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Anyone had any experience with Mr. Barry Wilson with regards to shipping their stuff to Costa Rica? Kindly share your personal experience, would you recommend him or not?
Thanks.
I used him last August to ship a container and a car. He did a great job and I would recommend him. Everyone says how difficult it is to ship a car down here but he made it very easy; we didn’t have to do anything but drive it to the shipper.
We moved from the California central coast and it was about $5900 for a 40ft. container. I should mention also that we brought down 2 sets of appliances for the houses we were building. We thought it might be a large chunk of money in customs but somehow he got them through for maybe a couple hundred dollars.
Cindy,
Were you charged a couple of hundred dollars by customs for everything or just for the appliances? Did you ship all your household items, furniture, clothes, etc.? If so, what were you charged by customs?
Did you pack your stuff or did Barry contract that with the shipper in California?
Thanks for your help. We are moving in December…
Jerry
We moved an assortment of furniture, clothes, books, appliances, electronics, and household items along with the car. Shipment of the car and delivery to our house in CR was included in the $5900. The customs on your car will of course depend on what kind of car it is. Barry can look that up for you and then you can decide if you want to ship it. A typical container costs about $1000 – $1200 in customs taxes; we paid about $1500. Customs could have easily soaked us for 4-5,000 for the appliances.
Barry doesn’t do packing services so we hired a local firm to come do that and help us load. This part was the biggest nightmare. They assured me they had experience with international shipments and they didn’t have a clue. They bitched when I insisted that all the boxes and contents be labeled. They were late and took twice as long to pack as they said they would. I had told them they would need a ramp because the container sits 4 ft. off the ground. They forgot the ramp. Long story short, if you hire a packing service, MAKE SURE they have experience packing this sort of load. Paying a little more for knowledge is well worth it, in my opinion. Barry will give you detailed packing instructions; if you follow them I think it makes getting everything through customs much easier.
On the other end, the container showed up on time but since it was so large would not make it up our hill. So, we had a smaller truck standing by to shuttle it all up to the house which worked fine.
Could someone please provide Barry’s contact info? Also anyone use Guardian Angels or Ship Costa Rica.com ? Anyone suggest one over the other (Moving from Ohio – USA)
info@shipcostarica.com is Barry’s address… Barry has been well recommended by people on this list. We are going to use him in November. Good Luck! Where will you live in Costa Rica?
Hi Cindy,
You didn’t mention how much the customs taxes were for the car. I think there are a few of us who are debating on whether it’s better to ship our cars, or simply sell them in the states and buy a car down there. Thus, it would be good to know how much the customs taxes are just on the car alone. Appears you ended up paying about $7,500 for the entire ship. I was under the impression that Barry’s shipping company did come to your house and pack up everything. So it was good to know that he doesn’t; that’s another expense that will have to be weighed in the balance. How much did you have to pay for that nightmare packing company you ended up with in California. Don’t you hate it when that happens? From your negative experience, it gives one the idea to get references from people who have moved through them before hiring.
Diane
Any advice on smaller shipments?
We need to make a small (80 – 100 lb) shipment of pre-configured computer equipemnt to our soon-to-be completed Jaco area condo. We need to have this equipment shipped in advance in order to have our IT consultant setup and test the system in advance of our arrival. So we can’t wait to schlep it along in large suitcases as many people would do.
We do have someone in Jaco to receive the shipment but we are not sure about how to ship (i.e. AA Air freight) and then clearing it in customs in San Jose and then arranging for final shipment to Jaco.
Has anyone had any experience of getting smaller shipments to destinations beyond San Jose and with specific frieght forwarders?
Thanks for any advice you may have!
John
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