have to be swallowed by themselves.

I guess they didnt fancy duking it out in court as they settled, paid the extra few thousand euro to the local guy and in all likelihood made a loss on the contract. We shipped 21 boxes of stuff.

Was it worth it? Not sure. Lot of hassle and truthfully I don't know how much of the stuff I really really needed.

Yes, do bring clothes and as much as you can. I don't know if I could go back that I would bother with the whole shipping nonsense. This was 2 years ago and it only got worse. I also had the advantage of having an Argentine wife with a certificate from the Argentine embassy in Dublin stating that she was tax exempt as a returning citizen.

You are potentially going to be taxed (at least they will try hard!) by the government on import duties, you will have to pay for the fiscal warehouse and some local agent or someone from the port is going to try and shake you down on some other spurious duties.

Be careful. This is not Europe, the rules are very hazy and open to all sorts of exploitation, if they think they can get money out of you, they will try.

 

[nikad]

Hi everyone,

I am new in this forum, german national, moving with my chilean wife middle of November, 2014 to BA and looking very much forward to it. I am 41, my wife is 32 and our new born baby is 35 days old. I will be working in BA as Expat in the BA-subisidiary of a german company.

Does anyone has experience in importing a container by ship with household goods to BA? Especifically I am looking for a serious agent in BA, who can do all the process of custom clearance in BA and deliver the container to my home in BA. I have been quoting with several companies, but they are charge around 2,500 USD for the custom clearance including port charges and around 1,900 USD for delivering the container from the port to my home in BA (within 40km radius) and both figures seem to be ridicoulously expensive to me. So any help and contact would be highly appreciated!

Looking forward to move to this beautiful city!

Kashif

Hi Kashif,
If you want a trustworthy referral for your move, feel free to send me a private message. Those prices seem to be a little bit off imho.
Cheers!
Nik

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Actually, ring her, above....best bet.

 

[ghost]

Keep in mind that Buenos Aires is known as one of the most corrupt ports in the world. Prepare to pay and pay again. And then you will pay a bond to insure that you will remove the stuff someday. Here's where it gets even worse. Shipping your stuff out of BA is worse that hell and twice as expensive. Plus your possessions will be cherry picked before leaving and when you finally discover what is missing it's way too late. Sell your belongings or store them and ship a check.

 

[sgibson123]

we heard so many horror stories we sold it all and moved here with only 11 pieces of luggage.. have a few friends who came from England..mny items missing after 11 weeks of waiting...all high value.... have another friend from Holland still waiting.. paying and paying and customs keeps delaying the release.. to me.. it was not worth it..

 

[ghost]

Keep in mind that you are not coming at a good time. There were times when the port of BA was very busy and profitable with imports. That is no longer the case and now they will milk every cow to death.

 

[cbonanni]

I agree with Nikad's recommendation above. Although I did not use them , they were prompt and professional and reasonable with their quote. When I shipped my container and car , I agreed to a price , and pre paid it. With the caveat that no additional sums would be due on arrival in Buenos Aires. That indeed was the case. I used my own movers to get everything from the deposito fiscal , where I was present when the container was opened , and inspected by customs , the my movers loaded their truck and delivered it my house. The car had to sit for another week till it was cleared. (1988 BMW 635 CSI )

Insist on being there when the container is opened and hire your own moving company to deliver it to your house. Beware all the horror stories on this sight. PM me if you want my local freight forwarder who handled my container.