Chile Forum

I have to do this every few months it seems, because I still run in to a great number of people that do it and end up paying thousands of dollars exta once the shipment hits the docks in Chile.

If you hire a company to ship to Chile from outside Chile door to door, they will not know that they are being LIED TO by the company they hire in Chile. Get in writing that they will cover any other cost.

We still have not seen a single shipping company go door to door to Chile without problems and hidden cost. Make the company you hire outside the country reimburse you for any "surprise" charges that the final company in Chile might tact on or any surprise expenses that you might incur because the company in Chile messes up the shipment.

Here are two recent examples:

Company outside of Chile ships, promises door to door, and the Chilean company demands better than $3,000 before they will make the final delivery. The reason given was the boat was early, and the company in Chile had to store the stuff for a few days; yet, they also added on charges for moving the container, labor, and so on. Things that nothing to do with storage fees, and cost that would have been incurred regardless of when the container arrived.

Another one.

Client ships door to door in Chile, the contractor in Chile takes it out of the container at customs and then puts the entire shipment on an airplane to fly it to the other end of Chile. We are talking very big heavy stuff like rafts and other equipment for a lodge in the Patagonia. The flight coast more than all the other shipping charges combined at around $5,000+.

Both are cases of companies outside of Chile not knowing what happens once things hit the docks in Chile. I do not care how big or how wide their reputation for shipping around the World might be, there is a high probability that their contractors locally will screw it up. Make the company you contract outside the country pay for all those extra cost.

Those where just the easy ones to sort out.

That sure is sound advice Admin.
However, isn't there always a however with us dutch , we also shipped a container last year through an international dutch mover to Chile. The endpart of the mover overhere was Unipack. We had a solid contract but too were told that there might/would be some additional costs for customs clearing, the docks and should we put our goods on hold in a warehouse for that too. The last part seems logical enough, they can't predict our wishes when here in Chile.

We were a bit worried, suspicious even and therefor on top of things, but in the end -after some emails and phonecalls with Unipack Chile and the dutch company- I think it worked out not too bad. We paid extra (circa 1250 USdollars) but also because we chose to store our furniture for an extra month. The delivery to and in the house was without problems, they even unpacked the kitchenware.

AND very important we did not have the hastle with customs that people have when shipping themselfs. When you use certified companies at both ends the customs don't give any problems. And since we had an agreement for a moving to the south of Chile we got a reimbursement because we had our things moved to Santiago instead of Puero Montt. We did had to ask for the refund ofcourse .

So you are absolutely right but also I think that a good mover is in the end better than diy. But sure, get those conditions on paper!!

I have used Williams Moving International, door to door to and from Chile twice, there were no surprises or hidden costs and door to door was just that, this was for household goods and only a partial container both ways (3/4 of a 20 ft container). Cost was about $3800 USD.

Hi NWdiver,

I would be interested to know what exactly you put in the container and to clarify, what type of household goods. I'm in Calgary and looking at moving some goods to Chile possibly end of the year.

Cheers and thanks

Furniture, books, kitchen goods (no food), clothes and art work (no electronics, ever, they are red flag items). Thank god for digital music or couple of tonne of records would have gone. I did take a car down and used on holidays, keeping it registered and insured in Canada for several years, it lived in a customs warehouse 9 months of the year (technically not in the country) and was never imported, but after 4 years they caught on and made me import it or take it away, it’s back in Canada now.

Do you mind if I PM you with a couple of questions about the vehicle and shipping. My son wants to drive down with a converted land Rover ambulance and we have land in El Quisco. I could hide it?

You are aware that you can not import used vehicles of any sort to Chile?

It is just killing me. I got this horrible conflict of interest (did I mention I hate doing shipping right). I want to tell everyone what companies to avoid and why, but I can not publicly name them because I still have to be able to sort messes out for clients when they stumble in to them. If I tick off the companies by mentioning them here, they won't deal with us at all, and we can not help our clients.

Most of our clients end up in the mess because they ship, cargo reaches the docs, things start going wrong, then they call us to fix it. We very rarely have the luxury of getting involved before it leaves the destination.

To be fair to the companies here, we are seeing a lot of this as the fault of the companies outside Chile. On the other hand the companies in Chile seem to really mess up bad if the shipment is even slightly unusual in terms of content or paperwork.

One thing I can pass along that is a major cause of many shipping problems.

DO NOT ASK FOR YOUR TEMPORARY RESIDENCY $5,000 US EXEMPTION OR ALLOW THE COMPANY TO CLAIM IT UNLESS YOU REALLY ARE ALREADY APPLYING FOR RESIDENCY!!!!

Shipping companies are not lawyers. They will make the claim, and open up an entire legal mess for you without knowing about your real immigration situation. You could very seriously effect your residency by committing a felony as one of the very first things you do in Chile. I am serious. We have had shipping companies claim things to customs on behalf of our clients that where in fact criminal offenses. The only thing that saved our clients was they did not know about it; but, more than one has just barely dodged the bullet. If you are lucky, you will just have to pay the taxes. If you are unlucky, you could end up in jail. In which case, you really will need a lawyer.

Hi Charles,

I think you might be addressing me about the shipping, and if so my husband is Chilean but has been in Canada for 21 years and so we are trying to see what we can and can't do and also how we should do it without breaking the bank, and as well trying to see what is feasible for us in terms of what we should and should not ship. Can Chileans bring a used vehicle into Chile because I remember a few years ago, a couple of families we knew did take used vehicles over there. Perhaps under some sort of arrangement for returning political refugees and their families?
This site is great for so many things and we have learnt a lot with me just checking everyday for new topics that might help us out. I have a file folder I use and when something comes up that might be relevant to us, I just copy it and file it in the folder for future reference. So the reference to the shipping company was great news to us because we had been looking at buying a used shipping container but if they do door to door for that price it looks way better.

Can we not bring in electronics????
We have not been told what we can and cannot bring to Chile yet. So if anyone has any advice this will be appreciated.

The company is moving us taking care of it all for us- hopefully the movers will do the right thing. Well if not they will lose the business of a Major Company

You can bring in electronics.

admin wrote:You can bring in electronics.

Just that someone mentioned that they were Red Flag items???

who said they where red flag items?