¿mañana o el próximo mes?

[SusanC]

We are getting ready to move to CR within a month or so. I thought we were accustomed to the slower pace there, but I’m beginning to wonder if we have been wrong about just how slow it really is.

In May, I e-mailed a shipper with several questions. I did get a response after about 10 days, but only after I had e-mailed ARCR to see if I had the correct e-mail address. He answered only one of my questions. I e-mailed again, politely asking again the questions he did not answer and explaining that we were not quite ready to have a local mover visit to give us an estimate. That was May 25. I have yet to hear from him again. I think I have given up on that company.

A couple of weeks ago, your newsletter featured an article on shipping cars to CR. Great! The article answered some of my questions, but I still had more so I used the “Please contact me” box at the bottom of the article. I have received no response to date.

Are my e-mails getting caught in somebody’s over-zealous SPAM filter or does it usually take this long to get a response from a CR business? Is there a more direct contact I can make?

(Scott, I wish your auto-logout was just a tad SLOWER. I had all this typed in and got thrown out! This time I’m working in Word and will copy it over.)

Below are the questions I still have. Maybe I will get better (any?) answers from the forum folks!
Hi XXXXX
Thanks for the response.
I will get the specifics about the cars to you a bit later.
We don’t know exactly where in Costa Rica we will be moving to. We plan to get there in August or September and rent somewhere to live while we decide. I think we will take advantage of your secured storage facilities in the San Jose area for a least a short time. I think the container will arrive in CR before we do.
I think we are about a month short of having someone come out to give us an estimate. Our house is not organized enough for an inventory at this time.
You did answer my one question about the cars going into the container with everything else, but I still have several more which were not answered.
1. Do the cars need to be drained of all fluids or can they be shipped in “drive-ready” condition?
2. Can we pack items into the cars?
3. Do we pack some items (TV, stereo, etc) in their original containers, or will Costa Rica Customs assume they are new if we do?
4. What are the dimensions of a container, so we know how much room we will have around the cars?
Thanks again for your attention.

[ardenbrink]

Hi, SusanC.,

I am the person that wrote the article you refer to about shipping cars and I’m the one who receives the inquiries. Although I can’t be completely certain (since your email doesn’t show here on the WLCR forum and I only have the “SusanC” login name to go by) I am pretty sure I haven’t received any inquiry from you. We get quite a number of inquiries from our articles on WLCR and I have answered all that I’ve received.

So, yes, indeed it *is* possible that your emails are being caught up in a spam filter. These days it happens a lot and is usually pretty much out of control of us, the end user. (The filters are often set up on the “ISP” or “email server” end of things.) I’m awfully sorry that you’ve been waiting around without a response. If you email me directly at shipping@welovecostarica.com I can answer other questions.

For now – your questions posted here:

1. No the cars do not need to be drained of all fluids, although they should only have about 1/8 of a tank of gas. Often you will also be advised to disconnect the battery.

2. If your car is going to be shipped *in* a container you can pack things inside it. If it is being shipped directly, on its own, you can’t.

3. If you are going to use the original cartons (which is certainly a good idea if you have them since they’ll have the foam insets) you have two good options. One is to cut the cartons open and essentially turn them “inside out” and re-tape them. This isn’t as hard as it sounds and is best of all since you still have the proper sized box that is now plain cardboard. The other, also fine and certainly easier, method is to spray paint “used” in large letters over the sides. If customs chooses to, they can determine age of electronics by serial numbers, but that’s not typically a problem.

4. The nominal dimensions of a container are 8′ x 8′ x either 20′ or 40′. In actuality it’s closer to 7’8″ W and 7’10” high, losing maybe 6″ of length (so 19’6″ or 39′ 6″). One of the best and simplest things is to save your bed mattresses until last and put them on either side of the car for side-ways padding. You’ll also want to chock the tires and it doesn’t hurt to tie it off to the sides either.

As I say, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly with more questions. Hope that helped.

best,

Arden Rembert Brink

[SusanC]

Thank you. Arden did contact me and all is well.

[OTTFOG]

I have used ShipCostaRica.com on two occasions. I dealt with Barry, Ray, and Arden and found them to be fairly priced, efficient, knowledgeable, and responsive. I recommend them highly to anyone shipping anything to or from Costa Rica. They also have extensive experience “nationalizing” vehicles and have delivered two vehicles to me door to door and handled everything all the way to screwing on the new metal plates. Barry can also be easily coorced into showing you the local golf courses…
Thanks,
Jerry Thompson

[Author]

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