How do U.S. companies ship laptops to South America

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Naufrago93@reddit

Shipping laptops to South America can be tricky with customs and taxes. A good alternative is using a global IT equipment management service like GroWrk. They handle international shipping, customs, and tax issues, making the process smoother and potentially more cost-effective for sending equipment to places like Brazil.

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Human_Database101@reddit

This used to be quite a challenge, but there are IT procurement companies like GroWrk that can handle this now. You can [learn more](https://growrk.com/blogs/news/it-procurement-services/) about them. They save so much time and money.

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Rahne64@reddit

For small purchases like laptops, agree with everyone here with buying from a VAR in-country (check with your global suppliers, many have legal entities in the larger markets for just this reason.). For high dollar purchases where you may want to leverage buying in the US (volume discounts and such) and importing, get with a specialized logistics partner like Tecex who are registered as importers in hundreds of countries and have experts in dealing with the various legal, tax and other roadblocks. Plus they tend to be better at tracking shipments as they pass through the extra steps so you're not left wondering what happened or whether your shipment was lost in the process. And in some countries (looking at you, India) don't bother trying to ship things around once they've been used somewhere, just buy new in-country and recycle the gear you thought for sure would be useful to send there. And don't get me started about VARs who built their business around the UK before Brexit and now everything going to the EU has to be fully imported.

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Apprehensive-Ad5571@reddit

I have been through the ringer with this sort of thing and I can agree with most people here that you should in fact look into a local VAR. It is always going to be more cost-efficient and the equipment will arrive to the end user quicker. In my case, our company has been using [Nuworld Connect](https://www.nuworldconnectllc.com/) for about a month now to procure our equipment for our LATAM workers. I recently placed a second order for a couple of laptops to be delivered to Colombia and Brazil, there were no issues and we didn't have to deal with any annoying crap from customs since the equipment was shipped from within the end users country. Hope this helps, good luck in your search.

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DependentNo9030@reddit (OP)

Interesting thank you! I will check them out. Random question, do you know if they carry MacBook's?

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Apprehensive-Ad5571@reddit

Yes, Macbook and Windows.

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reddit-trk@reddit

You need to find a "puerta a puerta" ("door to door") service that works with the destination country. People use these companies in Latin America to buy online in the US and receive their merchandise locally. These are companies that have receiving centers in the US (usually Miami) and have all the necessary customs connections to get the packages into your users' hands. They receive the packages in the US and once or twice a week consolidate them into larger boxes or containers and ship to the destination countries, where they have offices that receive these shipments and distribute the packages locally (either pick-up or delivery) a few days or weeks later, depending on the shipping method. I'm willing to bet that more than one of your users in Brazil can recommend a company they use. It's VERY common. It's also a good idea to ship these laptops in boxes that don't make it obvious what they are (e.g. no "Dell" or "HP" markings and a shape that's closer to a cube).

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vNerdNeck@reddit

I have been down this road with Brazil. Net-net: You either need to purchase from a local source (lots of manufactures have facilities there) or hire an in-country CEO that knows the right folks to bribe. We kept getting held up in customs until we hired a local that new the right folks they needed to "talk to." Brazil is corrupt as fuck, and most of the other countries aren't much better. If you don't have a local who can grease palms it's always going to be a cluster fuck.

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reddit-trk@reddit

They're all the same.

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FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

Fly them to the USA for orientation and ensure they don't bring a laptop with them. Give them the laptop in the USA and have them take it home with them as a piece of individual work gear.

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govatent@reddit

This could also be risky. Argentina and Brazil require you to report serial number and devices when you leave the country so when you come back, anything that didn't leave with you on the way out, will be taxed.

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ObeseBMI33@reddit

Pay the tax, what’s the trick?

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Khulod@reddit

The employees, not the company, would be paying the import tax at customs or lose the devices. Reimbursing that and having your employees agree to this scheme will be a headache in itself. And if one plane suddenly has 50 people with a shiny new laptop without taxes deplane.... Well, I imagine customs might not want to deal with that right then and grab a bigger stick to beat the problem with.

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Zero2prove@reddit

I was thinking sort of the same thing after the 3rd or 4rth machine. The math came out cheaper if I flew them in for a day or 2.

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JAFIOR@reddit

This may well be the best solution. Depending on their role/salary, the cost of flying them to the US and accommodations during onboarding might be less than lost man-hours waiting for hardware to arrive at their location.

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DanHalen_phd@reddit

You're not going to bypass the taxes but will save considerably by marking them as "Used electronics" rather than new.

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Ok_Negotiation3024@reddit

Technically a company laptop should be marked as used as one would assume the IT department has installed something on there.

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boomchakaboom@reddit

A laptop is used as soon as you take it out of the box.

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Ok_Negotiation3024@reddit

Exactly, just like a car is used the second you drive it off of the lot.

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boomchakaboom@reddit

Which is why the smart man loves refurbished business laptops now that Moore's law is dead. A three-year-old Dell Latitude is the sweetest deal.

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Ok_Negotiation3024@reddit

Yup, my company replaces our HP EliteDesk Mini desktops every 5 years. The old stuff is just disposed of. So a few don’t make it to that pile and end up in my homelab. Can’t beat free power sippers every year.

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boomchakaboom@reddit

just imagine a beowulf cluster of...

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FootballLeather3085@reddit

DHL with a Corp invoice and a broker for customs

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SCETheFuzz@reddit

Buy them locally, and they only get to use Citrix without clipboard support. Their accounts are all MFA as well

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dsp_pepsi@reddit

I service a few users in Mexico and Brazil. We have them buy Dell laptops locally and submit the invoice for reimbursement, and then remotely image and configure them. It sucks and it’s a lot of work compared to deploying in-house with MDT, but we’ve been burned a few times with customs freezing and returning our shipments. We don’t have a big enough presence to maintain a VAR account in those areas either.

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picklemiles@reddit

how did you reimage them remotely? Forgive the stupid question, I’m just not sure how to do it without having to guide someone over the phone.

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dsp_pepsi@reddit

Reimage was the wrong word. We walk the user through connecting to the VPN, and then we domain join it and install our standard software deployment. One of these days I’ll find the time and resources to get Windows Autopilot set up.

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jeffrey_smith@reddit

In similar situations we had a NUC be a local PXE server. Absolute trash in the enterprise world - however for a remote site in that country before we have proper kit there, it got the job done (for 18 months).

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John_P_Hackworth@reddit

How'd you ship it to Brazil? Do not use the post. Use DHL. No other option for Brazil / Argentina / Chile. Pay the tax.

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DependentNo9030@reddit (OP)

I used DHL but it was still a nightmare. The laptop was held in customs for 3 months and we paid ridiculous amount for customs taxes, for what only needed to take 2 weeks to get there. There are quite a few comment here suggesting to look into local VAR.. I'm leaning more toward that.

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John_P_Hackworth@reddit

Ah, that sucks. I've had better experiences with DHL. Yeah, if you can buy locally, do that.

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Flamingpotato100@reddit

I provide support to LATAM countries including setup. Either source locally or fly them with a mule lol.

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DependentNo9030@reddit (OP)

Sending you a DM, I'm interested to hear your process. Thank you.

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cmorgasm@reddit

We’ve been using UPS, and have seen the same as you. We’re beginning to look at VARs that could offer better shipping to those locations instead

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John_P_Hackworth@reddit

Use DHL. Only one that can get them through customs quickly.

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DependentNo9030@reddit (OP)

>w365 Thanks for your comment, have you had any luck so far finding a VAR?

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Fel1sCatus@reddit

They don't. They buy them locally. The only alternative to that that I know of other than what you already did is to have someone go down there regularly and deliver the laptops and whatever else needed.

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DapperDone@reddit

We used to but the import costs and delays went from not a problem to a very big problem about 4-5 years ago.

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SUPERDAN42@reddit

This. Brazil sucks for import. We had a bunch of network equipment stuck in customs for like 6 months once. Never. Again.

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Black_Hipster@reddit

lol fuuuuuck that. We usually just send an Amazon link, expense it to the company and enroll it remotely.

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Weak-Peak1015@reddit

Recently shipped a laptop to a contractor in Columbia via FedEx. It was held in customs for a month, little to no communication. Finally got the laptop. Invested probably 4 or 5 people several hours each. Felt very extortion like.

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Zero2prove@reddit

Columbia customs managed to “lose” one that we shipped to a developer.

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Weak-Peak1015@reddit

Sorry to hear that. I am glad the ordeal was taken care of eventually. We definitely know to approach it differently in the future.

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NoLongerGage@reddit

We had to do this at a previous employer and ended up choosing a VAR that could pay/ship from there. I forget the company but i believe they were purchased by Dimension Data

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DependentNo9030@reddit (OP)

I'll check them out, thanks!

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malikto44@reddit

I wouldn't even try. Instead, find a VAR that can ship from Brazil to the end user, and have the VAR put the laptops into InTune/AutoPilot so they can be automatically provisioned.

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DependentNo9030@reddit (OP)

Thanks, it seems like finding a VAR would be the best route to go. Going to focus my efforts there and see what I am able to discover.

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Zero2prove@reddit

Depending on the brand and model I would like to suggest you have them buy locally. Image them the way you like after they get connected. I’ve had nothing but either lost laptop or weeks of delays. Not cheap either…

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hot_diggity_dog@reddit

Maybe try a desktop as a service like w365

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Spiritual_Grand_9604@reddit

We've shipping using a courier with no issues. This is from Canada to the States btw.

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ernestdotpro@reddit

DHL has been our best option for all international shipping. Make sure there's insurance on it. You will pay 80-150% of the value in "taxes" depending on the country. In my expirience, the stuff gets there quickly using this method. It's damn expensive, but worth it in our scenario.

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CanPsychological4710@reddit

Ping your finance. I guarantee you that they won't be happy about you shipping an asset from US to Brazil. Just buy local.

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RCTID1975@reddit

You don't. You find a local VAR and buy it from them.

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ElectricalCrew5931@reddit

If youre not doing business down there stop hiring people in south america? If you are, setup a procument center there and have them purchase them in their home countries?

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