The book hunting begins
I called I-Spy book store today and they told me they had no book on pregnancy.
I called Jarir book store and no one picked up the phone.
Last night I looked online and my husband suggested I search for WHSmith book store because they have a small branch in the new Doha Airport so they may have some store in Doha. And they did! They have a flagship store in Ezdan Mall (Opposite Landmark Mall, next to Lulu Hypermarket)
Today we decided to check out the store
And they did have books, plenty of English books. Plenty of books written by British authors and all kinds of cook book pastry book sourced from BBC, Nigella and British chefs. And somewhere in the nook of all odd-titled and ill placed books were, on the bottom shelf, a row of books on parenting, pregnancy and fatherhood. It looked so pitiful I felt bad being pregnant. We couldn't find the books in the first place, they were so poorly placed. There were no "Pregnancy Books/Parenting & Toddler" sign or anything like that. Anyways the girl working in the store showed us where the books were located and I bought one titled Your Baby Week by Week by Simone Cave and Dr whatsherface
It cost me 85 riyals
Some pictures of the book store in Ezdan Mall. I only took pictures of the book section. The toys, garish notebooks and books for kids I have left out
The Online book hunting begins
The moral of this post is not to count on the local bookstore for any books you like unless they're mainstream fiction and non fiction. So I came back home feeling dissapointed and my husband suggested me to look for online book stores in GCC. He said there must be some GCC websites that sold books to GCC only. Again my husband came to the rescue. He seems to have all the solution to my woes when I need it the most. After extensive searching it all boiled down to JAMALON.COM and AIDO.COM
It was obvious that books on Aido were higher priced than the books sold on Jamalon. Aido is Dubai based and Jamalon is based in Jordan
Here is a comparison for a paperback from both retailers
Here's the price for a slightly older version of the Baby Book from Jamalon
And the price for a newer version from Aido
The Conclusion
Anyways I settled on Jamalon and got 5 books from them (based on reviews from Amazon)
If you feel uncomfortable buying from these online stores you can always buy from Amazon. Shipment to middle east is not that expensive; for these two books with standard shipping it was costing me about RM (Ringgit Malaysia) 170 If you don't mind waiting for a month to get your book that is.
I bought 5 books from Jamalon and it cost me 360 riyals including shipment (80 riyals) with Aramex (3-7 working days delivery)
I will update this entry once I have received my books
Update
I have sent 2 emails to Jamalon and no one bothered to reply me
I decided to call them today. This morning the guy at the other end spoke no English. Second call attempt worked better-a lady picked up but spoke halting English. She passed me to her supervisor or something and he explained to me that the books were being shipped from their publisher in London to Qatar and it will take 3 days; meaning 72 hours
One of the 5 books is not in stock
They will refund me the money once they have shipped the remaining 4 books
Until I don't hold the books in my hand I am giving Jamalon a thumb down.
Update II
Jamalon.com is the biggest online bookstore-cum-rip-off in the whole of GCC. I regret buying from them. It's the 24th August today and my Aramex record is stand still at "Data Received" and "Record Created"
It's better to buy from bookrepository and Aido that buying from Jamalon, They are a giant big scam online ripping innocent people off their moolah
Here's the screenshot of the email I sent them today using their contact us option
Update III
Imagine my surprise when two days ago I saw this on the Aramex tracking site. They had actually procured the books in London. Within a day it was here in Qatar sitting in Abou Hamour at about 3pm. So I logged another case with Aramex and they called me back saying since there is no driver they will try to deliver it to me within 48 hours. I said please hurry up this parcel is long overdue. And lo and behold this morning I had another call from Aramex and this guy asked me when I wanted the parcel delivered. That's it. I blew up like a volcano. I said now I want it now its been so long overdue why do you even ask me when I want it delivered?! He said he will try before 12pm and someone must have realised what a big cock-up Aramex did with my books so he wrote with permanent marker on my parcel to deliver it before 12pm
Also, two days ago I had a call from Jamalon in Jordan saying my books are already in Qatar (but I knew that already I have been tracking it daily) I said my thanks, resolved never to buy from Jamalon again because
A. crappy customer service
B. I had to call them to ask for my item shipment number
C. I had to keep harassing Aramex for my books
D. Some of the books' covers were damaged. Someone was hasty when he removed the price tag, the glue didnt come off
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