Moving back to the states

Folks have every reason to be concerned with any business transaction in Mexico,
especially border transactions, from my experience. Back in 2000 my wife and I
were moving back to the states. We were, we thought, very selective about
choosing a moving company. We selected Cubero Brothers because it was the
biggest moving company in Guadalajara, and it was a family business that had
been in operation for nearly 40 years. People we knew and trusted recommended
them for their integrity.

We paid them $3,000 up front, and then went out and bought a mattress. Knowing
how expensive it is to move things across the border we contacted the Cubero
brother who is in charge of international shipping and told him we had added an
item, so he could adjust the charge accordingly. He put out his hands to
indicate that they had a truck "this big" and put out his hands again and
indicated that our things wouldn't fill a third of it...and he said we were
welcomed to pack even more. Well, we went out and bought beautiful handcarved
furniture and other items we never dreamed we could afford to take back.

We returned to the states and bought a house perfectly suited for all those
Mexican appointments we loved. And we waited, and we waited and we waited.
Cubero gave us the telephone/email/fax around, but never delivered. So we sat in
an empty house for five months, the cold walls mocking the foolishness friends
and relatives were quick to remind us of for having trusted a Mexican. It wasn't
just the loss of everything we owned that drove my wife to tears every
night...it was the loss of things like the only picture she had of her dead
mother.

As a last ditch effort, I wrote an article for the Guadalajara Reporter warning
readers about Cubero. And a few days later I got a call from the publisher. It
seems that a Canadain had had the same thing happen to him, but he had married a
Mexican, and her whole family had camped at the Guadalajara office of Cubero's
week after week until one day a secretary threw a calling card on the floor.
That took them to a Laredo storage company, where he recovered
everything...except the car he had entrusted with Cubero Brothers. I called the
Canadian and he described to me some of our items that he saw in the semi-
trailer. But I had better hurry he said because the trailer contents were due to
be auctioned off in a matter of days.

I was lucky, and recovered everything. Here is how the scam worked: Cubero
collected the money from four different families, packed their things and took
them to the border. There Cubero leased a trailer from an American company,
parked it on the U.S. side at a storage facility, where after so many days it
sat unclaimed, the facility owner was free to auction off everything (and
probably split the profit). Meanwhile Cubero went back to the Mexican side where
he was safe from the law.




I am a Professor Emeritus from the State University of New York,
where I taught language and literature. My favorite quote in this regard is ee
cummings' "I would rather learn from one little bird how to sing than teach ten
thousand stars how not to dance. My adventure led to my writing life.
I am recipient of seven first place Distinguished Writing Awards in the
New York Newspaper Publishers Association's annual Award
for Excellence competitions.

Laurel