Tuesday, March 16, 2010

What the heck have I been up to?

I've been taking a wee little break from blogging lately for a few reasons. One of which was time. We have had our best friends visiting from Canada stay with us for the last 15 days, and we were very busy playing tourist with them. Ohhh how much fun we had. We went down to the Bahia Principe for 5 days, Xcaret, Isla Mujeres and of course Cancun!!
Another reason for my absenteeism has been mi casa. Ohhh I don't know where to begin. We have been so busy trying to get it "ready" for our guests, and "ready" for us that I just don't know when this project will end? It may not look like we've done a lot to others, but we have spent half a years rent fixing the place up!! Cleaning out our water pumps on the roof, adding pressure tanks, cleaning, painting, plumbing, electrical, etc... The list goes on and on. I'll have to post some pics....

My biggest nightmare has been dealing with our shipping company from Canada. Why oh why did we ship our things?? If it were up to me we never would have, but the decision was out of my hands. The container was loaded in Cgy Canada on the 9th of December. It went straight to Vancouver port area. Was supposed to arrive in Cancun between the 15th and 17th of January. Great. Then when it didn't arrive we were told Superbowl Sunday (mid Feb). That didn't sound right, and guess what? It wasn't. Then we started getting a little feisty with the company and were told Mexican customs were holding us up, and were questioning the value of our goods, etc... They wanted us to pay tax as if everything were brand new. Which it wasn't. Okay, believable. We were told it would arrive on the 6th of March. So no problem, on the 4th I confirmed it was still scheduled for the 6th. The 5th I inquired? Was told - they would look into it. I get an email at 9pm that night advising "blah blah blah we are so sorry, but we sent the wrong container and your container is still in Canada, blah blah blah". So basically I have been even more mad as not only do they still have all our things in Canada, but also they think I am stupid enough to believe all the stories from before. Customs my ass.

The story goes on and on, and supposedly the container was loaded on the 10th of March and confirmed to have left Vancouver for Cancun. We'll wait and see....

I would write more, but am too tired to even write about it at this point. I have had to tell the story a million times, and now it's just exhausting. Wow is this a lesson learned.

If you are thinking about ever shipping anything to Mexico, make sure you use a company that knows what the hell they are doing, and have experience dealing with Mexico.

All for now - my mom arrives tomorrow and have to get ready for that!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mmmm sorry your shipping service was so crummy. (Maybe the guys in customs are former Telcel employees?) Hopefully it will be worth it once it gets here.

Glad you had a fun time with your friends!

sally said...

I ended up driving our stuff across the border in 3 trailers...and man what an ordeal...i can only imagine what a shipping company is charging you...along with customs too....ouch!

Kristan said...

Hola!! I follow your blog, and love it! My hubbie and I met in Merida and lived in Cancun for 4 years. I convinced him to move to Texas for 2 years and now we are ready to move back to Cancun but I want to take my furniture! We have some nice stuff and I know how expensive furniture is in Mexico compared to the US. Was it reallllllly expensive to move your stuff??? And if it had not taken so long would it be worth it to you to do it again?? Thanks so much in advance!!!