Just received my 3 books of the CG in just 2 1/2 weeks! US Post Office which is like a record!
That's a bit longer than I would have thought. I have no idea how these are shipped ... can't be by boat, so it's gotta be by air, so what takes so long? Are they required to delay things on the way out so they don't compete with the big international delivery services?
First you are right, they shouldn't take that long, however we are talking about the government run Saudi Arabian post office. The US post office passes it off to the KSA post office and therein lies the delay. Items sit there, in some cases a couple months IME for customs to clear, although there is nothing in there that is illegal. I'll give an example of what they can do.
I purchased a wall map of the world, big one like 4 feet by 6 feet that was rolled up in a tube and came with a metal frame and shipped from the USA by US Post Office. The problem is that once it gets to KSA post office it doesn't matter if you have expedited, express or whatever from the US Post Office, it will grind to a halt. In this example it was over 7 weeks to get to me. When I got it I could see they repackaged some of it as they opened it up to inspect. I'm thinking jeez, it's a MAP for crying out loud.
So I unroll it and start assembling the frame and pull it tight to affix it in place. i see this black mark on the map and brush at it thinking it is something I can move. I brush a couple times and it is still there and very dark. I'm like WTF happened. I look at where this mark is and now realize that the customs guy took a black sharpie marker over the country name ISRAEL. Yep that happens here and they are directed to do such. They do it to women's, legs or hair in magazines, even believe it or not.
We are guests here, so it is their rules for some of these things, which can be limiting and really a no logic zone for many. So items just sit in customs (particularly a box or package) until they actually get around to inspecting, despite 5 prayers and 4-5 tea breaks a day for maybe an hour or work a day. Envelopes or regular letters will get here in a couple weeks as well, which doesn't seem normal either, but it is the customs clearance of packages that takes forever.
The DHL's, UPS, FEDEX seem to have a way to ferry their packages to their destinations pretty much on time as their clients expect. Thus, I'm sure they have an agreement with the customs office to inspect their items first, or probably have their own in house customs officers stationed at their warehouses. Although you pay significantly more for that and it isn't worth it unless you need something now.
BTW I didn't order it yet, (I will when I get home in the summer) but I received a book jacket only in the box to your little red book about architecture, so if you sent the book erroneously it was removed. If there are naked ladies in there that would explain it.
