Club Correos Abolished! Done In By "Misuse" & Commerce-Killing Tariff

I noticed after reading that article it was reported today in the Gringo Tree as well.

I wonder why Gringo Tree turns comments off on something like this. Maybe because criticism could be expressed that would not be politically correct.  Well, I suppose they got gold to mine and can't afford to tick off anyone in government.

http://cuenca-news.gringotree.com/club- … n-ecuador/

As Nards suggested, there has been no indication spotted of any change in the tariff.  It's possible that the decision on whether to keep the tariff will be revenue-based, determined by the flow of packages into Ecuador going forward.  The 99 percent drop-off in Cuenca package traffic indicates that many Expats have been getting along without importing stuff from overseas.

The use of "abolished" in this thread's name may technically be an exaggeration, and I probably would have softened it except that the Expat.com editing program does not allow an OP to change such, once the headline is submitted.  Abolition usually implies an act of law, and this was a decision that did not necessarily require passage of a law. The original article said "suspendido definativamente," which I would translate as "suspended definatively" or "suspended with prejudice."

So, technically, there is the outside chance that El Supremo or a high postal official could resurrect the "club" someday.  But based on the problems I've chronicled over time and those stated in El Tiempo, such a comeback seems improbable.

cccmedia in Quito

Holly molly! 1,000 down to 10. I'm not the smartest bloke around, but am pretty certain that's a significant drop in business. So, let me see if got this right. People aren't going to continue to pay for overpriced, and poor service? There's a shocker.

j600rr wrote:

So, let me see if I got this right. People aren't going to continue to pay for overpriced, and poor service?

Right on the money, J600

The $11-per-year basic fee only hinted at the real cost of sending a package, which included a shipment fee based on weight, etc., plus the $42 per-shipment tariff.

These are the two most significant highlights -- and by that I mean lowlights -- of my year with Club Correos (I dropped out after 12 months, in November):

1.  A five-month delay on dealing with a package I'd ordered containing vitamins (all vitamin imports were prohibited) during which time the Correos U.S. freight forwarder in Miami repeatedly refused to send a required fax to the U.S. vendor, thereby blocking return of the merchandise.

2. Club Correos consented to forward to me a shipment of family documents sent by my sister from New York last September.  It took the "club" four months to get them to me.

You would think that with a 99 percent reduction in overseas package-handling, they could have gotten the documents to me in a month or two.

On top of that, the dogs of SENAE (customs) required payment of the tariff, even though the documents technically were exempt from such.  Club Correos never notified in advance how to invoke the exemption, and never answered my emails about how to so notify.

cccmedia in Quito

Although certain times of the years the service was slow and sometimes I had to wait up to two months to get my package, I received everything I ever ordered (close to a 100 shipments)  without damage. So  I was generally happy with the service.

Nards Barley wrote:

Although certain times of the year the service was slow and sometimes I had to wait up to two months to get my package, I received everything I ever ordered (close to 100 shipments) without damage. So  I was generally happy with the service.

That result is a testament to Nards' ability to navigate a user-unfriendly, Spanish-language website...to adhere to arcane, poorly-advertised rules (e.g., no vitamins, overweight shipments may have to be returned to sender)...and to avoid over-exposure to the dogs of SENAE and the ESL crowd that was "operating" the "club" and its customer-service-challenged unit in Miami.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

That result is a testament to Nards' ability to navigate a user-unfriendly, Spanish-language website...to adhere to arcane, poorly-advertised rules (e.g., no vitamins, overweight shipments may have to be returned to sender)...and to avoid over-exposure to the dogs of SENAE and the ESL crowd that was "operating" the "club" and its customer-service-challenged unit in Miami.

cccmedia in Quito

Sounds like presidential material to me

A company called ServiEntrega has stepped up to take over Club Correos' "suspended" service, in collaboration with Correos' old freight-forwarding partner in Miami, Econcargo.

If you want to find out more about this new entrant in the shipping wars, visit servientrega.com ...

Be prepared for nothing but Spanish. 

Econcargo is not recommended. It is now claiming to offer "el mismo servicio como antes" (same service as before)

Correos has confirmed at its website that Club Correos is no more.

U.S. Global mail -- a U.S.-based, English-speaking company that has received positive online reviews -- might be a better alternative going forward.

cccmedia in Quito