Turned out they did, but not much.

The shipping costs, as listed in MobilX site were 13€ to ship into Serbia, with 1–2 business days time frame. Since I ordered few days before Orthodox Easter, I wasn’t really expecting it in that time frame. I didn’t mind that, I was not even at home during the holiday. So, on next Tuesday, I checked the site, saw that it has arrived into Serbia, that it was delayed at customs and called DHL.

I knew that I should go through the customs import procedure where things could take a day or two, so I wanted to speed things up. I went through 3 different persons with no luck, finally the 3rd telling me that someone will call me with more info “in few minutes”. Almost 5h later someone did call me, to tell me that my package needs to go to the customs and that I need to pay 3540din for DHL service for custom declarations + any customs expenses based on the package price.

Initially I was shocked. 3450din is 3000din for their service + 18% VAT. So, VAT excluded, they were charging me additional 31€ for doing the customs procedure in my name. I did not want to pay this so I asked for information about the package and wanted to do that myself.
Like, yeah.

First, there’s immensely stupid Serbian Law that says that only regular postal packages can be declared to customs by ordinary people. Express packages must go through certified customs agent. This is utter bullshit as there is nothing different in the paperwork. This is clearly a setup for the various express courier companies (DHL, UPS, many other local ones that have sprang off the ground in Serbia, in last few years) to charge abnormal service charges on top of their regular shipping charge.
So, my only option was to try and find some other customs agent with better rates.

However, in order to actually do that, I need to buy the shipping list from DHL for mere 944din + unknown amount per day, for keeping the 300g package in their storage until the process is done. That’s 10€ + unknown amount. Adding the other agent rate, this could very well again be 30€ or even more.

Out of options here, I sent the payment to DHL with appropriate papers and was anxiously waiting to see what exactly I’m being charged for. Things did not finish there though, as this customs procedure took 2 days — I payed 31€ for that? — and then took two more days until actual delivery. You see, even though I sent two emails when can I be reached at home and left contact phone and alternative address (my office) I still missed the delivery guy for 15mins who came to my home address at about 6:25pm, did not find anyone there and left. I arrived home 10mins later. I immediatelly called their office, they told me that deliveries can be made after 10am and in about 6-8pm, even though their working hours are 8am-8pm. We huggled for some minutes on is it possible that delivery is made after 7pm when I knew I will be home and apparently it was impossible since it could be anywhere between 6-8pm and they can’t tell me precisely. Jolly.

The whole experience was abysmal and the DHL was nothing but problematic. The hidden charges are simply despicable and the shipping charge is blatant lie. (This has nothing to do with MobilX, they are probably using whatever DHL gave them as rates). I know that this is all down to local DHL office, but to me, as customer, that is irrelevant. It’s their job to get all their branches in order, because they are all called DHL. It’s one brand and the bad experience damage entire brand.

Just to clear any doubt – mentioned 31€ is pure DHL charge. Actual charges that Serbian Customs office is taking for filing the papers are 300din+600din (a bit less than 10€) and these were payed by me, clearly shown on the invoice given. Thus it’s not transparent customs charge that DHL is graciously doing for me as certificed customs agent – it’s DHL ripping people off.
And what do they do for those 31€? I fill two Word document templates they sent me, they fill half of another paper (half is done by the customs clerk on arrival) and fax all three to the customs office. I also pay the charges directly to them and customs office, they don’t process any money in my name. Like I said, this law is clearly a setup for the shipping sharks.

They basically do nothing. The airway transport from Hungary to Italy to Serbia costs 13€ and this paper shuffling costs 31€. Absolutely despicable abuse of the local laws. This is the last time I have ever used DHL and would actively dissuade anyone I know from using their services.

Photo by: Getty Images

Photo by: Getty Images

Indian Wells is probably the most important tournament apart from the Grand Slams and our little country got both singles titles. With Nenad Zimonjić playing in the men’s doubles final and Jelena Janković losing to Ana in the semi-final, this week was great week for Serbian tennis.

Ana’s victory was almost straight-forward. She maintained the lead and never gave Kuznetsova any chance. I watch her play for several years, she is truly at her best so far, especially on the mental side of the game.

Men final was different, with ups and downs for both players but with Novak keeping the lead…until the middle of the second set, when he really crumbled. I think he meant it’s closing time and Fish showed remarkable resilience and played like on fire. The key moment was Novak’s 1st serve game in the third set. He was 0:40 down and then fired 3 aces and one service winner. Those 3 aces must have stayed in Mardy’s memory for some time as he made several mistakes in his next serve game and Novak built 3:0 lead which was enough to the end.

In a country without any tennis center, with little - if any - government help and effort, these people became Serbia’s greatest sport ambassadors. They did it on their own and I bow to them for it.

She may have lost the title (this time), but have captured the hearts of millions. I have no doubt that this will be the year when she will win at least on of the Grand Slams. If I have to pick, I would choose Wimbledon.

After years and years of great success of the Serbian teams in the group sports, it seems comes a time for the individual achievements. Novak Ɖoković has good chance to win his first Grand Slam, Jelena Janković is always there, two steps from glory and Janko Tipsarević is shaping up into serious contender, after years of stumbling.

This will be a joyous ATP and WTA tour to watch.

It’s always good to win.
I’m really late with this, but I must note it. I’m really glad about it.

In November last year, I got myself another computer at home. Since LG 1730 monitor I had did have both VGA and DVI jacks, I wanted to connect both comps to it, and use the built switcher to work with both. I connected my main comp to DVI and my new one to VGA. But DVI just refused to work. It detects when the cable is on or off – when it is off, it would display check signal cable. But when I start the comp, it will immediately go to Power saving mode and nothing I did could get it out of it. I changed cables, graphic cards, all in vain.

Thus the monitor went to service, at the first days of December. Few days after it, my dad was injured and then passed away, thus I forgot about it for days. I finally checked the status over the Internet and on the 16th I saw “completed, ready for pick up” status. I could not do that until 24th, when they surprised me with the information that it is not serviced, but that I have received a replacement invoice instead (they certainly need to debug that part of status application).

Trouble is – there was not a single monitor to be found in those days. Starting from January 1st, Serbia has the pleasure of the introduction of Value Added Tax (18%). Considering the fact that before that, almost all computer equipment was tax-free, computer sales in December sky-rocketed. Everyone were buying stuff, like it was free. I took the replacement note to my salesman, but he said sorry, but there is nothing I can do now. I sold more in the last month than in the previous 11 months combined..

Nothing surprising really, so I settled for the long wait.

Then came the New Year, then orthodox Christmas (Jan 7th) – the companies started working on Jan 10th, but because of VAT introduction and all the new paperwork, most started working on Jan 17th. As it happens to be the case, monitors were not in the first shipments that arrived, so I got my replacement on Jan 31st.

Whole two months! I used my old Belinea CRT until Jan 20th (when it went to my sister) and afterwards I used company laptops.

A series of unfortunate circumstances, something I hope never to experience again. I hold no grudge towards the companies (both the store where I bought and the importer). The man called me as soon as the monitor got in – I got it directly from the importer’s warehouse – and it is a nice thing to look at (brighter silver colour of the front panel). It seems that I got the newer series of TFT panels too, as they seem to be better made. Or so the guy from the warehouse told me, who checked the monitor closely – probably looking to buy one for him (he checked it using Doom 3 and looking for ghosts and blurs).

DVI is working now. The problem with the first one was the defective digital board. Everything worked in the old one, apart from the DVI logic. Strange problem, but it happens sometime.

If you liked the Lane moje song, you can get it here. I think it’s evident that it’s much better to sing in your own language than in english, which seems to be a trend. Also, I’m surprised that the quality of songs is so low. As I said, my country was not part of this for twelve years and when I heard the songs I was really amazed that something like 80% of the songs are very bad. Melodies were either non-existent or empty, duos were poorly synchronized or you simply forgot the song after 2 minutes. Very, very bad. I like the songs from Macedonia (To�e should’ve sing in macedonian, it much more melodic), Cyprus and Greece and perhaps Croatia, but not that much.

Well, it was fun nonetheless. While in purely ephemeris area, it’s good to be part of Europe, and to be so strong.

For the latest coverage checkout Radio B92′s news page, although it’s a bit behind the serbian version.

I grew up in 90′s, when Serbia was ruled by a communist dictator disguised as nationalist. It was a very unfortunate time. All moral values deteriorated. My country was not in war, but people was being lead away by MPs in the middle of the night to fight somewhere. I watched my school friends abandoning school and associating with criminals. I watched criminals owning the police, whole cities. I watched young girls with just one wish: to be picked up by the richest bald-headed criminal with the shiny new Mercedes or BMW.

The dictator allowed all that. He let anyone with a gun and no brain do what they want, while they kept him in power.

On September 24th, year 2000, my 26th birthday, people of Serbia finally got out of their asses and voted against him. He refused to acknowledge that, as usual. This time, he was not able to buy anyone from opposition. On October 5, over 1 million people was on the streets on Belgrade. In that one day, everything collapsed. He was no long. We were free.

Among many, one man stood highest. He was the key leader behind all of it. He became first democratic Prime Minister, he was the leader on the good road.

First time in my life, I felt hope. Hope for a good life, in my own country. Few hundreds thousands young and bright guys and gals left the country before this spark of hope was kindled.

I still live on the remains of that spark.

Rest in peace Zoran. You will always be remembered.

The head of funeral column

Several hundred thousands people payed their respect