US Purchase Forwarder to Chile

Community Helpdesk
1

I recently tried, and repeatedly failed to make a purchase on ebay with a CuentaRUT Visa debit card, the same one that Amazon and various Chinese vendors have no problem in accepting.

More recently, as a test I used ebay with a Chinese seller, and the sale went through.

Then I realized that ebay sellers can refuse to accept orders from certain countries, or even entire continents, generally because of delivery problems with those places.

So it looks as if I need a US-based forwarder.

Does anyone have a recommendation? I’m looking at ChileBox, which is run by Chilexpress.

2

I have been using them for several years, I think I routed about 50 orders from Amazon through them to Chile, and nothing was lost.

Yes, they sometimes have minor problems, sometimes delays with shipping, delays with customer service replies, but generally everything ships and everything arrives.

Some time ago they implemented a payment option khipu and eliminated a good and working BancoEstado online payments, but this khipu thing worked with BancoEstado also, though in a more complicated way.

After my last issue with Amazon when they sent me a cheap Chinese chainsaw instead of an expensive laptop sold by a 3rd party through FBA (fulfillment through Amazon) I stopped using both services. But to be honest, it was Amazon’s problem, not ChileBox. My numerous cases against both firms (against Amazon, as this was their fault, and against ChileBox as they shipped this item with mismatching invoice attached) were all lost.

Their costs can be VERY high, please be careful, I shipped though them only those items that Amazon couldn’t ship internationally (usually either used high end laptops-workstations sold very cheap by US IT refurbishers/recyclers, or laptop batteries).

They will charge you for:

DERECHOS ADUANA,
ALMACENAJE ADUANA, (!!!)
SERVICIOS ADICIONALES, (!!!)
TRANSPORTE INTERNACIONAL USA-CHILE,
GASTO DE ADMINISTRACION INTERNACIONAL, (!!!)
TRAMO NACIONAL

Sometimes I paid 45 mil pesos to ship just a cheap (USD 20) and small laptop battery…

3

I have been using MyUS.com for a number of years now. They accept your shipments and consolidate them so you pay for the total weights. They use a number of shippers, DHL and FedEX are among them. But they do have a $60 yearly fee. They are out of Sarasota, Florida.

Before them, I used TransExpress out of Miami (Doral), Florida. They didn’t charge a yearly fee, but they do not consolidate your packages, so each package that comes in, goes out in the same box it arrived in. TransExpress used to do the shipping for the Correos Miami before Correos switched.

So I started out with Correos Miami, switched to TransExpress (who actually was the shipper for Correos Miami before), and then finally switched to MyUS.com.

I know there are a few more companies out there.

I like the consolidation aspect. Also they can pay your Aduana fees if you like. But that depends on the shipper you use like DHL or FedEX.

But my first choice is Amazon with FREE SHIPPING. :slight_smile:

4

Thanks for the helpful replies. I will look at all the options mentioned. The thing about ebay is that its possible to find secondhand or discontinued items that are unavailable in the regular retailers.

A long time ago I used to use Shipito.com until they lost a USD $300 item and didn’t respond at all.