Red tape and frustration in Jamaica

Making your way through the ins and outs of another country can be challenging. Since many years we have a strong connection to Jamaica and from time to time it becomes so blatantly obvious how a lack of services, red tape and even corruption can make absolutely anything grind to a halt.

Here”s the story. We have a house in Jamaica and one of the challenges is getting buying stuff to the house, especially when you are in Sweden as we are. Jamaica simply does not have the variety of ecommerce we are used to (in fact there is very little). So for instance, ordering cushions for your outdoor patio set is a bit of a challenge.

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Having spent weeks (yes weeks) trying to find someone, anyone, in Jamaica we opted for buying it through wallmart and shipping it through myus.com. Said and done, we placed the order. The ordervalue came to about 200 USD.

Items where promptly shipped from US to Jamaica using myus.com (for the small cost of 150 USD).

Then – nothing. No information. I stsrted to look around and inquire with myus. And yes, it turns out the items are at fedex in Kingston.Waiting ”clearance”. And here’s where we the frustration level reaches new highs. At first they need confirmation of who they are delivering to. Phone calls and mails are done, where copies of ID cards etc are sent. Then again – nothing.

Then we call and mail again and now it turns out that we need to pay customs. OK. No surprise and not a big deal. Except they want 150 USD. For something which we bought for 200 USD. Being frustrated and tired by now (and wanting to have the frigging cushions) we just payed.

That was a week ago. No of items delivered so far? None. Zero.

Total cost so far: 500 USD (and counting)