THIS IS TO INFORM THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE THINKING ABOUT MAKING THIS MOVE; EDUCATE YOURSELF YOURSELF ON WHAT YOU'RE GETTING.
TERMS SUCH AS "DOOR TO DOOR" AND "FULL-SERVICE SHIPPING" CAN BE A LITTLE MISLEADING
When you pay the $6,000-$7,000 for shipping to the Dominican Republic, you would think that all you'd have to do is wait for a call and when you arrive at your residence everything, would already be assembled inside, right?
WRONG...
SHIPPING
Shipping companies will do whatever they have to do in order to make a sale. Whatever they tell you, expect to wait at least a week after the approximate arrival date for the container to arrive. That's when the blame game starts...
INSPECTION
YOU as an entity (not as an individual) must report to the port on the day of arrival to inspect your merchandise ($500 RD for hard hat and safety vest rental) **WEAR JEANS AND PREFERABLY A LONG SLEEVED SHIRT**. This isn't something that takes ten or twenty minutes. Everything has to be unloaded and inspected individually. All boxes and containers have to be opened. Sounds good right? Well expect to wait about 2 hrs at your container in the sun for an inspector and a supervisor to arrive at your container to inspect the value of your goods. (When I arrived, i found that my container was already opened and four people were sitting in my dining room chairs. I had to watch as my $2,000 dining room set was sitting on old, uneven asphalt while workers sat in them. I asked the supervisor why they were sitting in my chairs and he says "nothings going to happen to your chairs...".
INTERVIEW
After the inspection, you are told that you will have an interview the next day. BUT... before that, you must pay the PORT FEES and BROKER FEES which add up to be almost $1400. If you don't pay, your interview will be cancelled and your container will be held until you pay the money (Guess what happens if you decide not to pay at all? Yup, confiscated. So you'd be out of $6,000-$7,000 and all of your household goods.). Now you've paid your port fees and you're ready for the interview. **TAKE A COPY OF EVERY PAGE OF YOUR PASSPORT OR YOU WON'T GET THE INTERVIEW**. Here they tell you how much taxes you're going to have to pay for importing your goods **ADVICE; TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED. IF NOT THEY WILL TRY TO EAT YOU ALIVE**. Take $500 RD for paperwork etc.
THE WAIT
Now that you've paid everything you thought you've had to pay, and have waited hours in the sun, and paid some more money, you have to wait for customs to give the broker the final invoice for the taxes of your merchandise. Here's the catch... Let's say you wait three days after the interview for the final invoice. The final invoice may come in late on a Saturday evening. Nobody works on Sunday. Maybe there's a holiday on Monday, and the final person that has to sign off on your case won't be back until Wednesday... ALL OF THESE DAYS ARE COUNTED AGAINST YOU FOR CONTAINER STORAGE! Not just by the port, however but also by Aduanas. It's about $30/day for the both of them. So that just became an extra $200 bill.
CONCLUSION
If this is the way you want to go, I just want you to be educated on what you're getting into. Many people make the mistake of thinking there's the same level of professionalism in DR as there is in the US and other big countries. Customer service is HORRIBLE and At times it seems that there are no consequences for wrongdoings. This will wreck your brain if you can't learn to adjust and chill out a little.
TERMS SUCH AS "DOOR TO DOOR" AND "FULL-SERVICE SHIPPING" CAN BE A LITTLE MISLEADING
When you pay the $6,000-$7,000 for shipping to the Dominican Republic, you would think that all you'd have to do is wait for a call and when you arrive at your residence everything, would already be assembled inside, right?
WRONG...
SHIPPING
Shipping companies will do whatever they have to do in order to make a sale. Whatever they tell you, expect to wait at least a week after the approximate arrival date for the container to arrive. That's when the blame game starts...
INSPECTION
YOU as an entity (not as an individual) must report to the port on the day of arrival to inspect your merchandise ($500 RD for hard hat and safety vest rental) **WEAR JEANS AND PREFERABLY A LONG SLEEVED SHIRT**. This isn't something that takes ten or twenty minutes. Everything has to be unloaded and inspected individually. All boxes and containers have to be opened. Sounds good right? Well expect to wait about 2 hrs at your container in the sun for an inspector and a supervisor to arrive at your container to inspect the value of your goods. (When I arrived, i found that my container was already opened and four people were sitting in my dining room chairs. I had to watch as my $2,000 dining room set was sitting on old, uneven asphalt while workers sat in them. I asked the supervisor why they were sitting in my chairs and he says "nothings going to happen to your chairs...".
INTERVIEW
After the inspection, you are told that you will have an interview the next day. BUT... before that, you must pay the PORT FEES and BROKER FEES which add up to be almost $1400. If you don't pay, your interview will be cancelled and your container will be held until you pay the money (Guess what happens if you decide not to pay at all? Yup, confiscated. So you'd be out of $6,000-$7,000 and all of your household goods.). Now you've paid your port fees and you're ready for the interview. **TAKE A COPY OF EVERY PAGE OF YOUR PASSPORT OR YOU WON'T GET THE INTERVIEW**. Here they tell you how much taxes you're going to have to pay for importing your goods **ADVICE; TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED. IF NOT THEY WILL TRY TO EAT YOU ALIVE**. Take $500 RD for paperwork etc.
THE WAIT
Now that you've paid everything you thought you've had to pay, and have waited hours in the sun, and paid some more money, you have to wait for customs to give the broker the final invoice for the taxes of your merchandise. Here's the catch... Let's say you wait three days after the interview for the final invoice. The final invoice may come in late on a Saturday evening. Nobody works on Sunday. Maybe there's a holiday on Monday, and the final person that has to sign off on your case won't be back until Wednesday... ALL OF THESE DAYS ARE COUNTED AGAINST YOU FOR CONTAINER STORAGE! Not just by the port, however but also by Aduanas. It's about $30/day for the both of them. So that just became an extra $200 bill.
CONCLUSION
If this is the way you want to go, I just want you to be educated on what you're getting into. Many people make the mistake of thinking there's the same level of professionalism in DR as there is in the US and other big countries. Customer service is HORRIBLE and At times it seems that there are no consequences for wrongdoings. This will wreck your brain if you can't learn to adjust and chill out a little.