TIFU by trying to ship sentimental belongings halfway around the world

Submitted by jaytoatee t3_118wh18 in tifu

My fiancée and I plan to live in México for the foreseeable future, I spent thousands shipping our personal belongings from Singapore and only half the boxes arrived. What really sucks are the sentimental possessions that can't be replaced. I might never get to see my grandparents due to their age, and one of my uncles who I love dearly all have things in the missing boxes for me to remember them by.

Correos de México can't tell us anything about where our boxes are except that they're possibly stuck in México City, I've been really depressed the last two months we've been here and trying really hard to focus on the things we've gained since moving here but it's just a lot.

The boxes are registered and all it says in the tracking website is that they've "Arrived at Destination Sorting Hub" since the first week of January. I made the mistake of not paying more to ship our boxes but it seems like some sort of crapshoot in hindsight with half of our boxes arriving no problem.

TL : DR I shipped boxes halfway around the world from Singapore to Mexico and a lot of personally significant things have gone missing

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Decent_Strain5626 t1_j9jl666 wrote

So I’m assuming you’re already in Mexico. Is there any chance you can drive to Mexico City and go to whatever company has your boxes?

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jaytoatee OP t1_j9kb3b0 wrote

We're calling to see if the boxes are there or somewhere halfway to Quintana Roo where we are, seems like they often don't answer calls to the office there

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Decent_Strain5626 t1_j9kbscr wrote

Yeah I’m kinda shocked that it’s been months and you haven’t driven there yourself already

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Bob_Chris t1_j9l2ux6 wrote

It's a 20 hour drive each way. It's like 100 miles longer than driving from Chicago to New York.

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Decent_Strain5626 t1_j9l3blf wrote

I mean yeah it’s not great, but I drove from San Antonio, TX to Los Angeles, CA (18 hours) for a vacation and it wasn’t anywhere near impossible. Just seems like the thing to do for sentimental stuff

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Vires1257 t1_j9mco0z wrote

You also didn’t have to worry about the possibilities of running into a cartel… Especially worse if they can be easily picked out as gringos

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jaytoatee OP t1_j9n26xv wrote

I definitely get the odd look here in Mexico just for being a Singaporean-Chinese fellow, and my fiancee is pale as snow even though she lived between MX, UK, HK and SG

I've also spent my entire life in Singapore while she's spent the last eight so neither of us needed to drive since everything was never more than an hour away by public transport (we're both quite young but she has family here in Quintana Roo)

That said, getting a license is definitely a priority but we've only just started settling into the house and fixing things up, we didn't have a working gasline or stove until recently

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AletzRC21 t1_j9ljzq9 wrote

Oh yeah it's completely doable, but have you seen the state our highways are in? Most of them are rural backroads

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jaytoatee OP t1_j9n31cr wrote

Mexico has really been beautiful the last two months, and I really enjoy walking the length of some of the Calles simply because you're always kept on your toes. Always something tasty around the corner too, I've had everything from tamales, pozole, and an absolutely amazing caldo de pollo

That aside, we're taking a four hour drive up to Merida for a relative's wedding and we've been warned that our asses are not going to have a good time so I am looking forward to experiencing the highways haha

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[deleted] t1_j9l4w7m wrote

[deleted]

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Decent_Strain5626 t1_j9l63sp wrote

Hmmm then what about flying? She flew all the way there from Singapore so maybe they can take a $300 flight or however much it is to Mexico City?

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Mike2220 t1_j9noz13 wrote

While both your statements check out, I do wonder why the drive from Chicago to New York is 6 hours shorter according to google

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Bob_Chris t1_j9nxsxd wrote

Well I'm guessing it had to do with the quality of roads and the overall infrastructure between the two locations, as well as elevation change.

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Talon1968 t1_j9oneif wrote

The roads are rough, usually only two lanes, if you are caught behind a semi on a hill, you will be delayed for quite some time. There are not many if any turn offs for slow vehicles in the mountains.

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jinbtown t1_j9kvyqp wrote

for other people moving internationally - spend the 4-5k on a 20' container. Put everything inside the container. Collect the entire container when you get to where you're going.

You can also split containers with other people, this is very popular for popular expat destinations

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Elephantex t1_j9lu2ml wrote

This reminds me of those videos I see of shipping containers falling into the ocean. 😭

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jinbtown t1_j9pdr4r wrote

true, but everything shipped via the slow boat is getting put into a container regardless, so it might as well all be in YOUR container lol

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New_journey868 t1_j9k7s1w wrote

Correos de mexico is the worst. I wouldn’t give up hope, they might still arrive

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DaviBraid t1_j9kbgin wrote

My mother lost two boxes of my things trying to send them to the US, where I lived at the time. It’s been years. I’m still mad.

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jaytoatee OP t1_j9n2p2s wrote

I'm sorry to hear that, definitely feeling the pain. We were looking at getting a palette on a container but we got quoted much more, 14,000 SGD because nobody else was looking to move bulky items from Singapore to Mexico specifically before Christmas last year

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KnownSurprise8682 t1_j9n0id0 wrote

I am sorry that this happened to you. Especially that the items were sentimental items. I hope that they turn up or that you will be able to get some help finding them.

When my mum died in 2018, I met my sister & brother to clean out the house. We all had selected certain pieces of furniture from the house. The moving company that I used lost the top section (3' x 4') of a china cabinet and the base of an antique barrister bookcase. I kept calling and was told it was on a truck. After talking to the driver of the last truck that it was supposed to be on, they said that what I was looking for did not match what they had. Their items were originally to go to Tampa, then changed to my area, but the items were from three different shipments. When I last talked to the company, they said they were lost in transit. While I can use the bottom section of the china cabinet because it is a full piece on it's own. But I cannot use the bookcase because I don't have the base.

I found many stories about the moving company that I used and the problems that people had with them after I had my problem. I found out that the company I used and another company with a similar name were related to each other.

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jaytoatee OP t1_j9ns738 wrote

I'm so sorry to hear, my grandparents are not in the best of health to travel anymore and a 36 hour round-trip back to Singapore is daunting. I'm planning to see my mom by meeting her halfway, in Europe maybe, since she's never been outside of South-East Asia.

I keep trying to tell myself it's the little things they've left us, the intentions behind them mean more than the actual things they gave us, but that's not enough to push back against the waves of suck all the time.

Our boxes are still being tracked but God knows where they are

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rhinophyre t1_j9p3wss wrote

If it makes you feel any better, don't blame yourself for saving money. I went with the reputable (expensive) option moving from the UK to the US. Still took over a year, and half my things were broken. I paid for insurance too, and that was a complete waste of money, as they refused to cover any of it.

I'm sorry about your un replaceable items, but don't feel any guilt over it.

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