We got our Hippocampe Beach Wheelchair to Vallarta

It finally arrived. We've been anxious to see this beach wheelchair in person. We've talked to some people who have used the Hippocampe, but nothing is like seeing it for yourself. At Beach Crossers, we want to have products that meet the needs of every person with mobility limitations. We have a friend who lost his legs in Afghanistan. He is very physically fit. I mean in the Olympic athlete kind of way. We had him in mind when we selected this chair. It has wheels that are wide so that they can go on the beach, but it is still self propelled. It has interchangeable balloon tires if you want to be pushed or pulled along instead. It is low to the ground, for easy transfers to the sand, a kayak, or maybe a jet ski. It also floats. That means he could wheel himself right into the water, swim for a while, and then wheel himself out again. Of course there is a rope on the front so someone else could pull him out as well. It is super cool! I hope he comes to Vallarta soon to try it out. It seems like it will be a great option for children as well. Being low to the ground is a plus. It also packs away into a travel bag that will fit easily into the trunk of a car. Do I sound like an info-mercial?We are happy extremely with our DeBug wheelchairs and find them so easy to push across the sand. For most people, that is going to be just the thing. I think people who end up in a cast right before or during their vacation will like that option best because they are so easy to maneuver. However, it is nice to have an option for those that would rather push them self. We've chatted with a few people who spend their lives in a wheelchair and 100% of them said they would rather push for themselves. We will have to get the new beach wheelchair down to the beautiful Vallarta sand and give it a try. Will be tweeting some pictures!

Our first and favorite customers ... so far!

I decided to write a little about our first customers, Jason and Jennifer Lind because they were and continue to be such a blessing to us. You can read their review on Yelp, if you can find us there. You have to actually search for Beach Crossers, because if you search for beach wheelchairs Vallarta nothing comes up. Maybe in time that will improve. Anyway, they thought they had a beach wheelchair lined up for their son (who has never been mobile) months before their trip. It turns out that their travel agent was wrong. When they thought they arranged a chair there weren't even any beach wheelchairs in Vallarta. During that time when they thought they had a reservation, we started up Beach Crossers. So when they found that they didn't have anything arranged they started looking and came across our website. They were so happy to find us and we were so happy to have someone find us. It worked out perfectly. If the agent hadn't been mistaken, they would have found that there were no chairs in Vallarta and probably would not have looked again at a later date. We delivered their wheelchair to RIU Palace in Nuevo Vallarta and met the nicest family. They used the beach wheelchair every day and were kind enough to send us pictures of their vacation so we could see the smiles on all of their faces. We have a few pictures of the family on our website and I think they posted a couple on Yelp as well. Since heading home, they have sent us information about the company that did their airport transfer, written an awesome review, and kept in touch. They have been actively promoting our business in the Midwest! We are so thankful to have met the Lind family. Sometimes starting a business can be a struggle, but Beach Crossers has built in the intrinsic reward of helping people. That is so rewarding that there is no hesitation to keep jumping hoops. Because, as Mahatma Gandhi said, "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." We are going to change lives!

Importing Beach Wheelchairs to Vallarta

So, we've been working to get our wheelchair rental business off the ground and I've shared some of the many obstacles and hoops we've jumped or are still jumping through.  Customs was a hoop we hadn't anticipated. So, the name of our company is Beach Crossers. We have a few wheelchairs that belonged to us before starting the business since both Mom and Grandma used wheelchairs. If you've read previous blogs, you know that traveling with Mom in her wheelchair was the inspiration for us to start this big adventure. We want to help people get to the beach in Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta. That is why we were shocked to pay 36% in customs fees to bring wheelchairs into Mexico. And here is big news to us. You pay that fee on the tax and shipping for your merchandise as well! So, for example, let's round off some numbers and see how this works. We have a shipment of beach wheelchairs coming from DeBug in Florida. Let's say it's invoiced for about $4000.00 USD. Florida tax rate is ??? let's say about 8% so that is added to the invoice as (I'm not the math teacher in the family, but ...) I get $320 in tax. Then you can add the $1200 for shipping and you get a total of $5,520 that you get to pay duty on. At 36% that comes to $1987.20 added to the cost of getting the wheel chairs into Vallarta. I thought it was strange to pay duty on tax and shipping, but the really weird thing is that there doesn't seem to be a formula to tell you how much you will have to pay. It seems to depend completely on what the custom's officer thinks of the chairs. One custom's agent says, "Oh, wheel chairs don't get charged duty" and another says "those are a luxury item". It turns out that you can be charged from 0-140% duty. Maybe there is a formula somewhere, but we can't figure it out. On the other hand, we've been charged about 36 percent on each of our shipments. Needless to say, that significantly reduces the number of chairs that a start-up company can have for starting up!!!  Not surprising, we jumped from the black to the red without blinking. We'd been told that it would happen, but we hoped it wouldn't happen in such a big way. Of course, we ordered chairs based on how much capital we had and even left a little cushion. But, the chairs are arriving and we are finding ways to cover the additional 36%. Our custom's agent tells us that if we have a "medical permission" that we won't have to pay duty. What is that? No one seems to know. My guess is that it is for the patient, but the custom's form says you don't have to pay duty for a personal device anyway, so maybe that's not it. We continue to push forward through the many obstacles because we believe this is a good thing for the people who live in Vallarta and those that visit. We have already helped a few people and it is a huge blessing. Therefore, we carry on.