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11/01/07:There are many more options than there used to be to get stuff there. Some don't even require a menaje. You need to check with other people who have moved here using those different options. 7/16/2005- Re. Fight with Unirisc.. They never did pay. In fact I just shelled out $150.00 in Texas to replace the dog clippers. If you are driving here is a post from Esperanza on Mexconnect which may help.
2/13/03- We are still fighting with UNIRISC. The e-mails are still flying. 1/13/03- As mentioned previously we did have some losses in the move. An entire box never showed up and things were broken or missing from several others. All this was stated on the sheet we signed and sent back to SEYMI the day the shipment was delivered. Seymi told us to make a claim with UNIRISC who we insured through. They were very good about giving us copies of the forms we signed detailing the losses. But..now you are dealing with a state side moving insurance company in Virginia, NOT some one local in Ajijic. This is when the catch 22 kicker started. It seems according to UNIRISC that to properly collect you had to have the original moving company do ALL the packing. This packing allows them to make a valuation. Only there "valuation" is valid in making a claim. How some guy boxing up my stuff is more qualified than I to decide what something is worth is beyond me! The problem here is that while both Harry and I remember clearly being told we HAD to pay for moving insurance, neither one of us remembers anyone telling us this other important fact. We informed both moving companies from the beginning that we were doing our own packing and Applegate could certainly see that when they came to look at the roomful of taped boxes to make their original cost estimates! We estimated loss costs at around $900.00 to a $1000.00 and we have collected I believe about $600.00. This has involved many electronic communications with UNIRISC. Harry will continue to pursue this. I'll let you know!
7/21/02- I hate to whine, but I hate moving...Seymi delivered the "stuff" on Tuesday and we have not come up for air since! I unpacked the last box today. It is really nice to have all my things! Now for final numbers. The weight was 3400 lbs. and the final cost was a little over $6000.00 ....$1200.00 of that was insurance which is mandatory. I will let you know how hard it is to collect after we make the claim. A couple of my champagne flutes were broken and the frame on a large picture will need a bit of repair. Plus one box seems to have gone missing. It held clothes so we are not too worried.The shipment was supposedly red lighted at Laredo which means the boxes were opened. In addition to the breakage, we are missing the gold cross from Harry's father's casket, my two silk mantillas from Spain and the very expensive electric dog clippers from Woody's supply box. The stuff is just not there. According to friends who have used other movers this does happen, especially if the shipment is searched. Things just seem to walk. I guess we will see after we try to collect. The price included the three men who delivered the "stuff" staying at the house until 5:00PM and helping unpack!!! According to the Seymi, home office this is part of the service. If you do this, some advice. Have a couple of your own helpers there. Print your menaje and write on it next to each carton what room it is to go to. Label the rooms with a big piece of paper, in Spanish if possible. One person checks off each box as it leaves the truck and then tells the workman which room it goes to. One person opens any banged up or dented box to check for breakage. And if you have a third person, they start opening stuff and putting it into rooms, closets, etc. Checking the boxes as they exit the truck is important. You have to sign before the workman leave that you received the shipment and any damage or missing items must be noted then. Now that it is all unpacked I am glad I brought most of the "stuff". Do remember to save all your hangers and pack a big bunch. They only sell the plastic ones here and they are not cheap! 6/14/02-Harry is home from school today. The U.S. side of the move is picking up the "stuff" at the storage facility and then palletizing it and weighing it before it starts down. I will let you all know what the final price was. That will be based on the weight, so when you price this type of move out, remember that the 2000 lbs. $3800.00 is a minimum price, sort of an estimate. They won't ship less than that. Final price is based on final weight, plus cost of the insurance. 6/4/02- Finally!! We got it by Fed-Ex yesterday. So I can now say unequivocally that we did both the FM3 and the menaje without ever setting foot in the consulate! This is not to say we have not been sweating this one. After the call from the consulate about the number of TV's and then nothing after that for over two weeks! But it is on its way. We Fed-Exed it to Seymi in Guadalajara yesterday. Along with the check for the contents insurance. That was $1200.00 and it insures all the "stuff" we are shipping. And no it isn't an option. You have to pay for insurance. We added several extra cajas (boxes) to the end of the list. We will use them to pack any last minute stuff that we still needed. Harry will send down most of the rest of his clothes, leaving a skeleton wardrobe for the last two weeks of school. Stuff like that. 5/16/02- In order to get your stuff to Mexico as cheaply as possible you have to apply at the consulate for a Menaje de Casa "The FM-3 permits the holder to import a reasonable amount of household goods and one automobile." You get to do this without paying import duties ONLY ONCE! You apply for your menaje after you have received your FM3 visa, up to 3 months before you plan to move. You will need to supply a detailed list of the items you are moving. Here is a good link Rolly's Web Site with actual examples of an inventory. It is also a great source for the Spanish names of many household items! Again remember each Mexican Consulate interprets the rules differently! The Philadelphia consulate says the menaje must include both a stateside and Mexican address where you can be reached. They want ALL electrical items (anything with a cord!) listed first. You do not list a value on their menaje. When you get ready to start creating yours check with the consulate where you will be getting your menaje for the way they want it set up! We set it up as a table on the laptop and just added to it whenever we packed. Each box must be numbered and have a description written in Spanish on the outside that says what is in it. Ours looks like this. The bold face is the English translation for you; it isn't like that on the actual menaje!
Now as always we get into the weirdness. ;-) You need to do two lists if you are going to use a broker/mover to get your stuff across the boarder. The broker wants the value on it for insurance purposes and at least our consulate did not want the value. We did value as we went along and then just deleted the value column and saved it as a different file name when we printed off the consulate's copy. Tuesday (5/14/02) we got a strange call. The young lady in charge told me she thought we had "too many televisions." We are moving three. She said we would still get the menaje with that number but "she couldn't guarantee that we would have no trouble at the border crossing." I panicked and left a message on the Mex Connect Forum and from posts there it seems that that this was also told to other people. Still NO ONE had a problem at the border and two imported the same number of TV's as us! (3) So for now we are bringing all three! Border guards seem to be wide open on interpretation of the rules! But that will be Semi's problem and hopefully all will go well. Many people have had problems with computers even when they were listed on the menaje and none of the electrical stuff can be less than six months old. We are only bringing the older laptop and I will bring mine when I come down for good in December. Cross your fingers!! As yet, we have not gotten the "approved" menaje back from Philly , news at 11:00! 5/1/02- Another move gotten through. We spent all weekend getting out of the condo and the past two days unpacking at the new place. I really need to thank the powers that be for the "kindness of strangers." Cindy the nurse that works for my brother and sister-in-law was so kind to offer this little apartment. It is new, light , bright, clean and she has stocked it with almost everything we need so all our stuff can be shipped! Woody loves the big fenced yard and the goofy black lab named Shadow. They run and play till they both look exhausted. I hope/know that most of you will probably not be involved in such a complicated move as this. You will just sell up and or pack up your stuff and leave. Who knew three years ago that the hot real estate market here at the Jersey Shore would keep up and get even hotter !! It just confirms my point that you can not predict the value of real estate.With hindsight we could have waited and still probably sold the house in six months sparing us all this moving about. All the "stuff is now boxed up and in the storage container. I am e-mailing Seymi today to discuss how they charge since we are 1300 lb. over the original guestimate.Keep in mind that the nice estimator man just eyeballed all the stacked boxes in the dining room and we have now actually weighed the stuff. So we did know in advance that the price quote was just that, an estimate. I will let you know what the final price turns out to be. 4/18/02- The packing continues.. We have to be out of the condo by May 1, so Harry rented a U-Haul truck to move the boxes to storage on the 27th. It was muy cheaper than having the mover store them. We are going to weigh the truck empty and full and I will let you know if we are over the 2000 lb. cargo that the U.S. guy estimated. If we are we will tell you what the final price comes out to. And yes we are arguing about what is or is not going! I think we should reconsider some of the already boxed stuff. Now after having been there twice, I really don't think it fits? with the decor of the house or it is something we really do not need/or won't use. The other hoot is we being tech heads are using monitor and computer boxes since they have convenient handles and are sturdy. Some of these boxes have been a part of the last three moves! SEYMI is very worried about the computer logos on the boxes!! They are afraid the customs people will open everything! So we had to unpack the boxes and turn them inside out to a plain side to hide the computer logos. Thank heavens they were not all computer boxes. Tune in next week, news at 11! 4/8/02- Before we left Seymi faxed all the forms we needed to fill out, to my office here in NJ. We copied them and filled them out and then brought them with us. I called the office in Guad and they immediately got me someone who spoke English to set up an appointment. We met with the daughter of the owner of SEYMI at our house in Ajijic. She came there, instead of us having to trek into Guadalajara. She was a lovely and very competent young woman. Her English was wonderful. She sat there with us as we went over all the paperwork and logistics involved in the move. She patiently answered all of our questions. The company has been very thorough, organized and professional. 2/27/02- And the winner is....SEYMI!!! Their quote door to door is for 2000lbs. of stuff, palletized/and or crated -$3800.00. That includes bringing it into the house, help with unpacking and disposal of the packing materials on delivery day! The time factor from NJ is about 3 weeks total. So the shipment will certainly start before we do. The American side uses United Van Lines to get it to Laredo and then SEYMI gets it across the border. The main offices are in Guadalajara. We are probably going to pay something extra to have it stored right here in the mover's warehouse in a nearby town. It will only be for about a month and a half so how much can it be? I really don't want to handle this stuff twice! In Ajijic, our nearby neighbors, John and Marianne used SEYMI to move all their stuff there from Saudi Arabia. Apparently their former company, ARAMCO, uses them as their carrier regularly. They were very pleased with their service, as was a poster from MexConnect that I contacted. I am so glad that that is settled! 2/19/02- Seymi is coming today to give us an estimate. We have pretty much decided to bag the trailer idea. As John, one of our readers pointed out, the six cylinder engine hauling a load through high mountains, just might expire! We knew that as well, and as time got closer just decided not to chance it. A blown engine in a remote Mexican village is not a picnic I wish to go to. We are juggling several ideas. We may rent the Ryder truck and drive it down to Laredo ourselves. From NJ one way about $1500.00. Can't take it into Mexico so from there Strom will get it through customs and to Ajijic for about $2900.00. Strom's door to door price is $5800.00 but we still need to have someone here crate it so it can be handled by a forklift. We have not yet explored the costs involved in that. We have found a place to stay. A friend has a mother-in law apt. in her house that will do just fine for two months. Less rent and even a fenced yard for the dog! We will probably store the boxes there until we get ready to leave. Luckily her parent left a bed and basic furniture so we can continue selling the remainder of the furniture. 2/13/02- News Flash!!- One more reason why I am sooooooo sick of renting!!!The condo has been sold, Oh Joy! Lease ends May 1. We have to find a place to live for two months before we can leave, and... We will have to make a decision about how the stuff is going to get there a lot sooner! I will not pack it up twice so it will either go into the trailer, if we purchase it or..it will go to one of the movers, get "palletized" (their term) and be stored by someone local, until it gets picked up to be shipped late June or early July. News at 11:00
Old News: We are still up in the air about how the "stuff" is going to get to Ajijic in July. As the boxes pile up in the condo dining room we are assessing how they will get to Mexico. We have a Chevy Blazer and the first option we considered was a trailer purchase. Both of us have had experience driving a vehicle towing a tag-along trailer so this doesn't intimidate us (yes, I can even back it up!) We checked the price of a new, aluminum, seven foot high, rear ramp, dual axle trailer. It looks like the closed trailers that landscapers in the States haul there stuff in. The trailer, plus hitch and transmission cooler for the truck will probably cost us about $5000.00. After we get to Ajijic we will need to sell the trailer, either there or drag it back up to Texas and sell it there. Advantages: My "stuff" arrives with me. Some people arrive and wait some time for their things to catch up. Weight wise, I know exactly how much I can put in the trailer so I know in advance as in now what the limits are on how much I can bring. I do my own packing and can safeguard the fragile and valuable things. Yes movers are insured, but the money paid out may never replace a one of a kind keepsake. I travel to my new home at my own pace. Disadvantages: I have to lay out the money for all this before I leave and then figure out a way to sell the trailer and recoup some of the money after I get there. I myself, not the mover, have to deal with the lists, the search, customs, etc at the border crossing. The other option is to let an international mover do most of the work. We or they will be doing the packing and they will then put our boxes into a truck and get them to Ajijic. The links at the top of the page are for some of the international movers we have contacted for prices. We used the e-mail address from "El Ojo de Lago" for Moore/Strom Moving, which is based in Ajijic. We have a quote from them. Someone who moved from our area also gave me the address of another company that they used, Seymi. The price was reasonable and they were pleased with the service. Seymi has an interesting web page. It does lots of glitzy things but actually tells you nada. :-) If you want to contact them, again just use the mail to option. At least with us, someone local got in touch with us. This U.S. contact is from a town only 15 minutes from where we currently live. He will be in touch with us around May 1 and we will try to come up with a final price. If it works out to less than the cost of the trailer we will go with the international mover option. For some people the trailer may just seem like too much. They may not have a towing vehicle, or experience in driving such a rig. In some parts of the country the nearest mover contact may be just too far away. The put some of the stuff in storage and just drive down with clothes and personal items and rent option may also appeal to many people. This part of the adventure is going to have to be personalized for anyone planning on making the move. A lot depends on what you absolutely have to bring, if you are renting or purchasing, and how much of the packing and hauling you are physically capable of doing. To bring a vehicle into Mexico under an FM3 visa you will need the following items plus three photocopies of each item:
People are going to say that they didn't have all the below mentioned paperwork when they crossed the border with their stuff and they either got away with it or paid a bribe. Stuff happens. You may not be so lucky. Anything listed here is from the international movers, who make their living doing this. They don't want the hassle so they tell you the right way to do it. If you move your own stuff and don't follow all the rules it is a gamble. Once you get an FM3 visa you have six months to get your Menage de Casa (inventory) from the Mexican Consulate in the country where you are a passport holder. Once you have the Menage de Casa you have three months from its issue date in which to get your belongings into Mexico. Your inventory must be in both English and Spanish. You need models and serial #s on all electrical items. The boxes must be numbered, list the contents on the side of the box and the inventory must place a value on the box. Here is a good link Rolly's Web Site with actual examples of an inventory. It is also a great source for the Spanish names of many household items!
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