PCMike, where is "Mailboxes Plus"? (assuming, maybe erroneously, that the PC in PCMike means "Punta Cana.")
I have been using "Mailboxes <st1:stockticker>ETC</st1:stockticker>" in Punta Cana for almost a year now. They have been charging me their service fee which is the package's weight in grams multiplied by 0.4447 = pesos fee, plus a flat 30 peso fee per package (called their "gestion" or "management fee"), plus 18% ITBIS tax on the total of their shipping & gestion fees.
They used to break down the line items on their invoice as:
(1) Casillero (locker) ebox personal 0-5 kg (up to 11 lb)
(2) dga / airport fee
(3) Casillero combustible / seguro (insurance)
?. plus the flat (sort of) "Gestion" (management fee)"
Then a few months ago they stopped segregating the first three line items on the receipt, and instead started charging all three fees as a single fee which approximately totals the former three fees.
Also, that 0.4447 continually creeps upward. It was 0.420705 a few months ago. The difference between then and now is about US$ 0.30 per pound. Constant upward creep.
Also too, their gestion fee varies -- it is usually 30 pesos, but it sometimes increases to 50 or 100 or 150 pesos, depending on the size of the box -- they don?t seem to have specific (predictable) guidelines -- it appears to me that the cashier just "eyeballs" the size of the box and picks a random gestion fee from their imagination. I have not been able to detect a predictable pattern to the gestion fee variation as it relates to box sizes. Just bigger box = a bigger gestion fee.
My cost (in US$) per pound (of each parcel) varies because a very lightweight item in a bubble envelope gets charged the same 30 peso gestion fee as a heavier item in a bubble envelope. Therefore my actual post-ITBIS fee to pick up items has been (recently in the past few weeks) between US$ 6.33 and US$ 8.42 per pound, all-inclusive including the 18% ITBIS.
So, loosely speaking, I just know that it costs me (generally) somewhere between 7 and 8 bucks per pound, to have my mail air-freighted from Miami to here. For example, I purchased a book on Amazon.com; the book weighed about 3-1/4 pounds (it was 3-1/2 pounds with packaging) = 1590 grams. MailBoxesEtc charged me 865 pesos (US$ 22.15) when I picked it up. Sounds like a lot, but that was actually $6.33 per pound, at the lower end of their typical price range. Lighter weight parcels (like a DVD, for example) actually cost more PER POUND than that. A bubble envelope containing a DVD, weighing 120 grams, costs me US$ 8.98 per pound. Yikes. But the total including ITBIS is US$ 2.37. Will I pay $2.37 to get a movie that I want, brought to me from Miami? Yes, I will.
It's a very high fee per pound -- actually, prohibitively expensive for any item more than 2 or 3 pounds (an 8-pound box cost me US$ 51.00 not long ago) -- but I continue to use their service because it is locally convenient to me.
By the way, their ITBIS tax (charged on their service fees, NOT on the item value) was 16% prior to 01/01/2013.
They never charged me ITBIS on the item's value, although I never purchased & shipped anything through them that cost me more than US$ 190.00. However, I did observe many times, that they indicated a VALUE (Valor Comercial) only represents the enclosed receipt of what I paid, about 50% of the time. Sometimes they indicate a higher value, and at other times they indicate a lower value -- it's like a cage of monkeys are indicating the "Valor Comercial" numbers. For example, a few months ago I purchased $64.95 (a pair of new shoes & socks) from Amazon.com (which ALWAYS includes an accurate, itemized receipt) and the MailBoxesEtc report showed the "Valor Comercial" as US$ 160.00 = not even close! So if they ever DO start charging me ITBIS on the "Valor Comercial", some disputes will be inevitable. Fasten your seat belts, everybody!
