Category: Information

I just received my first package with DHL today and I have decided they will be my primary shipping courier from now on and here is why.

1) I was able to sign up, open an account and pay for it all online and in a few minutes

2) Their mailbox is located in Ohio which means I no longer need to pay the 8.375% New York sales tax

3) It seems they ship packages the next day which means my package doesn’t sit in the mailbox in the States for long

4) They have EXTREMELY detailed tracking (check this)

5) Because they have extremely detailed tracking I can use the iPhone app Delivery Status to keep track of my packages

6) They’re fast. Package shipped December 2nd, arrived to Kuwait December 5th, cleared customs and was ready to pick up on the 6th

7) They don’t deliver but they have 4 pick up locations, Khaleejia in Kuwait City, Ardiya, Fahaheel and Camp Arifjan. The Ardiya branch is open till midnight everyday except on Friday they close at 9. The Kuwait City branch closes at 9 every day.

8) You pay based on weight and the size of the package doesn’t effect how much you pay

9) It’s KD3.5 for the first half kilo and then its KD2.5 for every half

Now to clear something up. Like Aramex, you also have to pay customs for packages over $100. The stories about Aramex making up this 5% to make more money is not true. But, unlike Aramex, with DHL you pay 5% customs and KD3.5 handling fee. With Aramex its just a KD1 handling fee. Now the advantage of DHL is they clear the package the same day while with Aramex it currently looks like its taking over a week.

I picked up my Drobo today and I paid KD31 shipping and KD8 for customs and handling. Overall I found DHL cheaper than Aramex. Why? Because you save on the New York sales tax, because you pay based on actual weight and not volumetric weight and because you pay KD2.5 for every half KG instead of Aramex’s KD2.750.

If you want to sign up for an account here is the link to their website [Link]

Note: Ignore the shipping price that’s displayed in your DHL account when tracking a package. My Drobo according to the online invoice was going to cost me KD70.57 in shipping fees but that was based on volumetric weight which was calculated to be 11.02 kg. Before I picked up my package they put it on the scale and it weighed 5.5 kg and thats what I paid for.

A reader sent me the following email with a few pictures (of which I’m sharing two).

i received my aramex package today , i saw the package little bit outta shape i thought something was up. i payed shipping charges then i headed to my room opened the box and here comes the SHOCK there is a puddle of water inside and the items are soaking wet. the funny part that the box contained a 400$ digital camera :S. i called aramex they told me customer service should contact you soon and hoping a refund for the item and shipping charges. been waiting and no one called :S. waiting till tomorrow.

I’m guessing the shipment got damaged while waiting to be cleared at the airport customs so it’s interesting to see how this will pan out. According to their terms & conditions:

Aramex is not responsible for any customs or duties incurred on any package contents. Furthermore, Aramex is not responsible for penalties, loss or damage of shipments while in possession of customs.

Aramex is responsible for the customer’s packages only while they are within Aramex’s custody and control. Aramex’s LIABILITY IN ANY EVENT IS LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS (US $ 100/=) OR ITS EQUIVALENT PER SHIPMENT as stated on the back of the Express/Air freight waybill.

So legally Aramex are no liable for any damage and even if they are they only cover up to $100 which is not much. Has anything like this happened to anyone? What was the outcome?

Note: Btw if you ever wondered how Aramex’s building looks like in New York, a blogger 3baid found it using google street view. Looks cool, maybe someone from Aramex could get us pictures of the inside? That would be an interesting tour. [Link]

Update: Aramex resolved the issue with the damaged package and refunded the reader. Here is what the reader (Sam) had to say about it:

Dear Members,

NEW UPDATE regarding my issue.

i just got a call this morning from Aramex Shop and Ship Manager notifying me regarding my damaged package, he was very helpful and he took full responsibility of the damage caused, told me to bring the package to Aramex Arthiya for a full Refund of the product & shipping charges.

I went there got my refund and the manager was kind enough to explain to me the cause of the incident due to a leakage in customs warehouse, where they are taking action to solve this issue.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Thank you, Shop & Ship Manager for Handling this Issue Professionally.

THE 99 is a locally created comic book featuring a team of superheroes based on Islamic culture and religion. Although it’s been only 2 years since the comic got published it quickly became a bit hit and is now licensed in 8 languages including Chinese. Next year Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other members of The Justice League of America will team up with THE 99 in a global series by DC Comics. In addition to that THE 99 is being turned into an animated series and the video above is the preview. 26 episodes are currently in production written by top names in Hollywood who’ve also worked on Ben 10, Spiderman, X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. [YouTube]

Here is a link to THE 99 website [Link]

Since EasyShop uses DHL I just realized I can track the status of my packages with an iPhone application. There are a ton of applications to use but I am using one called “Delivery Status“. Since the DHL tracking is EXTREMELY detailed the application is very useful. Another reason so choose EasyShop over Aramex.

Note: One more thing, you can create an account with Delivery Status on their website and that way you can copy and paste all your tracking numbers there and it will sync it with your iPhone app. That means you don’t have to type them one by one on your iPhone, very practical.

Note2: The application can also track your Aramex packages but it will only start tracking once the package ships from the US and since their tracking isn’t very detailed it’s not useful.

Update: Turns out the application can sync with your Amazon account and provide even more details. Just added my Amazon order number from yesterday and it collected all the information from my account.

Here is the calendar for Cinemagic’s rooftop movie nights for December:

Thursday, December 3rd at 7:00 PM
BRODRE, DENMARK 2004
Director: Susan Bier
Genre: Drama | 146 min | English Subtitle

Saturday, December 5th at 7:00 PM
COUSCOUS, TUNISIA 2007
Director: Abdellatif Kecheiche
Genre: Drama | 148 min | English Subtitle

Thursday, December 10th at 7:00 PM
DEATH NOTE – THE LAST NAME, JAPAN 2007
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Genre: Adventure | Mystery | 141 min | English Subtitle

Saturday, December 12th at 7:00 PM
SURPRISE FILM

Thursday, December 17th at 7:00 pm
A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, USA 1993
Director: Tim Burton
Genre: Comedy | Musical | 80 min | English Subtitle

Saturday, December 19th at 7:00 pm
UN CONTE DE NOEL, FRANCE 2008
Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Genre: Drama | 150 min | English Subtitle

Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Attendance is free of charge and snacks and refreshments will be served.

Here is a link to their facebook group [Link]

Although I would think by now everyone knows what Ace Hardware is it seems it’s not as popular as I had imagined. Whenever I mention Ace on my blog a few people always comment asking what it was or where it was so I figured I would highlight the place.

Ace Hardware is one of my favorite stores in Kuwait. They’ve been open over a decade now and every year they just keep on improving. They sell everything from bedsheets, towels, sporting equipment, ATV’s, barbecue’s, gardening tools, car accessories, bathroom accessories, hardware tools, power tools, toys, paint, kitchenware, bulbs, pet supplies and the list goes on and on. Everything is arranged nicely, the place never gets too crowded, the staff are friendly and helpful and since they import a lot of items directly from the States, you find a lot of stuff you can’t find anywhere else. I use Ace mostly for the hardware tools section, the barbecue accessories and pet supplies but every now and then I would need something totally random and I would find it only at Ace.

They’re located in Al-Rai in the area between Avenues and the 4th Ring Road. I’ve drawn a map below of how to find the place, they’re open from 9AM to 10PM daily and their phone number is 24769100.

Stephen King is writing a sequel to The Shining and it will be based 40 years later and focus around Danny (the young boy from the original). I haven’t read the original book but loved the movie so not sure how I feel about a sequel since the first question that pops up into my mind is who would direct it if it ever got turned into a movie? The original was directed by Stanley Kubrick who passed away back in 1999. [Link]

Back in 2007 I posted about “The Running Man“. He’s the guy most of you have probably seen running on the Gulf Road in the middle of the summer heat or in the middle of winter when it’s raining and freezing cold. I tried to interview him back then but after finally catching up to him I was out of breath and couldn’t communicate with him and he ended up running off again. Well Student Talk managed to interview him and it turns out he has a very interesting story. Since Student Talk don’t have a website I scanned the article and uploaded it online. You can view it [Here]

In case you want to pick up the actual magazine its the November issue, he’s on the cover. Here is a list of locations you can find the magazine [List]

I found a place that sells bean bags for cheap in Dajeej. The place is called Banta and they’re selling the bean bags for just KD13. It’s not really a nice place and kinda looks like an IKEA wannabee but the bean bags are cheap. Here is a link to their website [Link]

Desert Girl sent me the most amazing thing today, a PDF of scanned pages from a National Geographic issue from 1952 which talks about Kuwait. The article is 20 pages long and contains 25 pictures of which 11 are in color. It’s incredible I love it. The caption under the picture above says:

A Mobile Medical Clinic, Bought with Oil Wealth, Tours Kuwait Villages
For ailing Arabs who cannot travel to the capital, the Sheikdom provides an American-built trailer unit staffed by a physician, nurse, and technician. Here the doctor examines an elderly man at an outlying village; other patients wait their turn. Treatment costs them nothing. New hospitals, including one for animals, are part of Kuwait’s heavy investment in its own well-being.

Here is the PDF for you to down. It’s around 4MB in size. [PDF Link]

Thanks Desert Girl!

MyUS is a US forwarding mailbox that has been around for a long time now, before Aramex even but their prices were always more expensive.. or I thought. I always calculated small packages like 1KG and Aramex would come out cheaper but a reader made me realize that MyUS is actually cheaper when it comes to heavier packages. They also offer a few features that Aramex doesn’t offer like you can have them ship your magazines once a month while your regular packages twice a week. If you get a lot of junk mail you can choose not to receive any. You could even ship stuff when you want instead of a regular interval. So for example you ordered a few items from Amazon, instead of having them ship to Kuwait as soon as they arrive to your mailbox you could wait until they’re all in your mailbox and then ship them all together in one box.

Here is a price comparison with Aramex:
10 lbs Aramex $89 – MyUS $101
25 lbs Aramex $203 – MyUS $172
50 lbs Aramex $403 – MyUS $287
100 lbs Aramex $796 – MyUS $500
150 lbs Aramex $1201 – MyUS $500

If you decide to sign up use this link:
https://www.myus.com/AWL
It will cancel the annual membership fee. Just make sure you should choose annual while you’re checking out and it should reduce the amount to just the setup fee. I’m also in contact with someone at MyUS and they’re going to try and reduce the amount of the lighter items to compete with Aramex. So here’s another option for everyone, enjoy.

Two weeks ago one of the Z4’s wheels developed a crack probably from a pothole and I had an option of either repairing it or getting a new wheel. Since the crack was pretty big repairing it wouldn’t have been a good idea and buying a new wheel would have cost me in excess of KD250. My friends suggested that I order a set of four new wheels directly from TireRack.com. Surprisingly it turned out Tire Rack ship wheels and tires to Kuwait and for a very reasonable price.

K.thekuwaiti gave me the email of a sales specialist he had dealt with before called Gavin and I started searching for my wheels on TireRack.com. They had a huge collection that fit my beemer but I was looking for 18×8’s for the front and 18×9’s for the rear and there were only two models that interested me and were under $400 a wheel. Since I had narrowed down my choices to two, I emailed Gavin asking for a quotation and a few questions. He was very helpful and patient answering all my questions, I even changed my mind twice and he didn’t seem to get annoyed or pissed. I finally got a quotation back and the shipping for four wheels to Kuwait via FedEx economy was just $270. That was around KD18 per wheel which was very reasonable since the total weight of four wheels was 50KG.

I paid via money transfer with NBK online and as soon as they received the amount they shipped me my wheels. It took around a week for the wheels to get to Kuwait and I just installed them today at the Pirelli dealer next to AceHardware. If you’re interested in ordering wheels from TireRack.com you can email Gavin at [email protected].

Even the US embassy is on YouTube. The video starts off interesting but quickly gets boring. I’ve never been to the US embassy here in Kuwait but it looks huge. [YouTube]

After Aramex increased their prices last month many readers decided to sign up with DHL’s version of the same service which they call EasyShop. If you happen to be one of the readers who signed up with DHL and started receiving packages with them could you please post your feedback about them below in the comments. I am curious as I am sure many other readers are to see how they differ from Aramex. Both DHL and UShopWeShip have kept their prices the same.

I had two packages delivered to me after Aramex set up the new rules and my experience has been mixed and here is why.

I had two packages, one containing a computer the other tshirts.

T-shirts
Arrived in mailbox on: 23/10/2009
Shipped from mailbox on: 29/10/2009
Arrived to Kuwait on: 08/11/2009
Paid: KD5.5 for shipping + KD1 handling charge

Computer
Arrived in mailbox on: 31/10/2009
Shipped from mailbox on: 02/11/2009
Arrived to Kuwait on: 08/11/2009
Paid: KD18 for shipping + KD1 handling charge

So the good news is computers don’t get held in customs. The KD1 extra charge is annoying on small packages but not a big deal on big important ones.

The bad news is it took over 2 weeks to get my tshirts.. whats up Aramex?