|
|
Post by the_only_way_is_up on Feb 5, 2012 12:47:57 GMT
I'm considering signing up to Aramex or something similar before i leave home as it seems to be a more reliable way of receiving packages. Q is, where will my parcels end up if i'm not at home to receive them (I assume things are delivered to my door as they would be in UK). Is there a post office on compound that they will be left at?
|
|
|
|
Post by henpecked on Feb 5, 2012 14:16:37 GMT
Hi there
We are NOT signed up to Aramex. The way that the post works here is that there is NO regular postal delivery to your door. The regular post is delivered to a central point, here in Dhahran it's Al Mujamma, which is right by the Commissary (shop), it's always somewhere convenient. Everyone has a postbox (usually shared between 2 families) which post is delivered to. if you have a parcel you will be notified by email at work and you pick it up from the central point. It's very simple and works pretty well.
We have retained a UK postal address and use the Royal Mail Redirection service, which sends out post on to us here in Saudi. It seems to arrive more reliably and in a more timely fashion that way! They will deliver very small parcels as part of this service.
I think Aramex delivers to the door, I would imagine they would try to redeliver at a later time!
|
|
|
|
Post by Hadia on Feb 6, 2012 5:02:42 GMT
We use Aramex because they do offer delivery to your door, and for me, it's not easy or convenient to have to go to AlMujamma all the time to see if we have mail or packages waiting for us. If you are home, Aramex will deliver to your door, but you need someone home to sign for it. If you're not there, they usually try calling whatever phone numbers you left, in case you're nearby and can meet them at your house to sign for the package. They won't leave it at your doorstep or go track down a neighbor to sign on your behalf. They'll try to deliver it again to your house the next business day, but after that, the package will go back to their Khobar location and you'll have to try to contact them to request redelivery. It's challenging to reach them. I am not completely thrilled with Aramex, and only use it because of the Shop and Ship service from the US (we haven't had occasion to order from the UK or China, but we might do that just for fun, since with Aramex you get shop and ship street addresses to use in all three of those countries  ). Usually they're reliable, but we have had packages lost, misdelivered to a wrong city in KSA, major problems with their online interface, and packages just plain MIA for days and days with no response or explanation when we try to track the package down. The upside, of course, is the Shop and Ship feature, which can work very well, particularly for ordering things from Amazon or Walmart, who have a good reputation for online shopping/customer service. We've had trouble though, getting the US address Aramex provides you to upload properly in some vendors' ordering databases. Frequently, it won't recognize the street address because of a hyphen they use, and the vendor's database will insist it's not a real address. I've actually given up at some vendors' web sites, since I couldn't get them to take the foolish address for delivery. We also found out the hard way that Target won't ship to a shop and ship address, so that didn't work out. But it's handy for family who want to send us things. They just pay domestic UPS shipping to get it to the NY Aramex office, and then we take over the shipping charges and tracking with Aramex from there. We always ask family to tell us when they're doing this, though, so we can monitor things via our Aramex login to make sure it's really in the pipeline for delivery. During the US holidays, there were some great online deals to be had, with clearance prices and free shipping. Since all we had to pay for shipping was the leg from NY to KSA, it wasn't all that terrible cost-wise. Plus, if you pay with a MC, you get a 10% discount off the Aramex shipping charges. On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give them about a 3 for customer service and accuracy. We'll keep using them, but it's usually hit or miss whether the package will arrive within a matter of days or a matter of weeks. We definitely do NOT use them for mail forwarding and the like. Frankly, I wouldn't trust them for that. We're still having a family member monitor our mail, but when we are back in the US on holiday, we're going to check into a professional mail forwarding service in our home town. Other people's experiences or tips in dealing with Aramex? If there are any special tips for getting things to work more smoothly, I'd love to hear them. We've used them (heavily) for four months. |
|
|
|
Post by Carolina on Feb 6, 2012 6:37:33 GMT
o
We too are from the UK and we do exactly what Henpecked does and we have never ever had any problems in fact I order online all the time and again everything has come to me without any problems and quite quickly.
Incidentally we are in RT - so our mail would come via Dhahran - for the online companies that will not ship direct to the Kingdom I have them sent to my good friend who in turn sends them to me by air mail recorded delivery (yes that can be expensive) but when you live here and want something from the UK it is still nice that it arrives here.
We decided not to use Aramex as we also heard some bad reports.
Carolina
|
|
|
|
Post by SLC77 on Feb 12, 2012 8:06:34 GMT
|
|
). Usually they're reliable, but we have had packages lost, misdelivered to a wrong city in KSA, major problems with their online interface, and packages just plain MIA for days and days with no response or explanation when we try to track the package down. The upside, of course, is the Shop and Ship feature, which can work very well, particularly for ordering things from Amazon or Walmart, who have a good reputation for online shopping/customer service. We've had trouble though, getting the US address Aramex provides you to upload properly in some vendors' ordering databases. Frequently, it won't recognize the street address because of a hyphen they use, and the vendor's database will insist it's not a real address. I've actually given up at some vendors' web sites, since I couldn't get them to take the foolish address for delivery. We also found out the hard way that Target won't ship to a shop and ship address, so that didn't work out. But it's handy for family who want to send us things. They just pay domestic UPS shipping to get it to the NY Aramex office, and then we take over the shipping charges and tracking with Aramex from there. We always ask family to tell us when they're doing this, though, so we can monitor things via our Aramex login to make sure it's really in the pipeline for delivery. During the US holidays, there were some great online deals to be had, with clearance prices and free shipping. Since all we had to pay for shipping was the leg from NY to KSA, it wasn't all that terrible cost-wise. Plus, if you pay with a MC, you get a 10% discount off the Aramex shipping charges. On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give them about a 3 for customer service and accuracy. We'll keep using them, but it's usually hit or miss whether the package will arrive within a matter of days or a matter of weeks. We definitely do NOT use them for mail forwarding and the like. Frankly, I wouldn't trust them for that. We're still having a family member monitor our mail, but when we are back in the US on holiday, we're going to check into a professional mail forwarding service in our home town. Other people's experiences or tips in dealing with Aramex? If there are any special tips for getting things to work more smoothly, I'd love to hear them. We've used them (heavily) for four months.