72nu-funk
Well-known member
Ok, so i'm not going to name names just yet as i've given the companies concerned until Friday to come up with what they are going to do.
I find myself with a blown rear brake cylinder 13 days ago. So, having checked with my insurers before I left the UK and took them up on their cover offer that Turkey was included in the breakdown service, I take the chance and give them a call. The very nice lady at the other end informs me that yes Turkey is covered, but not south of the Bosphorous. Knowing what the answer would be, I asked anyway "so where is the cut off for the service?" "Istanbul" comes the no surprise answer. How a company can claim to cover Turkey on this basis god alone knows. Take a look at a map. It would be like saying we cover the UK but only the Isle of Wight.....
Onto plan 2. Having also established a couple of companies before I left that were willing and able to supply parts to Turkey should a problem I wasn't carrying spares for crop up. So I make the call a week last Monday. The company go off and get a quote from their parcel company of choice and come back to me. All good I say, pay and give them the full address details, my contact number etc etc. Asking what the service delivery time is I am reliably informed 2-3 working days. No problem thinks I. Having worked in logisitics all my working life I take the working days as full and so expect Friday, possibly Monday for delivery.
Order email confirmation comes through, tracking number comes through. I duly check come the Wednesday to discover that the parcel has been logged as arriving in Istanbul at 10.00am and customs clearance is in progress. Very good I think, knowing Turkey uses the SAD system and so clearance will be issued within 48 hours or else an issue raised should there be one.
Friday comes and I check the tracker at 09.00am UK time. No update since Wednesday I note. Seems to be a problem I think so i'll get on the phone and see whether they can get a fresh update from the parcel company. After being told exactly as I can read for myself on the tracking system they say they will contact said parcel company and come back to me. I go back to the tracking website and send them a customer services email. 17.00pm UK time comes and no call back so I call again. I get put through to customer services who promises to check and come back to me, after reading out the tracker info to me yet again. To give him his due, he attempts to call back but loses the line. I call him back and am advised that the parcel company have sent a message to Turkey but won't hear back until Monday and that he is on holiday from now.
Monday comes. I call 09.00am, am told the same as before and will receive a call back. I call again one hour later and am told that no one knows in the office, but there is one out on a break so maybe it is him and he'll call me back. I call again one hour later. I am told calling every hour is getting me nowhere, this I know I think to myself. I am promised a call back and am also given permission to talk directly to the parcel company. No call. So I get on the internet and find the number for international at the parcel company. I have the web tracking details repeated to me again, which is nice. I ask if there is a problem. They say we don't know, we are waiting on Turkey to respond. I ask them to try again, he says he will. I leave it for four hours. No call back.
I call again, to be told, well I don't need to say it you know by now. The lady says she will try messaging Turkey again for me and jokes 3rd time lucky. Not having lost my sense of irony and humour just yet I agree.
Tuesday arrives. No update on the tracker, no call back from the parcel company or the parts supplier. I call the parcel company and ask for an update to be told they are still waiting to hear back from Turkey, and then when pushed with knowledge of customs clearance I am curtly told it can take a week, a month or a year. Actually no, not unless a problem has been notified and then not rectified by the recipient. Falls on indignant ears. Promised a call back.
No call. I call again, this time insisting that I hold and wait for the lady actually responsible. After a 4 minute wait she finally appears on the phone. Repeats web tracking information. Cue a deep sigh. I insist she chases for an update and again suggest that there must be a problem.
No return call. I call again. I wait. I am told that they are awaiting information. I ask if it is possible for me to speak to the person dealing with this in Istanbul and after a little thought on her part she duly gives me the number.
I call Istanbul. I immediately get through. Not only that but I immediately get to speak to the very person that they are supposedly waiting on to come back to them. I am informed that there is a problem since I have supplied no Turkish tax number. I ask what can be done and explain that I am willing to travel to Istanbul if neccessary. She calls back. I'm somewhat stunned, one company out the three actually manages to call back and it is the one that supposedly is not coming back to the parcel company. We talk and discuss the options available. It becomes very apparent that there will be no alternative but to present myself at customs in Istanbul. However, i'm also told that I will need to first come to their centre to pay a fee to release them from any further responsibility and for me to take it myself. Charming.
I set about getting a coach, and so at 22.00pm I board one prepared for the 12 hours ahead to Istanbul.
The coach journey is good, and very good value for the distance arriving just after 10.00 yesterday morning. I barter for a taxi to take me to Mahmutbey district and the delivery centre. I'm advised that I have to pay for the papers to be released to me and there is no option. I point out they have been paid to do this service and delivery. Neither of which they are doing. I am told to pay, it is the system. So I pay, and they call another taxi to take me the Customs House at Istanbul airport and advise me that no, nobody at Turkish customs speaks English but give me a number of a runner called Murat.
On arrival at Turkish customs I find a bustle of people, call Murat and manage to explain that I need a 'runner' to assist me with the paperwork and to speak on my behalf at each point as I know no Turkish other than pleasantries. Here ensues a 5 hour chase around the building, the holding house, the customs officers, the office ladies, up down and round and round being called Yabanci all the while until such time as finally I have the parts safely in my bag and trot off to find the metro station to get back to my return 12hr coach journey.
So lets see:
Price of parts £74.55 (VAT free since I am in Turkey)
Price of delivery £101.24
Total £175.79
Not to bad really......but then......
Coach trip x 2 130 TL
Taxi 1 25 TL
Paperwork release fee 120 TL
Taxi 2 30 TL
Customs duty 115 TL
Customs handling charge 100 TL
Runner fee 200 TL
Total 720 TL
Take away the Customs duty which I would always of had to pay that leaves 605 Turkish Lira to do what the three companies involved were paid for originally. Current exchange rate is around 2.32 so my little outing comes to £260.77 and that is without adding on the 21 phone calls from Turkey to the UK using a UK mobile. Add that to the original cost and the duty, and you've got almost £500 (not incl phone calls) for a set of shoes for the rear, two brake cylinders, a fitting kit, bleed bottle, hub seals and points (the buses favourite consumable).
So, should you ever find yourself in Turkey stranded without the parts you need, do yourself a favour. Find a friendly Turkish national and order in their name and the parcel will arrive with you as planned without the additional hassle or additional costs! A pity none of the companies could bring themselves to inform each other of this and inform me beforehand....
And just for fun, do you remember I emailed the parcel company customer services on the Friday?
This email arrived this afternoon.....
Good Afternoon James,
Thank you for your email.
From the tracking history I can confirm that this parcel has been delivered on 25/08/2010 at 11:27 and was signed for by JAMES MITCHEL.
If you have any further queries in this matter please do not hesitate to contact me on 0121 698 3784.
Kind Regards
James
International Exports Agent
Thanks for that :roll: ......and breathe......
The one bonus, I managed to catch this lovely early westy out of the coach window on the way into Istanbul. The first early bay i've seen since I left the UK
I find myself with a blown rear brake cylinder 13 days ago. So, having checked with my insurers before I left the UK and took them up on their cover offer that Turkey was included in the breakdown service, I take the chance and give them a call. The very nice lady at the other end informs me that yes Turkey is covered, but not south of the Bosphorous. Knowing what the answer would be, I asked anyway "so where is the cut off for the service?" "Istanbul" comes the no surprise answer. How a company can claim to cover Turkey on this basis god alone knows. Take a look at a map. It would be like saying we cover the UK but only the Isle of Wight.....
Onto plan 2. Having also established a couple of companies before I left that were willing and able to supply parts to Turkey should a problem I wasn't carrying spares for crop up. So I make the call a week last Monday. The company go off and get a quote from their parcel company of choice and come back to me. All good I say, pay and give them the full address details, my contact number etc etc. Asking what the service delivery time is I am reliably informed 2-3 working days. No problem thinks I. Having worked in logisitics all my working life I take the working days as full and so expect Friday, possibly Monday for delivery.
Order email confirmation comes through, tracking number comes through. I duly check come the Wednesday to discover that the parcel has been logged as arriving in Istanbul at 10.00am and customs clearance is in progress. Very good I think, knowing Turkey uses the SAD system and so clearance will be issued within 48 hours or else an issue raised should there be one.
Friday comes and I check the tracker at 09.00am UK time. No update since Wednesday I note. Seems to be a problem I think so i'll get on the phone and see whether they can get a fresh update from the parcel company. After being told exactly as I can read for myself on the tracking system they say they will contact said parcel company and come back to me. I go back to the tracking website and send them a customer services email. 17.00pm UK time comes and no call back so I call again. I get put through to customer services who promises to check and come back to me, after reading out the tracker info to me yet again. To give him his due, he attempts to call back but loses the line. I call him back and am advised that the parcel company have sent a message to Turkey but won't hear back until Monday and that he is on holiday from now.
Monday comes. I call 09.00am, am told the same as before and will receive a call back. I call again one hour later and am told that no one knows in the office, but there is one out on a break so maybe it is him and he'll call me back. I call again one hour later. I am told calling every hour is getting me nowhere, this I know I think to myself. I am promised a call back and am also given permission to talk directly to the parcel company. No call. So I get on the internet and find the number for international at the parcel company. I have the web tracking details repeated to me again, which is nice. I ask if there is a problem. They say we don't know, we are waiting on Turkey to respond. I ask them to try again, he says he will. I leave it for four hours. No call back.
I call again, to be told, well I don't need to say it you know by now. The lady says she will try messaging Turkey again for me and jokes 3rd time lucky. Not having lost my sense of irony and humour just yet I agree.
Tuesday arrives. No update on the tracker, no call back from the parcel company or the parts supplier. I call the parcel company and ask for an update to be told they are still waiting to hear back from Turkey, and then when pushed with knowledge of customs clearance I am curtly told it can take a week, a month or a year. Actually no, not unless a problem has been notified and then not rectified by the recipient. Falls on indignant ears. Promised a call back.
No call. I call again, this time insisting that I hold and wait for the lady actually responsible. After a 4 minute wait she finally appears on the phone. Repeats web tracking information. Cue a deep sigh. I insist she chases for an update and again suggest that there must be a problem.
No return call. I call again. I wait. I am told that they are awaiting information. I ask if it is possible for me to speak to the person dealing with this in Istanbul and after a little thought on her part she duly gives me the number.
I call Istanbul. I immediately get through. Not only that but I immediately get to speak to the very person that they are supposedly waiting on to come back to them. I am informed that there is a problem since I have supplied no Turkish tax number. I ask what can be done and explain that I am willing to travel to Istanbul if neccessary. She calls back. I'm somewhat stunned, one company out the three actually manages to call back and it is the one that supposedly is not coming back to the parcel company. We talk and discuss the options available. It becomes very apparent that there will be no alternative but to present myself at customs in Istanbul. However, i'm also told that I will need to first come to their centre to pay a fee to release them from any further responsibility and for me to take it myself. Charming.
I set about getting a coach, and so at 22.00pm I board one prepared for the 12 hours ahead to Istanbul.
The coach journey is good, and very good value for the distance arriving just after 10.00 yesterday morning. I barter for a taxi to take me to Mahmutbey district and the delivery centre. I'm advised that I have to pay for the papers to be released to me and there is no option. I point out they have been paid to do this service and delivery. Neither of which they are doing. I am told to pay, it is the system. So I pay, and they call another taxi to take me the Customs House at Istanbul airport and advise me that no, nobody at Turkish customs speaks English but give me a number of a runner called Murat.
On arrival at Turkish customs I find a bustle of people, call Murat and manage to explain that I need a 'runner' to assist me with the paperwork and to speak on my behalf at each point as I know no Turkish other than pleasantries. Here ensues a 5 hour chase around the building, the holding house, the customs officers, the office ladies, up down and round and round being called Yabanci all the while until such time as finally I have the parts safely in my bag and trot off to find the metro station to get back to my return 12hr coach journey.
So lets see:
Price of parts £74.55 (VAT free since I am in Turkey)
Price of delivery £101.24
Total £175.79
Not to bad really......but then......
Coach trip x 2 130 TL
Taxi 1 25 TL
Paperwork release fee 120 TL
Taxi 2 30 TL
Customs duty 115 TL
Customs handling charge 100 TL
Runner fee 200 TL
Total 720 TL
Take away the Customs duty which I would always of had to pay that leaves 605 Turkish Lira to do what the three companies involved were paid for originally. Current exchange rate is around 2.32 so my little outing comes to £260.77 and that is without adding on the 21 phone calls from Turkey to the UK using a UK mobile. Add that to the original cost and the duty, and you've got almost £500 (not incl phone calls) for a set of shoes for the rear, two brake cylinders, a fitting kit, bleed bottle, hub seals and points (the buses favourite consumable).
So, should you ever find yourself in Turkey stranded without the parts you need, do yourself a favour. Find a friendly Turkish national and order in their name and the parcel will arrive with you as planned without the additional hassle or additional costs! A pity none of the companies could bring themselves to inform each other of this and inform me beforehand....
And just for fun, do you remember I emailed the parcel company customer services on the Friday?
This email arrived this afternoon.....
Good Afternoon James,
Thank you for your email.
From the tracking history I can confirm that this parcel has been delivered on 25/08/2010 at 11:27 and was signed for by JAMES MITCHEL.
If you have any further queries in this matter please do not hesitate to contact me on 0121 698 3784.
Kind Regards
James
International Exports Agent
Thanks for that :roll: ......and breathe......
The one bonus, I managed to catch this lovely early westy out of the coach window on the way into Istanbul. The first early bay i've seen since I left the UK