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Previously boxed items repacked in sloppy bundles
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Costa Rica Shipping: The pros and cons to shipping a container
Most of us have heard people share stories, both good and bad, of their experience with having shipped a container of their belongings when they moved here.
From all of the stories we have heard personally, the horror stories far out weigh the pleasant ones. That is not to say there are not those that had a wonderful experience and recommend it to everyone they talk to.
What is sometimes surprising to some people is the vastly different experience people might have with the exact same shipping company. Of course for those that have lived here more than a couple of years, I am sure you all say to yourselves, nothing surprises you anymore.
Our long time friends Bob and Kathleen just moved here to the Central Pacific area, arriving July 2nd. It has been a two year project, having bought property in August of 2006 in the mountains near by with an awesome ocean view stretching practically from Esterillos all the way to Manuel Antonio. They broke ground on their house in January and it is being completed this week.
Bob and Kathleen on the deck of their new home in Costa Rica
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Bob and Kathleen used ABC shipping on the recommendation of another friend who had a good experience with the company. Their experience though has pretty much convinced me that it just is not worth the hassle and frustration of shipping a container. Not taking into account even the over all expense.
It started out smoothly with everything packed nicely and shipped out of California. They left for Costa Rica a few days later, excited to be starting off on this next chapter of their lives.
First issue arises when they get an e-mail from the ABC rep informing them that for reasons unexplained their shipment had been divided among two different containers, but the good news according to the rep was that the first one had arrived and was in Limon awaiting the next step. They never did get a good explanation as to why the shipment was split up.
It took nearly two more weeks for the remaining portion of their shipment to arrive and then a couple more weeks for it to finally meet up with the first portion in San Jose. Second issue arises when ABC informs them that "door to door" only meant to San Jose and they had to pay $800 delivery from San Jose to the Parrita area.
Even though others who had used this same company were quoted "door to door" and extra delivery charges never came up for delivery to this same general area. Frustrated and anxious for their stuff they went ahead and paid the $800 delivery charge because otherwise the company would start charging them storage fees.
ABC is a popular shipping company used for shipping from the USA to Costa Rica.
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Well, their container arrived at their new home this past Monday and the final shoe fell on what had become an exercise in futility. The first thing unloaded from the container were approximately 30 sloppily taped bundles wrapped in brown paper and plastic shipping tape. The items in these bundles had all been in boxes when they left California.
At some point, probably in customs, the boxes had been opened and then this was the way the shipping company people responsible repacked things. Some of these bundles actually had ceramic and dishware in them. You can see a crushed box in the middle of the picture that was then put in plastic and wrapped in plastic tape.
Broken china pieces, broken mirrors, scratched furniture, etc. followed. Three mirrors were only wrapped in brown shipping paper and had been placed inside a tall box with absolutely no padding what so ever. Amazingly only one of the three mirrors was broken. They discovered at least one large plastic container was missing that had some leather coats in it. That apparently was stolen along the way.
The box with their king sized mattress was crushed on one corner and was wet. So they are trying to dry the mattress out in the hopes that it won't mildew. Hindsight is great of course, but they say if they had to do it all over again they would probably not do the container route.
Some people may ask though, "Can I get good quality items here that I know I can get in the States". The answer in almost every case is, yes! The nice thing today is that you actually have other options you might not of had even just a few years ago. The availability of quality furniture, appliances, and smaller items today makes it a very attractive option of simply buying most of everything you need once you arrive to your new home here.
A good example is a recent client who decided against shipping a container and decided to buy here. First they made the trip to Golfito to the duty free shopping and purchased the following items:
- Telstar Microwave Oven Good size -- Costa Rica colones price 15,152.50
- Panasonic Microwave - 32,175.00
- Rice Maker - 15403.50
- Frying Pan/Skillet (Sarten) -- 15,010.00
- 21" LG TV -- 75,106.00
- 18 CUFT Frigidaire Fridge-- 251,160.00
- Frigidaire dishwasher -- 122,820.00 (came with a free Discman portable cd player)
- Whirlpool Electric Dryer (regular size) -- 194,990.00 (and it came with a free blender)
- 29" Sharp TV -- 148,707.00
- Oster Coffee Maker- 13,041.00
- LG Stereo System -- 83,190.00
- Whirlpool Washing Machine (regular size) -- 213,500.00 (also came with a free blender)
- Frigidaire Stove (full size, electric) -- 209,500.00 (came with a free Discman portable CD player)
Frigidaire and Panasonic appliances half price in Golfito
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For those that have never been to the duty free shopping in Golfito, each person is allowed to purchase approximately $500 worth of merchandise every 6 months. These people took friends and family with them so they could get all that they needed. Typically there are locals that will sell you their tickets for about $30 that will allow you to purchase more than the initial $500. The people that made this purchase used a company called Guanacaste Express, and all of their items delivered from Golfito to Esterillos Oeste for only $150.
Everything arrived within the week. They compared prices for quality furniture and found the prices in and around San Jose to be far cheaper than the Jaco area where they obviously cater to the Los Suenos and luxury condo owners in the Central Pacific area.
They bought all of their furniture in San Jose at a place called Muebles LAR. Their Number is 2291-2160 and they are near San Sebastian. Costado Sur Puente Peatonal Hatillo #7 for their address. They looked at many different places and this place gave them the best prices and had everything they wanted.
They borrowed a truck from a friend so they did not have to pay shipping, but they would have done the shipping door to door for 100,000 and they have their own truck. The 100,000 was because it would have taken the whole truck just for them and it was a good rate.
Modern solid wood dining set purchased at Meubles Lar in San Jose
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They purchased the following furniture items:
- Sofa -- with 5 Pillows and the 2 sofa chairs was 210,000
- Coffee Table -- 35,000
- 2 Bar Stools -- 50,000 (25,000 each)
- Rustic Closet in the Guest Bedroom -- 89,000
- Entertainment Center (downstairs) -- 89,000
- TV stand in the master -- 69,000
- Bunk bed with othopedic sponge mattresses (metal bunk bed) -- 198,000
- King bed with mattress -- 217,000
- Full (Matrimonial) with mattress -- 136,000
- 3 Night stands (1 downstairs next to sofa and 1 in each room) -- 75,000 (25,000 each)
- 6 Person Dining Room Table with Chairs and Chair cushions were made to match the sofa -- 169,000
- Dresser with mirror (in the master) 87,000
Quality furniture purchased in San Jose
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Their total between the appliance items in Golfito, plus shipping, and the furniture items in San Jose came to US$5,293.99 While you need to take into account the personal items that Bob and Kathleen wanted to bring down and had shipped in their container, they paid, including import taxes and the extra delivery charge, nearly $14,000 to have the container shipped.
That of course doesn't include the cost of all of the items they purchase specifically to bring down, such as all of their appliances and several furniture pieces. Those things bring their total to over $20,000 not taking into consideration the value of their personal items they also shipped.
With these amounts in mind, except for meaningful personal items, with the availability of quality products now here, it is hard today to justify the hassle, headaches, frustration, and over all expense of shipping a container. As of the printing of this article, Bob and Kathleen are still putting together their insurance claim form. Time will tell.
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