Once again, we waited in vain for the arrival of our container of donated goods and Christmas gifts for the pastors and their families. Yet another fee fell upon us this afternoon. The reason (or excuse?) for the fee was that we had failed to declare an item on the container. This in turn, supposedly caused a driver to pick up the container, but not be released to travel with it, so he wasted several hours of time. We are being charged for his time . . . and apparently he's the only truck driver in Honduras making really good money!
Enfuriatingly, we know that the item in question was listed on the paperwork we submitted. However, if we take the time to fight this charge, we will incur additional storage time fees, which will quickly add up to more than the current amount we are being charged.
So, I guess, it's another opportunity for us to contribute to the Honduran economy.
If we pay the extra charges (at our local bank) first thing tomorrow (Wednesday), we will likely have the container before the end of the day. Or not. Sigh.
3 comments:
They did that to me too, with a computer, because it lacked a monitor, keyboard and mouse. They were going to tax me for it, saying I was bringing "computer parts", even though I was sure I could bring computers to the country tax-free.
But in order to defend myself and avoid the tax, I would have to have paid for storage many times as expensive as the tax itself.
Needless to say, I was fuming mad, so angry I decided to pay for the storage and keep the customs agent from stealing my money.
Oh my. I'm sorry that you didn't get it. Sounds kind of like the way it goes over there at times,though. Bummer.
Hoping all the snags get worked out to your benefit!
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