Ingvar and the Post Office

I'm mired in a bit of a quandry.  You see, I own a Subaru Legacy Outback.  It rolled off the production line way back in 1996 (10 years ago).  That is not, in and of itself, a problem.  I love my car.  Not the way I love my kids or my darling wife; but more in a way similar to the way I love anything that's not living on which I depend for the happy continuence of my chosen lifestyle.  The ownership of said vehicle enters the realm of Problem when something breaks or stops working due to the advanced age of the car.  last Spring the locking mechanism for my hood decided to stop working when I was driving at about 50 mph and the hood popped open smashing my windshield and denting the roof.  I had to then make a phone call to Ingvar Helgason (the company that imports Subarus) to order the parts needed to get it fixed because 1996-model hoods are not in the warehouse.  That was the second time I'd had to resort to dealing with that monkey factory.  It took from the end of March until the second week in July for the hood and lock mechanism to get here.  The experience before that was for a piece of the automatic transmission mechanism-that took just over 6 months to get here.  As you can possibly imagine, when I found out that I needed a new EGR valve (one of the many pointless sensors that is there just to break and make the car drive like it's constantly running out of gas) it as with great reluctance that I called Ingvar.   But I did.  He checked availability for me (after only 20 minutes of trying to figure out whether what I was trying to order was, in fact, a part of a Subaru) and called me back before ordering.  He told me that it wasn't available at their suplier in Bulgaria and that he would have to order it from Japan.  It would cost $277 and I needed to make a 50% down-payment if I wanted him to order it.  No thanks.  I heard Japan and the price and imagined myself getting a Christmas package from them containing the part I'd ordered in March (interesting that things always break in he Spring...) and that guy from the cartoons who was always twisting his moustache and saying,"Where's the rent?"  Anyway, I asked my mechanic if he knew of a good way to order parts from the US.  he handed me a business card from Discount Auto parts.  I went home, looked them up on line and found the part I was looking and the price was set at $170.  But they didn't have it in stock, so I called and talked to Bud.  he said that he'd look for it and call me back (knowing full well that I am in Iceland) with a price.  To make this long, boring story short, he found it, I ordered it over the phone and he sent it right out.  Two weeks later, it hit the main post office in Reykjavík.This one of the other companies I don't understand over here.  they get this package from me nd have to charge me duty on the contents.  There's nothing really wrong with that in my opinion.  I understand that duties are just another part of the taxes that pay for so many services and aspects of life here that I enjoy.  that is not the problem.  The aggravation is that they get the package.  They remove all paperwork on the outside of said package.  they put those papers in an envelope and send them to me along with a request for permission to open the package to look for the packing slip.  They want to open the package to compare what's listed on the packing slip to the contents of the box so that they can make sure they charge me the right amount of duty.  So, I get the envelope they sent with the request for permission to open the box.  I sign the form and fax it back to them ignoring the othe paper in the envelope.  thy get my fax (the next day) and open the box to find that there is no packing slip in the box.  The day after that, I get another envelope conatining a letter saying that there was no packing slip and would I please e-mail them the confirmation e-mail I got upon ordering.  The trouble is that I ordered it over the phone.  There is only the email Bud sent me about how much the total was once he added shipping (he wasn't sure when I ordered).  So, I sent them that, knowing it would not be enough.  then, this morning, I was sitting here looking at the messages I got from them and realized that in their first envelope was the %&#$ packing slip!  they send it to me so I can send it back to them and the thing doesn't get to me for an extra few days!  ARGH!