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Photo by Alessio Corradini, on the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, of two locals

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Alessio Corradini,
on the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia,
of two locals



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  #1  
Old 23 Nov 2003
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Ship parts US to Ecuador, Avoiding customs
I need to ship parts from USA to Ecuador to rebuild my engine. I dont want to pay import customs. What is best to do? Ricardo said he had some clothes sent with "samples" on the invoice and that worked. I dont think "samples" applies well to hard engine parts. One idea is to have my father ship them without invoice and some kind of note about my repair parts. Or have the shop include a false invoice with a very low price so that if I pay customs it is not much?

Any suggestions?
Thanks.

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Old 23 Nov 2003
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Hi Jim,

If the parts are not heavy or bulky, another traveller flying in from the US might be prepared to bring them for you (but I guess you'd have to make some arrangement about what happens in the unlikely event they decide to charge tax/duty at the airport).

A lower value on the parcel is a good idea, but don't make it absurd. If you have the invoice marked "No Charge - Repair Under Warranty" in English and Spanish, that might also help. Add something like "Nominal Value $65.00", so that they have a reasonable figure to work with if they decide to charge you duty anyway.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Michael...
www.expeditionoverland.com

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Old 30 Nov 2003
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If it isn't too far, consider shipping to a Peruvian town close to the border, e.g. Piura (maybe Colombia would work, too.) Customs over there didn't tax a new shock and never queried the $25.95 price on the invoice & customs declaration. Had a look at how Ecuadorian customs operates while getting bike permission in Macará - they went through every pair of socks in a box sent from the US to a local. Very thorough, and a fake invoice would be seem less likely to work with them.

Good luck,
James
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Old 22 Dec 2003
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Just wanted to follow up on this.

I had the parts shipped via UPS from USA. It has been a nightmarish MONTH and I still dont have my parts!

The idiots at UPS are almost as incompetent in Ecuador as they are in USA. The USA ofice did not have an address or current phone number of their Ecuador office!! Major pain to track down , ad ABSOLUTELY NO HELP FROM USA OFFICE!

IN addition to paying UPS $275 (for 23 lb package!) for shipping, I had to pay $85 to customs, even though the invoice says warantee parts- no charge.

I would have been much cheaper (counting money spent sitting around Quito doing nothing) and much much faster to fly home, get the parts, and fly back! Learn from my mistake!
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Old 9 Jan 2004
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Hi there,
It's too bad your shipping took so long. I sent a postcard home from Belize and it took about a week to get to Ottawa, Canada.

If you paid the shipping by credit card you should be able to get the shipping for free. Did UPS specify a length of time to ship the parts? If it was off by a lot you could tell the credit card company that UPS did not provide the service offered. Without an excuse you can have credit card charges cancelled for a small fee of about 5$ or so.

Good luck, Steve
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