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We are planning on shipping some household items from the US to Costa Rica (a 20′ container cargo) It is primarily kitchen appliances, some furniture, and a number of boxes. I am confused as to the process of clearing customs. I know there is a potential large customs/tax charge, but what other issues should we be aware of? 1) Do all items that go to either port need to go through San Jose to clear? 2) Do we need a customs broker to facilitate or does the shipper usually handle? 3) Are there ways to (legally of course) minimize the customs/tax charge? Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Are you using a shipper in Costa Rica? We recently had a 40 foot container with our goods shipped here. We used the services of someone here, and our customs duties were included in his price. Our container arrived in Limon and was sent to the customs warehouse in Alajuela.
[quote=”CHERYLJK”]Are you using a shipper in Costa Rica? We recently had a 40 foot container with our goods shipped here. We used the services of someone here, and our customs duties were included in his price. Our container arrived in Limon and was sent to the customs warehouse in Alajuela.[/quote]
If you have had a good experience with this shipper, would you please include the details here? Name of the company? Person? Email? Website address and perhaps their telephone address?
As promised, here is my experience with having a 40 foot container shipped to Costa Rica. We used the services of Charlie Zeller, shiptocostarica@racsa.co.cr, 2431-1234, 866-245-6923. I would like to start off by saying that on a different forum people have complained about Charlie not answering their emails or returning their phone calls. That was NOT our experience.
I got quotes from 3 other companies, and I talked to a fourth person who never sent me a quote. Charlie’s quote was $9200, which included customs duties. The highest quote I received was for over $12,000, and that did not include customs duties. Our container was shipped from Gloucester City, NJ to the port of Limon. We picked Charlie for 2 reasons. He gave us the lowest quote, and we had met him previously and liked what we saw. Also, from the time when we originally got his quote to the time when we actually shipped everything (probably close to 2 years, the cost to us only went up about $30-$40.
Charlie was very thorough as to what we had to do prior to the move, ie., how to pack things, how to do inventory, the size of the straps needed for the container, shipping a car (which we did not do), etc. He also answered all my questions, as stupid as they might be! I was concerned about my LPs melting in the hot container. He told me not to worry about it, and he was right.
We arranged for 4 men to load our container. He told us to use a local company as opposed to one of the national firms as it would be cheaper. I contacted 6 different companies via the internet as we were already living here in CR. The only company I found to be really interested was Elite Moving Labor, so that’s who I went with. They, in turn, contracted out with a local company of movers. On moving day 4 men showed up at the storage lockers, and we couldn’t have been happier with their services. Our 2 storage lockers were located in a suburb of Philadelphia. It cost us $450 for a 2 1/2 hour load time.
The tractor trailer driver got lost, so he was late but not by much. We knew we were getting a refrigerated container as Charlie had told us that. What we didn’t know was that refrigerated containers don’t have any rings to attach straps. So, nothing could be strapped down, which irritated both my husband and me. I had visions of boxes falling and getting crushed, but I knew there was nothing we could do about it.
The container remains on the bed, so it is quite high off the ground. We needed to find a ramp for moving day. This was quite a feat to accomplish as Elite Movers did not provide this service, and the companies they suggested we contact did not have any ramps. My husband finally found one for rent at Taylor Rentals. That cost $50.
Once the container was all loaded the driver asked me if I had a seal. I did not. I assumed he had the seal. So he left with all our worldly goods with a container that wasn’t sealed. So there was another thing that irritated us. He said he would call from Gloucester with the seal number, but he never did. The company he worked for was Evans Transport, and the company responsible for the container getting loaded onto the ship was Absolute Global Shipping out of Brandon, FL. I was pleased with them. The woman from Brandon called me that morning to make sure the container had arrived. She also contacted us later with the seal number and let us know when our ship would be departing for CR.
We had been told that it would take 2-3 weeks for us to get our stuff. The ship was at sea for 5 days, and our things were in customs in Alajuela for about a week. In fact, everything cleared customs before we were ready as our house wasn’t quite yet finished being built. Charlie was able to keep our stuff for another week without charging us. A week later 2 trucks arrived, and the 4 men who unloaded everything were very quick and professional. We couldn’t have been more pleased!
So, although we weren’t happy with nothing having been strapped and no seal number, we were very happy with Charlie Zeller’s services. Also, nothing got broken and not a single box was opened! A couple of lamp shades were dented, and a pewter bowl got squished, but that was the extent of the damage. All in all, my husband and I were very pleased with the whole move.
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