moving household goods

a number of people have warned that when you ship household goods to the dr, the customs people will open everything and help themselves to some of the things they like. also, you have to stand there and pay them off. is there a way around this? maybe the insurance company should send a representative to help?

talking to some of the people that have done so
i found that if you take all the shipping cost and insurance
cost and import
duties and the trouble and pain into account
you are way better off to buy here all new stuff.
like your n.a. electronic stuff won.t last very long here anyway.
no built in voltage regulator etc..

I too am concerned about this. I don't mind buying new appliances but I am concerned about my Harley arriving safely. Anyone who can give any adivise on shipping any goods into the country would be greatly appreciated.

A friend of mine recently shipped a container full of office/household goods to Santo Domingo.
I was there when they unloaded the container, a very interesting experience.
Seven customs people turned up to participate in the unloading.
Thats what happens when you have 300,000 new government employees.

My friend had arranged for the container to be opened at his business location not at customs.
The reason he did this is so that he could supervise the unloading, plus he was on hand if any questions came up, money needed exchanging hands etc.

The entire time I was present I didn't see one piece of official documentation.
All of the customs people had a pen and notepad that they continually scribbled down "chicken scratch".
I call it this, because it was illegible. I assume they go back to the office and guestimate what duties are owed, who knows?

The item that came under the most scrutiny was a "George Forman Grill".
They removed it from the box, checked the serial number, plugged it in and read the instruction booklet.
They spent around 10 mins on this one item, ridiculous!

Funny moments:
Watching two guys hold up a piece of steel shelving why they weighed it. How accurate was that?
Measuring every picture frame with a tape measure. Still not sure why they did that?
Assuming every file cabinet was loaded with papers, even the locked ones.

If you are not a resident and you are shipping items here for the first time, you "could be" in for some fun. I personally would buy as much as I could locally, then you don't have to go through the pain of dealing with customs here and all the associated hassles.

Most items are available here and it's not a huge difference in cost compared to the USA.
Plus you can take it back if something happens to it. Handy with electrical goods.

Would I ship a Harley here, nope! Then again it all depends if it's a collectors piece?
If it's a recent model, I would speak to the dealer in Santo Domingo and compare the price.
You might find by the time you add in the hassle factor, possible damage and duties, it's not much different to the local price.

Rob.

Customs should have called George Forman to make sure that the grill they were receiving was authentic! One should never settle for imitations.

I can perfectly relate to that. I could tell you a few, but they all would pale compared to how much guano D.D. has taken from these guys. He's definitely the expert in this board. Maybe he'll get around to tell us a few "funny" stories.

i don't know where you live but,here in MASS,there are shipping co. that are run buy dominicans,santo domingo shipping,cofemba,and some others out of Lowell and Lynn that ship door to door,they give you a set price.I have shipped lots of stuff,including a car,they handle everything,a number of yrs. ago i shipped a bike and a scooter on my own"big mistake" to many thieves in the aduana,every big city on the east coast where there is a dominican comunity more then likely has a shipping co.best way to go.....jim

Jim-- I live in New York. You're right about the shipping companies-- it's SOOO wirth it. I have had things stolen from my flight luggage and have had flight luggage stolen too. If I know I'm going to have a bunch of things, it IS better to use these people. Aduana held a dump truck that some MASS people sent to the mission I worked at. They held it ransom for four years!!! Nuff said!!!