madness with customs

So this is how it ended: Yesterday I left León at 7:00am and was back at my place 5:55pm, just in time to give my class. In-between I had been spending the entire time at the Transexpress offices and customs and busses/taxis going back and forth. First I went to Transexpress, asking whether they could give me the papers for package three, that I had refused to accept when they came to León the day before. What happened was that on Monay had spoken to Luis Vallez at Transexpress, and he had ensured me that they would handle the entire process and just let me pay customs, and call me back if something didn't work. Then the next day the papers for just one package arrived in León, and f course I thought they had messed it up, and sent them back to Managua. I called the Managua office, and they then said that customs had refused to give them the papers for the first two packages, and so they sent me the papers for the third (ok, makes no sense). Back in the office yesterday morning, the lady behind the counter calls the company that is sending the papers back to them, and all we get to know is that it's on the way somewhere. I end up going to a cyber cafe and to fake the invoice/bill of that package in Word and give that back to them, so they can fill out new papers. It's actually one computer-written slip with two signatures on it. I wait, half an hour. I start asking what it is that takes so long. Oh, she's waiting for a phone call from their representative at the Transexpress office at customs to describe the contents of the package. The other paper had said "baterias". I try to tell her that she can just look at the bill, but she insists that it has to be the exact contents as it actually can be found in the package. I happen to have the number of their person there, so I call, and get her on the line immediately. The two speak for a little while. I then wait another 20-30 minutes. Then finally does the paperwork appear. It's just one slip, without descriptions. I ask about the description slip -- "oh, no that is still being send back to us, and we can't write another one" they claim, but then also that I don't need it to get the package. I rush down to customs. I tell the customs agent that there are two package slips waiting already with his colleague Doris. He explains that that might mean that I have to pay a 10USD customs fee three times, because their system isn't made to accept several slips simultaneously, and that there needs to be only one slip listing "3 packages" if I only want to pay it once. How I get such a slip is a mystery to me. We go for inspections, and the Transexpress lady with my package overhears our conversation. "Oh, no, it's 40USD for each, because he has already been here more than three months," she intervenes. We do the inspection, and apparently she has been opening my third package a few times already, so she can explain exactly what is in the batteries and how you use the recharger. Then I call Transexpress, and ask them why they haven't told me of this charge before. They just claim that that was an error by all my previous contact people there, and they offer to do every single package for 17.25USD rather than 40USD, if only I bring the paperwork back to them. In addition come of course 25% customs. Their manager Luis Vallez had claimed it would be "somewhere between 15% and 30%" on Monday, somewhat strange way of saying "25%". When I had been at their office that morning, they had claimed that all payments need to be done at their office, and that all information I had received from their Miami office about me being able to pay the delivery guy didn't apply to Nicaragua, because they subcontract the actual delivery here. Now, on the phone, they suddenly claim that I can pay that fee and customs "electronically" and that I would just need to wait for my package in Leon, where it would likely arrive on Friday. When I had asked at their office whether I needed to pay in cash at customs, one had claimed that I did, but she was then interrupted by the other counter lady, who claimed that payments wouldn't happen here at all and that I would get a slip with sum I needed to pay with which I then would have to take another taxi to a bank to pay. Both things had nothing to do with the truth: they have accepted VISA for 6 months, and do take cash as well. Due to Transexpress just constantly messing up, misinforming and just generally being completely disorganized and me needing my batteries before "Friday" (which in Transexpress-language probably means "Wednesday next week") I decide to just go ahead and pay the 120USD total fee. I try to do it all together, and the lady with the papers for package 1+2 gives me the papers, which I try to transfer to the guy currently dealing with me. But they decide they don't want to do it that way, an I am asked again if not Transexpress should do it. When I decline, she (Doris, my customs agent from Thursday) takes my papers, but then goes of to lunch, claiming to be back in an hour or so. At the end of that hour, during which I mostly just wait and go back and forth between various instances that need to see the package or fill out more paperwork about it, I actually get my first package. Then Doris comes back from lunch, and she goes about the task of getting my other two packages through. The microphone part (worth 80USD, package 1) didn't have a receipt with it, so she is kind enough to set it's value at 1USD. She first tries to make just one package out of it, so that I only pay 40USD once, but her chief doesn't let her go through with it, and so I pay the 80USD there as well, in addition to customs.

At the end of the day, I spent all day at customs, and paid 200USD custom fees for goods with a total cost of 280USD. What I have learned is that I never ever again will have things sent to Nicaragua, at least as long as I don't have a cedula.

PS: I wonder if one should set up a page like "Transexpress sucks" on which one describes all the actual procedures and guidelines, so that people can get to know them, before stumbling upon them by coincidence and when Transexpress happens to tell them.

-- Johannes Wilm http://www.johanneswilm.org

I recently imported three used laptops using TransExpress. No problems. I sent myself a used Nokia N800 via DHL and DHL got to fight with customs. They thought it was a telephone. The honcho of DHL in Managua won that fight.

We imported a 2500 lb. generator from China this year with no problems other than aduanas wanted the serial number. I told them it didn't have one and they said if I was wrong they would fine me $100. It didn't.

Our most recent "disaster" is clearly the fault of our soon to be ex-customs agent. It was a big combined freight order. First, they tried to get us to translate the invoices. We explained that was their job. Finally, they send us a list of all the missing invoices. Well, they had them an lost them.

Finally, for exporting coffee, the most I sent at one time was about 10 lbs. total to four destinations. No problem but I did bring an extra 1 lb. bag to the post office to give to the clerks.