Dear Sir,
After reading your article “Customs makes a killing on Xmas gifts” (December 19-25), I would like to respond with our experience.
We moved to Ajijic in February 2009, having our personal belongings shipped from Europe. In June, we received word that our container had arrived in Veracruz but that we had to pay a deposit of 1,000 dollars on top of the shipping and freight charges we had paid already. The explanation was that it was a deposit for the container only, and that we would receive the money back within seven days, as long as the container was returned to the harbor. To ensure our container was delivered, we paid the money to Landerpack, the shipper in Mexico City.
The container was returned within the seven days, but it took seven months to get our deposit back.
It needed daily e-mails and telephone calls to Landerpack, and the help of an attorney in Ajijic, to get our deposit back. The attorney told us that it is common practice to charge extra amounts of money. He mentioned that the Customs office in Veracruz seems to have a very bad reputation.
We had to agree with that assessment after opening the container. To our dismay, we found that customs officers had handled our belongings very badly.
Our move was done with an international mover so everything had been packed very professionally. But boxes with personal papers had been opened and searched through. Papers, letters and photos – including some of my partner’s deceased mother before her coffin was closed – lay scattered on the floor of the container. It was a sad disgrace and a very upsetting experience.
Even worse, customs officers, in the presence of the Mexican shipper’s agent, stole items, including a gold fountain pen, cuff-links and used tester bottles of eau de toilette. They remarked that we had to pay extra duty on them. But when we asked how much we had to pay nobody responded, and nobody knows where the items are.
Furthermore, the damage done by the custom officers was horrendous. They ripped boxes apart and threw things back in without any regard for their value or the simple fact that they were handling a person’s belongings. A lock was ripped off a briefcase, presumably because it didn’t open fast enough. Small statues were thrown in a box and broken. And so on.
We have moved to many places around the world but never have our belongings been treated like this.
Erik Slebos, Ajijic
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