Some time ago I ordered 2 large dog doors from the USA which were sent by post.When they arrived in MVD I was summoned to MVD (I live 120 kms away) and spent a fun day getting them. First I had to queue at the main post office in Missiones (a street in the Old City) and after 30 minutes of searching, the post office found the parcel which was placed on a table for customs inspection. After a while a customs officer arrived to inspect the packet but refused to open it until I gave him the invoice (which was inside the parcel.) After much persuasion he agreed to look inside, found the invoice and carefully examined the dog doors and the packaging for contraband. He them set about calculating the duty to be paid and after three attempts decided that the sum in question was 3, 217 pesos. I got out the money to pay him... but no. The duty had to be paid to the cashier at customs HQ down by the docks. I gathered the various papers and walked the mile or so to the HQ. After much searching I found the appropriate office where I queued for another 30 minutes. The nice gent took all the papers, gave them a good stamping and added another paper but wouldn't take my money. I then had to find a special hole in the wall elsewhere in the building where another person took the thick bundle of papers, stamped them all again, gave me some of them back along with two more papers and accepted the 3, 220 pesos I offered him. We then had a long explanation about how regulations forbade customs to give change and how said regs also prohibited him from accepting the 3 pesos in question as a gift so a senior officer was summoned who gave me 3 pesos and a lecture on the importance of having adequate change when visiting customs. I returned triumphant to the post office and queued for customs who sorted my papers in a mere 20 minutes before queuing at the post office counter for another 20 minutes, giving them several signatures and my cedula details. Only then was I given the 2 dog doors which were much admired by my fellow customers :-) Street theatre can't hold a candle to Los Funcionarios :-) Patrick. |