SUV Shipped to the Island

Just when the panic button became a serious option, I used Sea Star’s tracking device again. This time success, the SUV was in the Port of San Juan. Oh joy, that gave me a major relief.

Where is my car? My shipping agent never responded. He replied with instructions to send money to a company that, when I looked it up, sells cookware. Wouldn't you be suspicious?

It’s funny that I feel so relieved and yet, I’m still so blasted annoyed; now, to put my last two nickels together to pick “Beni” up.

The Department of Hacienda levies and collects the excise tax to import a car. They have a nifty gizmo on the website to estimate the tax. You fill in the VIN or make, model and year. They give you a tax estimate. How nice to know before heading out, and remember I don’t have a phone, so, I’m thrilled with anything I can do over the internet.

Don’t you just know that gizmo DID NOT WORK? I went through the instructions over and over with a check sheet, so I wouldn't miss a step. I thoroughly wanted to be ready to go to San Juan Monday morning.  

Tension: being at the end of your credit wondering if you’re going to make it; that about sums it up. I’d love waiting until Monday, if I were a masochist.

On the bright side I’m going to spend a couple of days with my very good friend Adri at her home in Carolina. We can walk to the beach. She goes swimming with a pack of rescue dogs.

That’s what I need: a dog packed vacation. Enjoy your day. Thanks for reading.  

No Car, No What!

The hauler phone number didn’t match the number on the website. It’s a day later; still don’t know where my car is.

My quest for patience gave way to panic hours ago. We’re retired, we can’t replace this stuff, the way we could when we were younger. To tell the truth, I would have never taken losing my car well.

Transporting Beni is digging into the very last of our resources. Oh, gee, another cause for panic; paying for it!

Internet piracy happens all the time. Heavens, I could get paranoid without really trying.

I love Puerto Rico. It’s worth all the difficulty to be in a tropical garden with the lake, the mountains, and the rock formations. Remind me of that later.

My neighbor, who speaks only Spanish, our contact for the phone company just told me Claro called. Twenty questions and google translate later; I’m not getting my phone for five to six weeks because the house no longer has a line. Could life get any better?

Shit, I can’t afford a cell phone, right now. The phone line is $25 a month. That was doable. It never occurred to me that I’d be sweating such small amounts, but here it is. Damn, I wish Claro would have told me about the phone line when they told me we couldn’t get internet here. We’ve been without a phone for a month.

So, I just got an email from the shipper, NO, your car is at Sea Star, will leave port on the such and such; just an invoice.

The agent handling this had a great sales personality. He should have saved some of that personality for his customer service.

The shipper’s website proudly displayed Visa, Master Card and American Express, but these people keep asking for cash transfers. I filled out the form on the website to track my vehicle before I received the email, so I assume they are connected, a small relief.

Guess I’ll pay the hauler and get a cell phone.

SUV Shipping Blues

Patience, that asset often eludes me. Being dreadfully long on imagination at times, I can see my Mercedes, SUV getting off the ship somewhere far away. 

We named the 1998 ML, Beni, so we’re talking old friend.

Last week the shipper and hauler were all over me to pay a COD bill on pick up and the shipper was requesting final balance actually before they had done anything physical like picking the vehicle up. Was it just an efficient routine?

COD was settled to be at delivery today. I am expecting to receive an email telling me that Beni arrived at Sea Star parking lot in Jacksonville, Florida, and pay up.

If Beni were a child, it would be time to call an Amber Alert, but Beni is a car, so prudence dictates waiting.

The shipper is a BBB, Better Business Bureau Member in good standing. Their website is fabulous. The hauler has a sharp, if anonymous web site. I don’t like company sites that don’t mention a single human being.

As on top of things as these folks were last week, I am staggered to report not a peep out of them this week. What should I think about this?

Sea Star has an online tool to check cargo whereabouts. Beni hasn’t been checked in yet. How long should I wait?

My thought is if they are legit, they'll want their money , so we'll hear from them. If not, it's already too late. 

     

Shipping Car to Puerto Rico

This morning I woke up with a knot in my stomach, intuition telling me something is very wrong.

Our repaired SUV is still in Mobile, Alabama. A contract signed and deposit taken to transport the vehicle to the Port of San Juan. This seemed fine. We’re eager to get our stuff in one place and be settled.

When I signed the contract on Monday, the agent told me that he had a driver in Mobile ready to take it. He needed a deposit, which I gave him.

In the next email the agent said that the hauler would be in Mobile to pick it up on Friday. The driver worked COD, so I needed to pay his fee in cash. He sent me the bank routing number and account number to deposit the fee for transport to Jacksonville before they would pick up the vehicle.

COD means cash on delivery to me, not cash on pick up. My deposit should have been a sign of good will and the lubricant to get things moving. I felt ill at ease being asked for additional payment up front and in cash only.

In an email I questioned when my vehicle would arrive in San Juan. Without an answer to that question, the agent informed me to deposit the balance into another checking account.

Admittedly I am not a very sophisticated woman, but this doesn’t seem right to me. Or am I just being paranoid?