We got it -- DHL screwed up.

You’re ingesting too much ‘café’ or other substance if you leap from that fact to the accusation that DHL is “a vector” connecting “the mob” and “the government.”

cccmedia

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Yo CCM - DHL doesn't think they 'screwed up'.... And didn't DHL recently post on this forum regarding their intimate relationship with the Ecuadoran government (or was it visa versa?;) As far as the mob in the US, perhaps you've heard of Waste Management, Gambling and Donald Trump? Too many 'vectors' to count...
None-the-less, you are right to say that I took a leap.

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And it would actually make a LOT of 'sense' for governments and businesses around the world to rely upon El Sindicato to discreetly handle the most trusted courier deliveries in the world...

BUT ENUFF OF THAT. My question is: HOW COMMON IS IT FOR DHL TO BE 'INTERCEPTING' /examining the contents of mail which they deliver? How much more so than we know??Would I have been informed if they didn't find any 'contraband'??? ("Just want to let you know Sir that we took the liberty of examining your documents and found everything to be in order...") Uh, hu :(((

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Everything that comes in gets inspected. DHL isn't somehow special or exempt.

They need to know what they are moving across the border if they expect to say in business.

sinego

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I thought your comment on the intersection of the mob and el gobierno was a joke, but upon further consideration realized that could be the case..........in any case, I quit using DHL a long time ago just simply becuz of their outrageous charges...........Would have to be a pretty important document or a nice big cashiers check to even consider them, and now we know that it wouldnt just be your private business.......What next?

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Apparently Sin is right: DHL's response to my WHY DID YOU OPEN my outrageously priced ENVELOPE:

"All shipments of unknown nature that are picked up by our route couriers are subject to a full inspection. The inspection is meant to detect prohibited commodities. The inspection "must" be completed once the shipment reaches our facility to be in compliance with TSA and IATA (International Air Transportation Association) regulations."
>
Now I do not think that Post Offices around the world "must" open and inspect every GD envelope that they ship out of their country, (and I'd like to know what constitutes a "known" shipment/shipper), but if DHL *is* checking every envelope it sends out of the US that would (in a wildly f*cked up way) explain why it is so expensive...:(((((((((((((((((((

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cristos7
I think I may have an answer to your question. Absurd as this may sound, it was you "vintage Canadian dollar" that tripped the scanner. Did the bill perhaps have a metal stip like US. $$ ?
Perhaps there is some TSA regulation about sending suspicious Canadian dollars and not "loonies" by air ?
I'm only half-kidding about that. I'd lay 2 to 1 odds it has to do with a TSA regulation not DHL. !

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Hahaha.......yes it could......instead of reflecting quality of service and efficiency.......like it should.......nothing is as it appears anymore.........

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Yep.. they do open and inspect every parcel, package and envelope.. I have one that has been sitting in Guayaquil since last Friday night.

Also I agree their rates are insane. The same size envelope, sent to me here 4 years ago cost around $40 to ship to Cuenca from Charlotte. Now that same envelope is $135 to send. I had to have one last month, and the same crap... it goes from Charlotte theough Greensboro (NC) to Cincinatti, to Miami, to Panama City (Panama) in about 24 hours or so - hits Guayaquil the next day and comes to a screeching freaking halt. The tracking info says "clearance event" and if you open it for more info it says "pending customs inspection"

This gets better.. last month, it made its way here to Cuenca, I got the email notification that it was at the office in town and could be picked up... ok. So I took a taxi, got to the office and showed my ID. The lady could see on her computer that my package was there.. but could not find it anywhere. After about an hour of turning the place inside out and upside down, she says maybe a courier accidently had it put on his truck for some in town delivery. Well, more time passes and all the drivers had checked, but no.. nobody had the thing.

We (they) finally figured it out - once the damn thing arrived in Quito... accidentally put on a truck to there. They sent it back the next day.

Fast forward to this month - I had the same package delivered the same way.. except now, while it is sitting still in Guayaquil, awaiting customs inspection, I know good and well it isn't going to make it here - no time soon, if at all.

Why? Because the tracking info says it is destined for Machala.. which is south of Guayaquil and nowhere close to Cuenca. The info originally said Cuenca - Machela - Ecuador (which made no sense) so I looked into it. The postal code for here is 10150 ...but they have somehow managed to have it as 10106 (Machela) .. So, I went to the local office yesterday and spoke with the girl who couldn't find it LAST month.. and she made a phone call, hopefully to correct the mistake. But.. not a chance, This morning I got another email notification saying for the 3rd day "clearance event" and now the delivery destination just says Machela ..without the "Cuenca"

Also, the estimated delivery date was, until today, Aug 30th by 23:59 (11:59PM) ...now it just says "date unavailable" ...so that's nice.

Here is what is just as good - the envelope has one little bottle of medicine I need here... and all the paperwork is there... and it cost $6.00 (the med) ...so, last month they put a value of $10 on it, and the custom charge for a $10 item was $23.. payable at local office upon arrival. HOWEVER.. before they will even send it on to Cuenca from Guayaquil, they send out a notice that the $23 will be due, and ask if I want it, or if I want it returned back to the sender... or if they don't get an answer in 30 days it will be returned/trashed/eaten/sold or used for carburetor cleaner (who knows?)

So ...while I am waiting for them to send it to the wrong damn town anyway, I still know I will first have to give them the A - Ok to send it to the wrong place, which I haven't heard from them yet.

In summary - $135 delv chrg + $23 cust fee = my package heading in the opposite direction to a town I have never even heard of before this.

In conclusion - I doubt there are any mob ties... that is "organized" crime.. this is just plain f@@king up in a pretty consistent manner.

It will be the last time... I can at least say that much. As DUMLUK would say, I have been "enlightened" ...lol

But yeah - they open your sh#t, man... that's not the problem. Them closing it and getting it where it is supposed to go, however, is.

Good Luck Man,
Hopper

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Hopper,
When I get you drugs, I'll let you know.
One of the postal codes for Machala proper is 070150 ! The other is 070102. Lotsa luck.
Seriously, if it wound up at the DHL office here and I had a way to pick it up and get it up to you, I would. But I assume they want You to identify yourself and sign for it. Call me or PM me if I can do anything short of blowing up the DHL office.

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For those who do not read the instructions. Courier of cash money is prohibited

You actually signed off that you are NOT sending CASH IN YOUR PACKAGE.

But, you did send cash.

OOPS...your action caused the package to be waylaid.

So you have no one to blame but, yourself. Next time, read the instructions

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Geez Hopp, that is $eriously f*ed up. On another thread (started by moi;), IceM says good things about a Transexpress service out of Miami. Either that and/or get a PO Box (with optional forwarding) in MIA or FLL and just fly there every few months to PU Mail & stuff. Re the 1923 Loonie having any metal in it - nah. Re ever again giving DHL my money to F me without so much as a how do you do - nah...

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FYI

Hopper and I are in touch and we are working on this issue ...

He has some paperwork to print out and get back to DHL tomorrow in the morning and the package should be released pronto...

Susan

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No one to blame but myself?! Maybe... but: A. The "instructions" definitely did not include anything about DHL opening my sealed flat envelope, though I did wait to seal it until I was at the official DHL mail acceptance (and pay thru the nose) location; and B. define "cash". You mean current currency? Personal Cheques? Cashier's Cheques? Silver? Diamonds? Bitcoin keys? Salt? Round two-ton stones? Or Sucres?? Is it illegal to ship Sucres??? LOL!

>

The POINT IS that anyone who believes it is AOK for the authorities to be sporadically, regularly or REQUIRED to rifle through private documents posted domestically or internationally IS NOT PAYING ATTENTION. And you are right about not having anyone to blame but yourself...

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@KM45 - you must be an ex-loonie:) It's a great secret, Canada is. I'd admit to having a few REAL Loonies stashed beneath my pillow xcept for the Mounties who'll visit me in my dreams and oh-so-politely chastise me for taking Loonies out of Canada. Canada is a very strange - but logical - arrangement, or Country, if you will. If nothing else, by God, they have a Queen. Sort of. A nation with only 50 million people and unspeakable amounts of all the natural resources one could hope for, at least half of which fuels the American Military Machine which kept the Falklands (Grenada, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, NIgeria, and SO ON) loyal to the Crown. "Oh Canada..."

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Hey K45,,,

Thanks for the offer..lol. Short of blowing it up? ...I'd not ask you to do that, but getting on a bus with a baseball bat and a really bad disposition did enter my mind. I'd just get shot with a 5.56mm NATO round, you know that. I am not particularly fond of being shot anymore, so I will go the other route.. less holes in happiness, But what a pain in the ass...

Susan, (thanks Susan) is helping me out.. and it is still in Guayaquil. While we were talking last night, I actually got an email from the rep handling the package. They want a bunch of stuff they actually have right in front of them - if they would simply look.

So, I will fill out their form, also write them a letter (like as soon as I close this comment) and cross my fingers. It just happens to be a med you can't just stop taking... so this is gonna be a lot of fun by this evening.

C7, good luck, It sounds like having the dollar bill in there could be your issue, but I have no way of knowing that. I agree that they shouldn't be opening flat pack letters ad rifling through your stuff.. my situation is a bit different as it is something listed as prescription medication, and they want to, or have to, "nationalize it".. Geeze - take my 23 bucks and give me the package already.. I estimate I will have paid out 2500% of the cost of the damned med by the time all is said and done.

My advice - be off all important meds before coming here unless you know that you can an will able to be treated with them... So, last year I quit all opioid pain meds so I wouldn't have this hassle.. But there wasn't an issue with this one drug in question at the time.. But you all know how things change here, and by god they changed the law on this medication while my back was turned. ...anyway, I am stopping taking it as well (a damn benzo of course) ,,,but that takes a several month, slow taper, physician supervised... There are a whole lot of US citizens who would have never agreed with their docs to take things is the information on them and the deadly dangers of stopping taking them was available when they started dolling them out,,,

We call them.. well "us" I guess, "accidental addicts" (that is an actual medical term) and people die who, for whatever their situation, have to suddenly stop taking any moderate sized dose - if they've been taking it more than a few weeks to a few months.. current literature advises not to prescribe for more than 2 weeks, and ls half the dosage they have had me on for... freaking years and years..

So, like Cypher told Morphius while still plugged in, "if you had told us the truth - I'd have told to shove that Red Pill straight up your ass!"

...sorry, every good rant deserves a Matrix reference.. no? lol and UGH

Wanna read something scary? read on Benzo withdrawl... seriously, it makes kicking Heroin (as an example - I don't use it) seem like walk in the park. But i DID kick morphine and oxycodone on my own last year, so I can make a very real comparison. I would choose quitting pain meds any day of any week of any year in any reality... sick as f@ck for several days and it's over. I say to junkies who cry about being "dope sick" to grow a freaking pair. It'll pass and they'll live - what more do they want? methadone? Suboxone? yeah that makes sense - put on new set of bigger cuffs. ...oh I'll shut up now

Hopp

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Gracias adios..........

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Hopp, I very seriously feel for you and HOPE you get those meds soon. I take something similar (a friggn' Benzo) and as you and I both know has very serious consequences when abruptly stopped. Susan knows a little of everyone it seems so hopefully she can speed up the frucked up process with frucked up DHL.

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Doing not-too-much research, the history of DHL is curious: Founded in 1969 by a Berkley boy and an older Californian, they did very well, very quickly, based on a smart and timely idea. By 1980 the Berkley boy had sold out, and the other guy disappeared in a mysterious plane crash two years later. (His body was never found...) There is an opaque period between 1982 and 1999, when the Germans started buying in, and it is now wholly German owned and 'operated'. So while it may have changed hands (from the Italian Mafia to the Gestapo?), I wouldn't be too surprised if the "known sources" - whose mail is NOT subject to inspection - remains the same... ("Nothing Is As It Seems" would make an excellent bumper sticker;~O

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Say.........

How much time, IN THEORY & PRACTICE, should it take to get stuff from the US via DHL? From various sources I get the idea they are the best of the best courier of the lot, but still....

I was told in the US that anything "declarable", defined as having a conceivable commercial value (and DHL has an exhaustive list on their website), has to go through customs in Guayaquil.

Otherwise, as with things like business/legal/passport/visa documents, its considered non-commercial and comes direct.

That said, of course DHL and Ecuador are going to want to make sure people play by these rules (assuming these are the rules they want to play by).

So, again, the real question: if things work the way they're supposed to, how long should it take to receive your stuff, with commercial or non-commercial value?

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My non-commercial flat envelope of documents should have taken 3 days, but is apparently still being inspected in Guayaquil six days later... Christ knows how long a parcel would take to be thoroughly "inspected".:(((

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My packets take me (for papers) about 5 days from Miami to Salinas.

I do track them along the way.

If they aren´t in Guayaquil by then I call the 800 number (which was easier when I had a land line) and have corrected package destinations over 3 or 4 days of nailbiting.

That happens to me about once in 10 packages.

Fed Ex lost every package that was heading this way. I stopped using them during the first 3 years and literally demand folks use DHL to get things to me here, now.

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Hey Oceanhideaway.......

Not too off-topic and something of ongoing interest ....

When couriering pure non-commercial documents via DHL as you apparently do (without stray pieces of currency), what do you "declare" them for purposes of customs?

From what I understand, you do....nothing. Done this way it simply skips customs, aside from maybe a spot-check. It's just a matter of mailing it with nothing to declare. True?

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If it is a documented I spent money on to apostille etc, I might declare the amount I spent on the apostille and courier services.

If the package gets lost, I can get those funds back by filing a complaint and at least not be back at square one and out of pocket.

If I had something very delicate and irreplaceable...or extremely difficult to replace, then I have someone bring it down who is traveling. Private courier.

For apostilled docs, POA´s, etc. that are more time sensitive that I need in a week or two, I use DHL.

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In doing research this week, on options for sending a document to the U.S. State Department for apostilling, I found that DHL charges $159.00, while FedEx would charge $58.00 for the same shipment. I was planning to use FedEx until I saw this thread. Is FedEx really that bad?

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"Is FedEx really that bad?"

Depends on where you live and who you talk to. I have only had FedEx screw up one document delivery - and that was my fault.

I had them deliver it to a hotel here in Machala, run by a friend of mine. I have over the period of time, had a lot of stuff sent there, no problems. I neglected to notice that he'd closed the hotel - my bad, not FedEx's !

I got the documents, eventually, after several calls to FedEx in the States - you can never reach anyone in Guayaquil. They were only two days later than expected.
Because of the cost, I prefer FedEx over DHL - even though FedEx doesn't have an office, per se. in Machala and DHL does.
If you have an easy address to receive your goods - go with FedEX or even USPS ( I've used them, as well ).

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FWIW: In screening the various websites/opinions, DHL seems to be more trusted. The others trail......

As for costs, discounts on HIGH retail prices are given by consolidators and shippers (like your local UPS store), so your mileage on prices will vary enormously. A simple flat courier pack from Houston to Cuenca is running me $45. Another place in California would've charged 39$ but didn't have an additional service I needed.

Getting back to the issue with DHL...our apparent "best" bet...

The above package is now enroute, labeled "non-commercial documents," and I just got an automated update from DHL (you can sign up for these things on all the courier's websites, saying "additional details are required."

Entonces: What am I supposed to do? Is this a routine detail as they review the contents? Was there a better description I could've given to avoid this delay? How much of a delay will this actually entail?

There really is nothing flakey in the pkg: apostillized birth certificate and other common visa documentation (hence, items of recurring interest.)

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FWIW....

My package arrived fine, after a 1 day customs hiccup. I'd been tracking it via the DHL website and called them up after customs decided they needed "additional details" on a total of 9 sheets of non-commercial visa-related documents, so labeled in flat courier envelope.

The DHL people indicated it really should have gone directly through with no delays, but as of late customs is taking this extra step. It amounted to a 12 hour delay in my case, and unless something is amiss I suspect it'd usually just not be noticed.

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@ Kim - glad to hear you got your stuff without much drama;)

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DHS requires all private shippers to "inspect" all international shipments in or out of the US.Yet the USPS was exempted as for the costs of inspections.That's why you likely could ship overnight USPS cheaper than say DHL. ;)

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Somehow I'd be reluctant of a service that wouldn't hold your pkg at an office where you could, in the normal course of things, go pick it up.

Delivery to your door is just too problematic, between finding a given address and having someone reliable there to receive it. When I went to pick up my recent pkg at local DHL (who called me twice to make sure I knew it had arrived), things were well-organized and it took a short minute to get in/out.

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Mail to a landmark business is always more likely to get where it was sent. Check into a landmark Hotel once a month - in Cuenca or Guaya or Loja or Manta - make friends with the Concierge, and always let him/her know - both when you reserve your room and again when you check out - that you're expecting an important envelop blah blah, por favor y Muchas Gracia$! (A once Grand Edifice whose best days are in the past will not be so pricey, while maintaining old-school Hotelier standards.:)

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For the cost, heartache and nerves... just use a service that will hold the package at their office.

Cristos... your suggestion might work for Europe...even perhaps Argentina or Chile... but for Ecuador, I wouldn´t recommend it. Turn around in staff is one issue, safety,and security of your packages in a "grand hotel of a bygone era" is another, and of course, the price of staying once a month ...leaving your own home and going somewhere else to get your mail, is simply not reasonable. IN areas where there are "old hotels" there are also, DHL offices (and Servientrega offices which also work for holding your mail and packages)

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Good Lord! You guys are scaring me (LOL?) Is everything 'down South' as efficient? Did I remember to pack EVERYTHING I may ever need again? Almost seems a monthly flight North will be required if anything is forgotten, and cant be bought locally.

Confession: I built the mainframe IT infrastructure for DHL's move to N. America, wherein they bought (and ruined) Airborne Express immediately. It was like working for El Diablo himself. Evil company. Internally it was called either "Dewey, Huey and Louie" or "Drop it, Hide and Lose it".

Did I remember Everything ... ?

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@ Ocean - awww, you deserve to Splurge - or better yet be pampered - at least once a month;) Otherwise I think your choice is very sensible.

OMG a DHL Daemon! PLEASE don't hurt me, I SWEAR I was only kidding;)

But yeah, a mid-size 'pizza' service from FL to EC, a few of which I believe sorta-semi exist, would do well to follow in the original DHL's wild 80's wake;~)) ^
Otherwise, yeah, I can see flying back and forth 3 times the first year, prolly 2x the second, blah blah, but crossing Borders has become such a pain and I simply can NOT imagine that traveling is soon to grow easier:(((

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Chill Khun ...

After a few years for some on average, folks either go back to the U.S.A. or they learn they really didn´t need all that crap, to begin with.

There are just a few things you all need to get a hold of, like a new credit card fro your US bank... things that allow you to keep a finger or toe back in the "old country".

I haven´t been back over 6 years, and that was for 10 days, most of which were for work.

But yeah Damaged, Hidden & Lost, who would have guessed they would wind up the best choice?

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At the risk of stereotyping, DHL's turnaround began when the Germans took over....

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I find it hard to believe that there are not more options in Ecuador..... Here in Panama there are so many I cant keep track....Some of them good, some of them pirates......but we have E-shop in Boquete and Servi tech........they do a good job, and cheap, and virtually nada in aduana costs........Are there no independents in Ecuador? Wow......business opportunity beckons........but there must be......but you'all being newbies just done know about them yet........My guess is that there are independent services in every major city........Here nobody uses DHL or FED X unless its a cashiers check..........

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