Hi everyone! I'm back in the midwest finally, and much to my surprise the high today is around 68! Not near as dreadful as I was planning on dealing with. So question. When I entered Mexico (the first time this summer) I brought my work desktop and had to pay duties in Aduanas. I was pretty much expecting that, so no big deal. This time when leaving, I needed to bring it with me and of course, I'm supposed to arrive back Monday (Ida willing) and I'll be bringing the PC back with me. I was expecting to need a stamp or something saying that I was leaving with the PC, but alas, story below. At the airport yesterday, I asked *everyone* how I could leave the country and re-enter with the PC and not pay duties again. I have my receipt of purchase in the US, my duties card with the PC on it, and my receipt from Aduanas. The airline desk sent me to the Aduanas office, but no one was there. Next door was a gentleman from the Agriculture ministry and he didn't know either. After going through security I asked another airport employee at the information desk and he told me to ask the airline attendant at my gate. Ok, phew. So I asked the nice lady at my gate and she didn't know, but as luck would have it, her superior just showed up, so I explained the situation to him. He and the other guy working with him didn't come to the same conclusion and offered conflicting advice. The one fellow said that I'll have to repay duties every single time I leave and re-enter with the PC, while the other said it may be possible to come and go with it using an import/export exception or some such. Paying every time I re-enter? That's terrible! I really hope that is not the case. In the end, the airline superior told me it was really all up to Aduanas. They might charge me when I get back or they might let me go through, regardless of having all of the receipts. I find that kind of appalling and really hope it's not the case. It's not a significant amount of money (less than $100 US) but I don't like torching money for no apparent reason. Any experience? Advice? Anything I can say in Aduanas to help my case when I get back? Thanks.
I'm reluctant to step on anyone's business plan, but why don't you have a notebook computer? It's very simple to keep any number of computers in sync and you can just carry it on and off the plane with zero attention from aduanas. Another thought is a desktop here and a desktop there and a USB stick or a USB drive. Even lighter than a notebook. Toshiba announced a 320 GB SATA drive in a 1.8" case this week. And last but not least by a longshot; Desktops are not built to be carried about. Cards can be dislodged from slots, motherboard can be flexed, and some 3.5" hard drives do not park as securely as their little laptop/notebook 2.5" bretheren do. Generally the design spec for a desktop anticipates delivery, short relocations around the home or office and then the ultimate trip to the graveyard. Now that I've gloomed and doomed all over your plans, have a safe and successful trip.
Coby - I will see if I can get nameless airport spy to talk to someone in Aduana about this before you get back. In the name of cleaning up corruption Aduana has recently had a 100% personnel replacement in the Cancun airport. And they are now x-raying every item. So there's pretty much no getting away with anything anymore. (Although they did miss that wormy apple I smuggled in last time I came in.) Why did you bring your CPU to the US? Do get it fixed? Or what? How often will you be moving it back and forth? Mixz1 is right about laptop hard drives having a tougher parking spec than desktop ones. But from what I recall of my days of flirting shamelessly with hard drive engineers, all hard drives are designed to withstand a pretty long drop onto a hard surface. But still, your computer will live longer if you aren't moving it around so much. I let you know what I can find out.
Coby - What Aduana should have done yesterday is issue you a Temporary Exportation Permit for your computer. Next time you will know to step on their feet until one is issued. The permit is free. Given that they didn't give you that you should come back and show them your receipts from the previous duty you paid. It might work. Let them know that you tried to get help from Aduana on this issue before leaving. Good luck and please report back and let us know how it goes.
Thanks Mix and RG! I would definitely appreciate any help on the subject whatsoever. Just to answer a few questions: -I have 2 laptops back in Mexico as well. Laura and I brought in 3 computers, 2 for my work and one for our family computer. -The main reason I require the desktop is that a I need hardware that is either impossible to put into a laptop, or is prohibitively expensive ( > $5000) --- that would namely be running twin Nvidia 8800 GTX cards. A single one of which is larger than our netbook -Yep, this is the first time I'm having to bring it back and forth, although it might happen again in the future. And yeah, I'm bringing it back because I have to do some hardware modifications. Usually I don't trek with it. -It's actually a 'portable' desktop -- its a very dense, small case (weighs about 20 lbs) that is big enough for laptop-unfriendly hardware but still manageable for travel. It easily fits in medium sized backpack, and has a solid state drive instead of a HDD as well as rubber gaurds along all exterior edges. It's a tough SOB And also, I didn't bring things like a monitor, keyboard etc box, just the box. -Getting a second desktop here might be viable and I should look into. Some of the software I use though, is on a per-machine (not per-user) license and it isn't cheap, but I might be able to work around that. So, yeah, typically I don't travel with it, but sometimes I have to and it's built for the go Again, I'd be super thankful RG for any insider info you can send my way!
Ah thanks RG! Yes, that's what I thought There was no one in the Aduanas office in terminal 3 though when I left...what should I have done? I will definitely try and wave my reciept around and see what happens. I'll post the results on Monday Thanks again!
Having just stripped my desktop and tossed it into the trash (fried mobo), not anticipating a trip stateside for 3 months to go CPU shopping, and wrestling with 2 terrabytes of USB enclosures to preserve backups and sync data between our three notebooks, I am green with envy. Sounds like you have a really nice setup.
The twin GPUs are the most high performance part of the whole deal. The CPU is a [now] pretty standard issue Intel Core Duo. I work with high detail real time rendering, so drawing textured, lit, triangles is always my bottle neck I should've posted here about going to a comp depo this trip (went this morning.) I can get a variety of parts for very good prices and I'd always be happy to bring back stuff for anyone in QROO. Actually, how is Aduanas with bringing in the raw components of a CPU like a mobo, NIC, HDD, etc?
I'm back in QROO and the steamy sunshine; I had no problem with Aduanas this time in the slightest. I didn't declare the computer, although the XRay technician asked me what kind of electronic equipment was in the bag. I said computer, they said computer?, and I said yeah, my computer. Next please. I might have just been lucky though, since my bags weren't searched. If that would have happened I am curious how the whole situation would've played out. Perhaps when I first brought the computer it was the fact that there were 3 comps for 2 people that lead to the duties in the first place. I don't know
Coby - Congrats! That's great news. I know that we are each allowed to bring one laptop in with us, so they may have missed the fact that it's not quite a laptop. And when you came in before with 3 puters between 2 people they were clearly going to have to charge a duty on one of them. ...Mexico may not but some of us consider it normal to have 2 or 3 computers per person...
