Hola everyone. It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been very busy working on my Web projects. Plus for the entire month of February I was forced to used Microsoft Windows (yuck). I’m gonna do some venting in this post. Normally I try to concentrate on the good and forget about the bad but right now I just have a need to let some frustrations out.

First topic for venting: Miami-Box (www.miami-box.com). I’ll start by saying a few good things about them. They’re cheap, the people are generally pleasant, and they do a great job delivering letters and magazines. Now for the not so good. On January 31st the power adapter for my Apple laptop (my girlfriend as JP refers to it) died. So, on January 31st I ordered a replacement online from Apple. It arrive in Miami at the offices of Miami-Box on February 6th. Well, that’s when they emailed me telling me that they received it. According to FedEx they received it the day before at 1:55pm. I didn’t have the power adapter in my hands until late in the day on February 28th — 28 days after I ordered it and 23 days after Miami-Box received it.

Miami-Box ships out of Miami on every Thursday. My package arrived there on a Monday. It should have been delivered to me by February 12th or 13th at the latest considering it would have to go through UY Customs. For some unexplained reason it didn’t ship to UY until the following Thursday, February 15th. The following week JP called them asking when they’re going to deliver it. They explained that it was being held in UY Customs at that they could represent me and pick it up (for a fee) or that they can give me the paperwork (for a lower fee) and we could pick it up ourselves. We asked them to do it for us and do it ASAP. On February 26th they delivered to the house the paperwork for clearing Customs. JP called them back. They asked him who he spoke with the previous week because they had no record of us requesting them to do the clearing for us. We were left with two options — return the paperwork to them or go to the airport and take care of the clearing of Customs ourselves. Early in the morning on Wednesday, February 28th JP went to the airport with the paperwork from Miami-Box and attempted to clear customs.

I believe I wrote about the DNA (UY Customs, Dirección Nacional de Aduanas) process in another post. To sum it up you have to move papers around to nine or ten different people receiving signatures, stamps, and approvals at each station. That Wednesday morning JP made it through four or five of the stations before they told him NO! they won’t release the package to him. It turns out there was no invoice in the box so they had no idea how much the adapter was worth so they didn’t know how much tax to charge him!

After he came home I printed the receipt from Apple’s Web site and went back to the airport. Since JP had already started the process I only had to go to seven different people to finally pay the taxes (two different taxes collected by two different cashiers on two different floors). In the end I was happy since I had the adapter, packaged nicely in three nested boxes.

All together, Florida sales tax, shipping from Apple to Miami, shipping from Miami to Uruguay, transportation for JP and me to and from the airport two times and the taxes charged by DNA cost about US$120. The adapter itself cost US$79.

Okay, finally as of last week I have my laptop up and running again. The story continues though. In the meantime I called Apple support (using Internet VOIP phone service Vonage which deserves a post of its own). Apple arranged to have another adapter sent out to me for free since it’s within my warranty period. The box they shipped it in was to be the box I used to return my defective adapter. Also, they were including the paperwork and shipping label I’d need to return the defective one. They said I’d have ten days after receiving the new one to return the old one or I’d be charged US$79 (plus tax and shipping).

On March 1st I received an email from Miami-Box stating that they received the adapter from Apple. It made it on the flight to Uruguay that same day. JP called Miami-Box on Monday. They said that this time it wasn’t held by DNA and that they’d deliver to the house on Thursday or Friday. Since we had only ten days to return the defective one to Apple and since all the return information was included in the box with the new one we arranged to pick it up at the Miami-Box office here in Montevideo on Tuesday. It didn’t arrive at their office until yesterday. JP went to their office with the defective adapter in hand planning to use the info received with the new adapter to ship the old one back to Apple via FedEx. Well, that didn’t happen.

This time around the people in Miami-Box in Miami opened the package from Apple, threw away the box and all the paperwork and put the adapter, which was packaged in a zip-lock bag, in with the rest of my mail. That’s why DNA didn’t hold it to collect tax, they didn’t see it. Since Miami-Box threw away the box and papers that came with the adapter we had no way of returning the defective one!

Today I called Apple and explained what had happened. They wanted to ship me a new box so that I could return the defective part. NO! I told them that I’ll pay for the return shipping, just tell me where to send it and what information to include in the package. They told me. JP ran over to Punta Carretas shopping to send it via DHL. (After my last experience with DHL I’d sworn that I’d never use them again but FedEx is on the other side of town and we wanted to get this out to Apple ASAP.)

DHL charged US$58 for three-business-day delivery and because of the way they do thing it’ll probably get held in US Customs upon arrival in the United States. The Uruguayan Post Office would have cost half the price and with FedEx I had never paid more than US$30 to send anything to the US (and they get it there in two days).

Lessons Learned: I will never use Miami-Box again for anything other than magazines and letters. Even those I’ll switch back to USABox. And I will never use DHL again neither for sending or receiving packages. NEVER! And, I’ll do whatever I can to avoid having anything held by DNA. Hopefully UY and USA will enter into a free-trade agreement and all this Customs b.s. will be a thing of the past. (Oh no, I brought up politics so I’ll probably get a ton of email about US imperialism and the reasons they want a free-trade agreement with UY. All I know is that I don’t want to pay huge import fees and spend half a day trying to get things released from DNA.)

USABox might cost a little more but their advantages are worth it. They email you the moment they receive anything in Miami (I’ve checked the delivery time of things on FedEx’s Website and USABox usually emails me within two hours of receiving packages). Also, for envelopes they scan the envelope, post the picture in your inbox on their site and email you a notification. They’ll either send you your mail on a set schedule (e.g. once a week, or once a month) or they’ll hold it until you notify them to send it. When you request them to ship your mail you go to your USABox inbox on their Website. You put a check mark next to the items you want them to ship. This is cool since if you have one thing that you need urgently or if you have something that you suspect will be held up by DNA you can have them shipped separately from the rest of your mail. If you receive junk mail you can delete it from your inbox which will tell them to throw it away for you.

Another cool thing about USABox is that they won’t open your packages unless you request them to (you have to describe the contents and declare a value on their Website). When you enter your shipping request they give you the option to repackage everything for you. If they do repackage and if it reduces the cost of shipping they’ll split the savings with you. USABox normally uses DHL to ship but for US$9 more they’ll use FedEx instead. From what I’ve heard FedEx is much better at clearing things with DNA (actually, a DHL employee here in Montevideo told me this). After everything I’ve gone through with DHL using FedEx is worth the nine dollars.

Oh, one more venting thing. Miami-Box’s Website is only in Spanish and as far as I can tell all of their employees are monolingual (Spanish only). Now, I know, everybody in the world doesn’t need to speak English, and they’re an Uruguayan company and Uruguay is a Spanish speaking country but they’re offering a service shipping from the United States to Uruguay. Everything they receive in Miami is in English (letters, magazines, and most importantly, packages). If they had an English speaker in Miami opening packages they might have realized that the paperwork that came with my Apple adapter was important. Another point is that Montevideo is a world capital and there are people here who are more comfortable with English so why don’t they at least have their Website in both Spanish and English?

If you decide to join USABox and click on any of my USABox links on this page I’ll get a referral credit. I have no idea what that means but it sounds cool so if you enroll with USABox please use one of my links, okay?

I have some more venting to do (about Microsoft, Windows, and Internet Explorer) but that will have to wait. Since it’s been so long since I posted any photos I wanted to upload a few then I have some work to do.

The Family

Parque Rodó

The Golf

Playa Ramirez

Around Town

Every Sunday afternoon at 1pm there’s an expat lunch at the Old Maz Deli. It’s a cool group of very diverse people from all over the world (though mostly gringos). On most Sundays there’ll be somebody new who’s in town either checking out Montevideo or who just moved to Uruguay. This post has nothing to do with the Sunday lunch except for the fact that I took these pictures this past Sunday as I was walking to Old Maz. It was an incredibly beautiful day. (If you’re ever in Montevideo on a Sunday afternoon stop by and have lunch with us!)

By clicking on the photos you can see a larger version.

The Fish Market at Rambla Gandhi and Calle Tabaré

OCA Flags on Rambla Gandhi

People Enjoying the Sunshine

A New Flowerbed

A Family Relaxing on the Seashore

Cala di Volpe Boutique Hotel

Rugby Anybody?

One of the Few Sea-Front Restaurants

Okay, I couldn’t resist taking this shot. Tienda Tits and a Barbie kiosk is Punta Carretas Shopping. Somebody really has a sense of humor to put these two next to each other.

Tits, MasterCard and Barbie. Master the Possibilities!

We had our first out of town visitors. My friends Mirlan and Oscar were vacationing in Argentina. For the last day of their trip they took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevido to hang with JP and me. Mirlan and I have known each other for almost five years. This was the first time I met Oscar but I’d definitely call him a friend now; he’s a cool dude.

As you may have guessed from the title of this post Mirlan and Oscar are Cuban. They both live in Miami now. After having lunch at Punta Carretas Shopping we took a walk across the street to the Punta Carretas light house. Afterwards we went to a restaurant in Parque Rodó for a beer. Coincidently our waitress, Ileana, is also from Cuba. She’s been here in Uruguay a year or two.

For dinner we went to Ciudad Vieja. Afterwards we took a walk through downtown and went to a casino. I walked in the place with US$20 and left with UY$732! A profit of about US$10. Not bad. A 50% return on investment after 90 minutes.

The next day Mirlan and Oscar caught the 1pm ferry back to B.A. and that night they flew home to Miami. It was nice spending time with them and showing off my new hometown of Montevideo. I think they enjoyed it. Maybe next time they’ll stay longer.

Here are a few photos of their whirlwind visit.

Three cool Cubans; Ilian, Mirlan and Oscar.

A Cuban sandwich. Oscar, JP and Mirlan.

Oscar and JP having a laughing attack.

Barney and Bamm-Bamm.

Mirlan with the Punta Carretas lighthouse.

View of downtown Montevideo from the tip of Punta Carretas.

Oscar and Mirlan with the luxury
apartments on the Rambla Gandhi in the background.

JP striking a pose.

Mirlan on the rocks (AKA Cuba Libre).

Oscar in Punta Carretas Shopping.

Mirlan summoning his flock.

Mirlan and JP

Mikey, Mirlan and Oscar

Mirlan and Oscar attempting a Tango.

The year 2007 arrived in Montevideo with a bang. Many, many bangs and some booms too. The highlight of the evening was when the neighbors across the street tried launching their bottle rockets after sticking them very securely in moist soil. Out of about ten attempts three left the ground before exploding. One of the three took off across the Rambla chasing the lone car driving down the road and blew up on impact. Luckily the car remained in tact though it is unknown whether or not its passengers made it to their destination without wetting their pants.

JP, Golden Lotus, and FuBarrio
on the lookout for incoming rockets.

Francisco Piria’s home just outside of his namesake city, Piriápolis.

On Saturday, December 30, I left Montevideo for the first time. DT, his nephew LT, JP, and I went for a drive out to Piriápolis. Here are some snapshots from that day. I’ll be adding two more posts with photos from a couple of the places we visited.

Photos from December 29, 2006. All of these are within a few blocks of the British Hospital.

Don’t forget, all of the photos on this blog link to a larger version. Enjoy!

Today we had perfect weather. Not a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the mid-seventies, and low humidity. Life Is Beautiful.

Okay, why the chain? Doesn’t this car have
an alarm like every other automobile in Montevideo?

Here’s what $3.00 will buy.

Cars here are so expensive . . .
the owner of this one is still making payments on it.

Heineken, Coca Cola, Marlboro, and
graffiti in English. What city is this again?

Christmas Eve in Montevideo must be the noisiest place on the planet. These pictures were taken a few hours before midnight when everything was relatively quiet. As twelve o’clock approached though it was a different story. Everyone in the city shoots off fireworks all at the same time. It sounded like the Argentines had decided to invade the country.