Cautionary Tales: Shipping Products into Ecuador

cccmedia · 2021-08-04T05:49:59+02:00

On July 15th I arranged for my new U.S.-to-Ecuador shipping company, MyUS, to consolidate three packages and send them to me in one box to Quito. MyUS had been promoting its ability to save money for customers by doing this kind of consolidating. The box -- apparently held up at SENAE (Ecuadorian customs) in metro Quito -- contains products from nuts.com and Amazon and a few bottles of a thyroid supplement .. all previously sent in a total of three packages to my new mailbox at MyUS's Florida warehouse. Today, MyUS's partner company DHL/Ecuador notified me that the box is undeliverable because it weighs more than the four-kilogram limit, requiring 'permissions' that I do not have. Either it must be abandoned or sent back to Florida at a cost of $200. I emailed MyUS, suggesting that they arrange for the permissions or pay the freight back to Florida to re-package. I pointed out that as a first-time customer I have been depending on MyUS to ensure that my package was in compliance with the rules for international shipping. cccmedia in Quito

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Guest7851 Guest

Guest7851Guest06 April 2022 19:04:29

#41

214245

@lebowski888 Thanks for the recommendation! I used the service by Correos del Ecuador in the past, but it's no longer working. Servientrega offers a similar service called "GlobalBox". Have you tried it?

BTW, this is why you should never tell your friends you're going to the US. Your friends immediately see you as "free shipping"!

@cccmedia Yup, I know people (and people who know people) who are basically "private couriers". Some charge by pound, some charge by item depending on the type of item. As long as they don't exceed the SENAE limits for air passengers, they should be fine, but sometimes the SENAE can be nosy.

Dagretto Active member

Member since 16 July 2020

DagrettoActive member20 April 2022 19:08:55

#42

@lebowski888 Thanks for the recommendation! I used the service by Correos del Ecuador in the past, but it's no longer working. Servientrega offers a similar service called "GlobalBox". Have you tried it?

BTW, this is why you should never tell your friends you're going to the US. Your friends immediately see you as "free shipping"!

@cccmedia Yup, I know people (and people who know people) who are basically "private couriers". Some charge by pound, some charge by item depending on the type of item. As long as they don't exceed the SENAE limits for air passengers, they should be fine, but sometimes the SENAE can be nosy.
- @gantorig

Whenever I go to the US, my Ecuadorian wife always has a discussion on how much extra we should charge for muling stuff down, haha!

Damon.

lebowski888 Serial expat

Member since 09 April 2018

lebowski888Serial expat21 April 2022 01:34:52

#43

318

I imagine this is how many mules start.

Let's say you do charge $8 per pound.

Let's also say you somehow find an airline that allows you six 50-pound bags on your $350 one way.

That would be $2400 gross.

Let's say the 6 checked bags airline fee is $50 each (i am imagining you had all this luggage for years)

2400-350-300 = $1750 net.

How much time and hassle will it be to communicate with various interested customers?

Collect all their stuff (nevermind the occasional Amazon orders that arrive two weeks late). Package it so it is efficient but doesn't break (what if it breaks in transit though?) Hopefully you don't get flagged by the aduana. Then what's the plan? Then delivering all the stuff to the rightful owners in EC. And time spent communicating again.

I imagine i didn't think of half the muling hassles.

Maybe it is worth $1750. If it's 40 hours of labor, that's about $43 per hour profit.

Dagretto Active member

Member since 16 July 2020

DagrettoActive member22 April 2022 21:37:15

#44

We do it for a little extra dosh on the side...

My wife also instructs me to buy certain items in the US that are much cheaper, so that we can directly re-sell her in Ecuador. I can say one thing for her: she's definitely the capitalist!

Damon.

cccmedia Ecuador / Colombia Expert

Member since 13 March 2014

cccmediaEcuador / Colombia Expert30 May 2022 22:37:25

#45

10281

Cautionary tale from Manta.

A viewer of Expat Don Shader's YouTube channel decided to send Don a gift -- apparently a pair of shoes, although that's not explicitly stated in Don's latest video.

Anyway, in order to get the product through SENAE/customs and to his residence in Manta, Don had to access the invoice from Amazon .. convert the invoice to PDF format .. and email the invoice to his USA based shipping/forwarder company.

Don said he'd identify the product if and when he receives it. He explains the technical maneuvers he had to master, in the new video.

Search at YouTube.com...

shipping your stuff to ecuador shader

---

Lessons one may draw from this little episode...

1. Don't have people from back home send you stuff unless you have technical skills and are willing to comply with SENAE regs.

2. Don't give out your address in Ecuador even to friends and family .. and if they have it, advise them not to send you something without explicit approval.

And yes, I'm the party who had to spend $1,800 last year in shipping fees, return fees, attorney fees, SENAE fees, etc. attempting to get a package from Amazon/USA to Quito. The near-fatal mistake was not knowing that food products are not ordinarily permitted to be sent into Ecuador; ignorance of this one fact produces a costly result. And no, I never received any of the products I ordered for the package.

cccmedia in Quito

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