Aduana disservice at the airport.

Sounds like a money grab.

What kinds of things were being looked up and/or charged for?

Several years ago, I arrived in Zihua with a large number of used eyeglasses for Lupita to distribute. Customs insisted I pay a US$350.00 fee. I explained that they were donated to me, that I was donating them to Lupita and that she would donate them, but the customs guy wasn't interested, so I told him to dump them in the trash. Never again!

What a great way to encourage tourism. By far the worst airport I have ever gone through. Every trip they search our stuff. Sometimes just because I bring a small soft side cooler which has our swimsuits in it. We just use it for drinks while fishing, no beef, they always ask. Wife was really pissed last time because everything was a mess after spending so much time packing it. We do bring things for friends and used to bring a ton of school supplies and reading glasses to Lupita. They did always accept my receipts, I always said they were for Iglesia de Zihuatanejo and told them buen precio. I never raise my voice or get confrontational. If 5 planes come in at once I could see it taking most of a day to get through. Why the hell send every bag through an X-ray machine if you’re going to hand search it anyways. I just about gave up on Zihua a few years ago because the airport is so bad. I already have a couple of flights booked but maybe I’ll try Volaris to Guadalajara or Mexico and avoid this crap.

Examples of what items they were charging duty?

I almost always keep appliance boxes for several years… sometimes 10 or more years. (I figure if I have to send an appliance for repairs, it is good to have the original packing. This weekend I am discard9the packing material from two 10-year old TVs.)

A few years ago I brought an old Breville blender with me, for personal use, in the old original packaging. I had the receipts for all of the things I was intending to leave in Mexico, including the blender that I got a deal on from the Amazon Warehouse.

Aduana didn’t care that the blender had obvious signs of use. The person said that if something is in the original packaging, the assess it as being intended for resale. They looked up the higher price of this item in Mexico. I paid some significant duty on that. I considered declining paying, but I didn’t want to reward someone by them taking home my quality blender that still had many years of use left on it. (I’m still using the blender.)

I come from Canada. My receipts are in C$. I write the C$ amount, do the currency conversion to US$, and show the result. Sometimes aduana has calculated my C$ receipts as US$ and charged me duty.

Disputing at ZIH while others are lined up is about as productive as disputing at LAX.

Several years ago I brought Mexican cilantro seeds back to Canada in sealed packaging. I declared them at Canada customs. Because they were commercially sealed they were OK.

Last year I wanted to grow a variety of types of basil for personal use in Mexico. I checked on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.mx. The same seeds were on both sites. I declared the seeds. Aduana confiscated the seeds.

Sigh.

A friend is coming to visit me later this year. He likes listening to music on a couple of small battery-powered speakers. I have cautioned him to not put them back into the packaging to protect them and to bring the receipt.

Last October I came through MEX airport in DF with no difficulties. In October 2022 I’m going to come through MEX again.

We picked up a friend coming on Alaska on Saturday. She told us the flight was about 20 min. late so we adjusted for this. She also said a national flight arrived same time as hers. The immigration (one person) and then one person from the aduana (customs) checked her through. Normally, she goes through rapidly but she had to check her carry-on due to her toothpaste being too big. We waited at the airport for about 1.75 hours for her to come through outside in the canicula/dog days of summer. I thought, don't the Mexican immigration and aduana put more that one person each during the heaviest time of the week (Saturday)?

I read of at least 3 people in this short thread talk about "going around the problem" which to me would be a great inconvenience to yourself and not teach them a thing.
As much as you guys love vacationing down there as do I, I think it's time to just stop going.

I for one fly out of O'hare where I live and always had direct flights available and that's pretty much all I'll ever take, unless you don't have a choice going somewhere far away into say Asia or Europe.
There is simply no way in hell I'd ever consider driving myself nuts and taking a stopover to avoid their bullshit tactics.

Many other destinations have an equally beautiful atmosphere in their own way with warm sun and cold beer just the same.

I arrived on Saturday on an American flight from Phoenix. There was an Alaska flight in front of us and a United flight right after us. I noticed another Alaska flight arrived after United. Immigration took about 30-45 minutes. They had one person handling most of the international arrivals. One man went on break shortly after we arrived. He returned from break before we made it to the front of the line. There was one person handing national arrivals from the US as well as outbound AA and United paperwork. She took a few people as time permitted. Normally, we see 3-4 people on duty on a Saturday.

Regarding Customs, I have seen the line like this only once before. So frustrating! It took 1.5 hours for us to get through the Customs line. We noticed that the area was also short handed. We witnessed the employee watching the conveyor belt permit one family through at a time, then we would walk them to the light, and then he would search the bags if they got the red light. They only had one other employee doing the searches. If he was busy, the conveyor guy did the search. One other employee was basically communicating with the people in line and another was just standing by the exit. I don't know what her role was but it seems she could have been put to better use. By the time we got our turn, another employee appeared. I assume he also had just returned from break. We put our bags through the scanner. Something triggered a question about what was in our luggage and how much cash we were carrying. Everything was permittable and below limits as always. They did not have us push the button. We were sent straight to get searched. He thoroughly looked through everything in our checked and carry on bags. He only asked one question: What was the cost of a necklace? It was an inexpensive piece of jewelry. Not sure why they would ask about personal items anyway. What a huge waste of time. I wonder if they put in some type of quota for searches above and beyond those that get the red light.

Yeah, happened to us in December. Even though we had 'green' they went through everything. Asked for receipts for everything that seemed new, and would not be bothered when we told them a coffee maker that we brought - used, nearly used - was not new.

We paid by credit card the taxes, so I cannot see how/if there is some corruption going on.

We left feeling taken advantage of, really.

Sad, sad, sad.

Been coming here for 30 years and what I witnessed at the airport on Saturday was a disgrace, and everyone at Aduana should be fired and replaced.

Never I have seen such a disgusting scene where almost every person on our plane got their stuff torn apart and fines were given for even the smallest items.

As I sat there watching for an hour at least 10 different parties received the green light only to be pulled over and everything looked through. By the time we went through there was still half the plane left to go through this horrible process.

Forget receipts and arguing [as we found out] They will look your product up on line and charge you that amount.

We are cancelling our tickets for Zih in January here and going through Mexico City.

I urge anyone else that does not want to be subject to the same BS, reroute your flight.

Also been coming to Zihuatanejo for 30 years. I eat gluten free for health reasons and bring with me lots (I mean lots) of GF spices, food items, new small appliances, house hold type stuff, gluten free bread, vitamins and supplement’s galore, enough for 180 days. No meat items. I get green light mostly (lucky me), but either way when it happens, and I get bags and totes searched, I repack and get on my way, thanking the folks for doing a great job. But, it’s only happened a couple times. We’ve taken home many local art pieces and brought them back in our totes and never had a problem either. My suitcases and totes are packed, I’m ready for my return in November - Canada to Zihua!
Maybe more staff will be hired to accommodate the influx of CDN and US by November!
Flying home scares me more than flying to Z!

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☀️ Princess