Car pick-up

We had already encountered several problems with our agency beforehand. Three days before the ship was supposed to arrive in Montevideo (after a 2-week delay), the agency's boss sent us an email with an invoice for double the amount that had already been paid, demanding that the sum be in his account before the ship docks in Montevideo, or else we won't get our car.

We found this to be unlawful, so after many phone conversations, we did not pay the sum.

When we wanted to pick up the car on Monday, the shipping company informed us that the car was locked because not everything had been paid. So we transferred the sum to the agency and they sent the money to the shipping company, which was quite chaotic. The whole matter is now with a lawyer for further handling, as we believe that the sum applies at the time of contract conclusion.

After spending two more days at the shipping company's office, we finally received the necessary documents, allowing us to pick up the car. At the port, we had to go to customs first, which took about 2 hours. Then we went to an office where we had to pay the infrastructure costs at the port. The cash register system was broken here, apparently for a while, as there were already about 25 people in line ahead of us. After 2.5 hours (with 75 people in line behind us), it started working again, and thankfully, private shipments were given priority. We left the building at 4 PM, and now we had to rush as time was running out! Then it was very chaotic at customs, as no one was there anymore, but after longer phone calls, they finally showed up.

One employee suggested that if we had the second key, we should just drive off with the car. It would have been nice if it had been that easy.

After four stops and a lot of Spanish later, it seemed as if we had finished everything, well at least we managed to leave the port! With our limited Spanish, we didn't get very far here, but when you look confused, they start making phone calls to piece together their information. At 6:30 PM, we left the port with the car, and spoiled the early end of the day for quite a few employees.

After that, we drove along the promenade of Montevideo, and it seemed as if we had been in the least attractive part of Montevideo the whole time.