Ordering from Amazon Mexico

[apollo828]

Hi. I just wanted to post my experience of ordering from Amazon Mexico recently. It has to do with Blus but technically it can apply to anything.

First off, to be clear, this works only if you actually visit Mexico; Amazon still won't ship outside the country. So, if you're not visiting one way or another, you're out of luck.

Now then, I did order a bunch of Blus before driving to a border town. The solution? Amazon will ship to certain counter service locations, or lockers like the ones in the US. When checking out and you're asked for an address, add one, then punch in the postal code for wherever you're visiting. If anything's there, it'll probably be DHL Service Point locations, along with "Amazon Counters" (i.e., Amazon spaces inside certain logistics offices, such as PakMail or Estafeta, the latter or which was bought by UPS in mid-2024) and the aforementioned lockers. If you're anywhere near the border, just park your car on the US side, walk over, collect your discs, and walk back (or enjoy some more time in Mexico). Easy peasy.

Amazon Mexico uses DHL for shipments. For me, other than one aspect, the process was pretty straightforward.

- Place your order. If it's in stock, it could take anywhere from a day to a week or more to arrive (although anything beyond 4-5 days seems to be unusual). You'll be able to track the package. Keep in mind that it is possible for orders to be split up into multiple packages, which could complicate pickups if the delivery times end up being significantly different.
- You'll get an email upon delivery. If you're using a locker, you'll get an email with pickup instructions. These are basically the same as an Amazon locker anywhere else (i.e., scan a QR code or punch in a PIN), and will tell you the date by which you need to pick up the package.
- If there's no locker, show up during normal business hours and show ID (passport or, if you're from the US, a passport card) and the package number from the arrival email. The clerk probably won't speak English. You can probably muddle through the process using only English but learning a bit of Spanish will help immensely. ("Hola. Hablo muy poco español. Me gustaría recoger un paquete de Amazon, por favor.")
- If there's a locker, just show up with the email containing the QR code and the eight digit code, and retrieve your goods.

Note that this doesn't work for most shipments from third parties. If blocked, you'll have to try your luck with a friend or a hotel that accepts mail on behalf of guests.

There is one big caveat. As best I can tell, pickup time is five days for in-person and five or seven days for lockers. In the meantime, DHL and Amazon bombard you with emails that ask you to pick up the package by X date, and the weird thing is that the date shifts around. You'll also get emails asking you to schedule a pickup date, and possibly get emails with pickup instructions for non-existent lockers, and emails asking you to do your pickup even after the package has been sent back! It's all very weird and annoying. Again, plan on having five days max, or maybe seven if lockers allow it.

If you don't pick up your package in time (see above), it'll be returned to Amazon, and you'll be given a refund. This is strictly enforced. Despite this, you may get email with rescheduled pickup dates. Just ignore them. This can make things tricky if you order a lot of items. I placed a large order once and had only one day where I could've showed up and picked up everything. I couldn't do it, so one small package did get sent back. Not a big deal but annoying nonetheless.

I did make a list of border towns with pickup spots, in order from west to east. It should be complete as of this writing. (There are other border towns but I don't think you can do pickups.) They are:

- California: Tijuana, Tecate, Mexicali.
- Arizona: San Luis Río Colorado, Nogales, Agua Prieta.
- New Mexico: NONE.
- Texas: Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Acuña, Piedras Negras, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros. (As of this writing, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Matamoros can be sketchy due to cartel-related turmoil in Tamaulipas. Ciudad Juárez also has cartel issues, and another strange issue: The Amazon map doesn't seem to align with Google's map. I wouldn't pick up there without knowing the area. All that said, every pickup spot I've used, even a couple of miles from the border, has been perfectly fine.)

I hope this is useful!

EDIT: I did take some time awhile back to see if there were any Mexico-to-US forwarding services. (There are plenty of US-to-Mexico services.) I never did find any. They may exist. I just couldn't find them. If anybody's aware of any such services, I'd be curious to hear about them. My guess is that they just don't exist, and anybody who wants such a service just asks friends/family to accept mail on their behalf and then meet them or have them use a private courier (DHL/Estafeta/FedEx/UPS), as the national mail service (Correos de Mexico) is terrible.