[doogiehoussi]

My experience was that you have to be very much on top of the whole process, especially at inspection of the container. They try all their tricks to steal from you. It starts with the 'aduanero' the moving company assigns to you. He started saying to tell him where the flat screen was , while that's having duty and he would 'help' me avoid that. I was sure I didn't need to pay duties so I didn't listen to him (and happily also brought my own aduanero. Than the 'verificador' comes along with 5 or 6 other guys. They took out all the boxes from the container and opened them. The big stuff they would check inside. They have an attitude that makes you think you are importing weapons or drugs. My aduanero told me before no to come alone while I would need at least two pair of eyes to keep an eye on things. They are capable of throwing items on the roof of the container or hide it behind it when you are not watching. They start placing items in both sides, keep an eye on that. At the end they packed everything (read: throw it back in the boxes and shove it inside the can). Than it needs to be sealed again. That took a while and they told me to go home that the guy with seals was on the other side of the port. When they noticed I wasn't leaving until the seal was placed the guy appeared rather quick. In the end they noticed that there was nothing to do, I gave they verificador 2000 pesos (which I later regretted) and we could go.

In the meantime they were treating candies of a container next to mine that was open (no owner or aduanero to be seen).

After that experience I thought whatever business I'm going to start here it's not going to be importing stuff. Actually it happens to be that one of my activities now is dealing with multiple container imports weekly, but at least I'm no the importer.

Be prepared and don't let them fool you, make sure in advance why you should pay and dont let them charge you more.