To Ship Or Not To Ship, That Is The Question.....

[Gringoboy]

When I moved here in 2005 I packed all my stuff up with a removal firm who then used a good freight forwarder and everything arrived in a big wooden crate by sea freight.
Personally I'm really glad I brought stuff I thought I would never need....old pc's, cables, gadgets, widgets etc as I've sold most of that over the years and they've proved a good insurance policy to generate much needed cash.
The actual logistics process at the other end was a doddle, but once off the ship in BA it was the stuff of nightmares.

 

[Jaredberryman]

Personally, I wouldn't ship right now, if I had dollars/euros to purchase stuff here. The reason is that the blue dollar is about to go up again, and you'll find that with that exchange rate, you're better off buying your furniture here as it is not terribly expensive. The other stuff, like clothes, electronics, and other such items, just pack them into as many suitcases as the airline allows, as its worth it even paying the extra fee. Right now the furniture and stuff like that is not toooo bad. You won't get great quality, but you can find some stuff that is okay.

 

[bkoustav]

Thanks for all the responses.
I hope SNAFU does not become to TARFU

I made first trip today and it stopped at DHL office in San Telmo. Although DHL had confirmed over telephone that paperwork is ready, when I reached there paperwork was ready only for one consignment. So I decided to collect all papers tomorrow or later.

If your emplyers are picking up expenses, get an English speaking translator to help! Someone is going to look for some money from you regardless I would say. Not all of it above board either.

We shipped via sea as Ezeiza is a customs black hole.

for the language issue, I requested a bilingual driver from the remise we use daily. And it worked well.
It's too late to know EZE is a black hole.

When I moved here in 2005 I packed all my stuff up with a removal firm who then used a good freight forwarder and everything arrived in a big wooden crate by sea freight.
Personally I'm really glad I brought stuff I thought I would never need....old pc's, cables, gadgets, widgets etc as I've sold most of that over the years and they've proved a good insurance policy to generate much needed cash.
The actual logistics process at the other end was a doddle, but once off the ship in BA it was the stuff of nightmares.

Would like to know more about those nightmares please.

Personally, I wouldn't ship right now, if I had dollars/euros to purchase stuff here. The reason is that the blue dollar is about to go up again, and you'll find that with that exchange rate, you're better off buying your furniture here as it is not terribly expensive. The other stuff, like clothes, electronics, and other such items, just pack them into as many suitcases as the airline allows, as its worth it even paying the extra fee. Right now the furniture and stuff like that is not toooo bad. You won't get great quality, but you can find some stuff that is okay.

My colleague is mainly shipping items of their 2 yrs old son. We get furnished apartments in BA from company

 

[bkoustav]

I got over rest of the episode without without major hiccup.......but it was long process..........I describe it here in short for benefit of others

1) Visit DHL customer service office in San Telmo to get custom papers. DHL charges 100 USD for each consignment. This is strange because everything was supposed to be paid for at time of sending the consignments
2) Go the EZE airport cargo department (TCA). Its on the left hand side just before you take entry tickets for parking. Lookg for big banner saying TCA.
3) Go to warehouse gate "B". I had to ask at a few places before being guided to correct place
4) Inside gate B there are office# 1 (cash counter), 2 (paper work) and 3 (customs inspector). You first go to office#2 with papers handed over to by DHL. Then the loop starts between the three offices. In each turn they will ask few basic questions and give you some paper and instruct what next to do.
5) At some point the inspector will take you to storage area to physically inspect the consignment. In my case I declared that all items are used items for personal use. However during physical inspection there was one piece of clothing with original price tag still on. The inspector gave a mischivious smile at me and digged further hoping to get more new items but he was dissappointed.
6) After inspection there was some more merry go round between offices I was told to pay for the storage and inspection charges in office#1. Thankfully they did not levy any customs duty for the items.
7) After paying the charges I was aksed how do I want to carry the items. I was told by DHL that I can directly take the items or hand over to DHL office there. However the DHL office closes by 3:30 pm and I had no option to carry the items myself.
8) I called the taxi which was waiting for me inside the cargo area and loaded the items in the boot and drove away

Altogether it took me around 4 hours for completing all activities within cargo terminal.

Some of the staff in cargo office could communicate in English and so I did not get stuck anywhere because of language issue. In fact they were very helpful to me seeing that I'm a foreigner not understanding local language.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Glad that it went well and was bribe free!

 

[bkoustav]

Glad that it went well and was bribe free!

Yes.
The process was long and I was tired, but no unnecessary harrassment. You have to have lot of patience to go through customs procedure.

 

[Somewhereinba]

So what were the total charges you paid for storage etc?

Does that mean you don't have to pay import tax on used goods for personal use?

 

[bkoustav]

So what were the total charges you paid for storage etc?

Does that mean you don't have to pay import tax on used goods for personal use?

I had to pay around 800 peso total for around 4 days of storage & inspections fees (2 cartons, 30 Kg total)
They did not charge import tax on used goods for personal use.

 

[cbonanni]

Air freight runs about $US35 per kilo. Very little or no hassles duty from customs. No duty. I can recommend one if you want...

 

[francabu]

cbonanni, i would love to get your recommendation. thanks!