DHL to Mexico - Package Received

Late last week, Annabelle's birthday present arrived! After agreeing to let DHL "mark" (paint) the toys, they emailed back saying an outfit was made in China and it would have to be "mutilated" (cut).

After receiving a blog comment from someone that lives in Polanco and has been thru the same process, I followed his advice and also asked DHL about the taxes I would have to pay, if I went through Cofepris and got the proper documentation. DHL said it would be $900 pesos (about $80 USD) for the toys, plus more for the outfit. $900 pesos is more than my mother and father in law paid for the toys!

Finally, I agreed to the marking and mutilation and the package was delivered two days later.

The toys looked much better than expected. They were marked with a yellow spray paint that you can see thru. The toys just needed to be aired out for a day, as they still smelled like paint.

Here are a few photos of some items...

Thomas the Trains

Track with yellow paint here and there

Yellow paint on the puzzles

Two+ inch cut in the back of Annie's new dress

DHL - U.S. to Mexico

For Annabelle's birthday, my mother in law sent Annabelle a package via DHL. She said it was very frustrating from her end, as the package had to be re-packed to make it less costly and she was told it would probably be opened at least three times.

She sent me the tracking number, so I saw that it was in Mexico City on June 3rd. From there, the daily updates have read "clearance delay".

Late last week, I got a phone call from DHL, stating that Mike (as the package is addressed to him) had to fill out a document and get an additional document from Cofepris, before DHL would release the package.

When the DHL man emailed the document, I emailed back asking "what's Cofepris?". He gave me their website. And told me that if the Cofepris process is too difficult, we can either have the toys "destroyed OR marked/painted and released as samples".

Apparently, Cofepris is a Mexican government agency. www.cofepris.gob.mx

Their English portion of their website states:

"The Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS) is a decentralized organ of the Department of Health with technical, administrative and operational autonomy, whose mission is to protect the population against sanitary risks, through sanitary regulation, control and promotion under a single command, which provides unity and homogeneity to the policies which are determined."

So, after getting no where with Cofepris' website, I called them, spoke to someone in English and was directed to a 16 page document. From there, he told me to go to page 12, section 3 and follow the instructions.

These are the instructions:

3. IMPORTACIÓN:

HOMOCLAVE COFEPRIS-01-006

NOMBRE, MODALIDAD Y GUÍA RÁPIDA DE LLENADO

Aviso Sanitario de Importación de Productos

(Bebidas no alcohólicas, cerámica y loza vidriada, juguetes y artículos escolares).

CAMPOS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 14 y para juguetes, 1 2 3 4 artículos escolares, cerámica y loza vidriada 8

además 21 y 22

REQUISITOS DOCUMENTALES

␣ Para juguetes, cerámica destinada a contener alimentos; y artículos escolares: Constancia Sanitaria o Certificado de Libre Venta o Análisis de laboratorio.

␣ Para el resto de los productos: Constancia Sanitaria o Certificado de Libre Venta. Para todos los productos el trámite deberá presentarse anualmente y será válido para todos los embarques dentro de esté período.

The above instructions make no sense to me. But, he told me to follow them, then bring my document into Cofepris, for their approval.

At this point, I have emailed DHL back to ask them if I agree to allow them to paint/mark the toys, will they be released TO ME. Their previous email just said "released as samples".

So, if they agree to release the painted toys to me...I can only imagine what color Thomas the Train will be!