Corruption

We had difficulty finding a company in China that would transport our stuff from there directly to Turkey. China and Turkey do not generally deal.

But then we found "Seven Seas", and they promised to take our stuff for us. It would take ten weeks, they told us, and they were very efficient about taking our boxes, and our money. That was back in July.

As we were leaving Australia at the end of September, we received an email from Seamus - the Chinese chappy who so efficiently took our cargo - saying that our boxes had arrived in London, and warning us that there would be considerable import duties to bring them into Turkey.

We responded with some surprise, saying that we didn't expect to pay import duties on our personal items, winter clothes etc, but we were prepared to pay whatever it took.

A week after arriving in Turkey, still no boxes ... we wrote several emails to young Seamus asking what was going on.

Then I got a phone call from a lady in the Seven Seas office. She explained that they do not do business with Turkey, in fact stopped doing so well before they ever took our boxes.

She explained that Turkey is so corrupt that China cannot do business with them.

Yeah, that's pretty amusing! Talk about the pot and the kettle.

She wanted us to provide Seven Seas with a letter of indemnity saying it wasn't their fault, and that we will pay any necessary duties ... and then they will send our boxes with a different carrier from London to Istanbul.

That's a week and a half ago. We sent them their letter. We've heard nothing, and still no boxes. And today is the first cold day, it would be good to have those winter clothes soon!