Expat Community > Ecuador

gneie
Joined 2011
Posts: 4

Shipping to Esmeraldas

12 years ago

After a long wait for a permanent resident visa and cedula (I filed my application just before the bureaucracy was cleaned of corruption and the system changed) we were able to have our household goods shipped from Los Angeles to Esmeraldas barely in time to qualify for the customs duty waiver for retirees. That delay was expensive because we had put our things in a warehouse with the expectation of getting them shipped within a couple of weeks. It took 4 months because the applications that had been filed before the change were not being processed. A letter from a helpful customs official got the immigration people to "find" the application and process mine. The customs office was very efficient once the container arrived as well. As to the immigration system, my wife filed her application after the system change over and actually received her visa and cedula before I did. It is much improved now. However, there is more to the story.
The warehouse we stored our things in prior to shipment is run by MMI Logistics, Inc. and provided impeccable service. When we got the cedulas and gave MMI the "go-ahead" they loaded the container and had it delivered to the Port of Los Angeles for shipment by MAERSK since it services the port of Esmeraldas. To do this MMI had to use a shipping service: SHIPCO TRANSPORT in Los Angeles. This we pre-paid.
The container arrived in Esmeraldas within two weeks. Aside from the expected port fee, our local agent's fee (he interfaced with the customs people and arranged transport of the container to Atacames, where we live), and the trucking fee, there were two unexpected charges that we had to pay before we could take delivery.
One was a $199 fee from Maersk that appears to be for dropping the container off at Esmeraldas en route to Guayaquil. Our local agent is looking into that since he had never seen a similar charge and because Shipco denies any responsibility.
The other was an additional $476 "standard destination fee" from SACO SHIPPING LINE S.A. in Guayaquil. SACO is the Maersk agency in Ecuador. This seems to be extortion since the bill of lading was prepaid and SACO would not release the container until they received the additional money. Furthermore, since it was prepaid it seems that Shipco Transport was negligent in making the arrangements and not notifying us of the additional charges on the original Bill of Lading.
We had MMI look into this and the Shipco Transport representative, Mayra Figueroa - FCL Export Documentation, merely sent a copy of the "Aviso de Llegada" from SACO. She also noted that we "contacted Maersk and precipitated . . . . to have the container moved from Guayaquil to Esmeraldas when our (Shipco's) agents had already provided payment to the line." That is not true. Our original pre-paid Bill of Lading from MMI clearly states that the destination port from Los Angeles was Esmeraldas and includes SACO as the Maersk agency in Ecuador. This demonstrates her not knowing geography very well because Guayaquil is a long way past Esmeraldas. It would have taken a lot longer than the two weeks it did take (even with a stop-over at Panama) to have taken the container to Guayaquil and then back up to Esmeraldas. That aside, it seems exorbitant to be charged so much for some routine paperwork. The Ecuadorian government has done a lot to purge the system of corruption, but SACO appears to have taken advantage of us by imposing exorbitant additional charges on a shipment that was already en route.
So, beware of MAERSK, Shipco Transport, and SACO Shipping Line.

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