I felt like I was transported to another dimension this morning, because something took me less time in Qatar than it would have in the U.S.!
First some background: Rachel and I decided to trade up our used car for a slightly less-used car, so we spent about a month looking and finally found a nice 2010 Kia Mohave pretty close to our price range. After getting it checked out at a mechanic and test driving it, we decided to buy. Remembering the giant paperwork hassle that it was last time (getting some document typed up in Arabic, waiting in two different lines for more than an hour, etc.), I planned for the worst when I showed up to buy the car from the seller this morning.
Instead, the seller pulled out her iPhone, typed my Qatar ID number into an app (Metrash2 from the ministry of the interior), and transferred registration for the vehicle to me online, then drove me to the traffic office a block away to pick up the newly-printed card. We were done, start to finish, in 15 minutes!
Only in Qatar could you exchange ownership of a car by phone, but still have to wait in two separate lines at the grocery store to buy vegetables.
First some background: Rachel and I decided to trade up our used car for a slightly less-used car, so we spent about a month looking and finally found a nice 2010 Kia Mohave pretty close to our price range. After getting it checked out at a mechanic and test driving it, we decided to buy. Remembering the giant paperwork hassle that it was last time (getting some document typed up in Arabic, waiting in two different lines for more than an hour, etc.), I planned for the worst when I showed up to buy the car from the seller this morning.
Instead, the seller pulled out her iPhone, typed my Qatar ID number into an app (Metrash2 from the ministry of the interior), and transferred registration for the vehicle to me online, then drove me to the traffic office a block away to pick up the newly-printed card. We were done, start to finish, in 15 minutes!
Only in Qatar could you exchange ownership of a car by phone, but still have to wait in two separate lines at the grocery store to buy vegetables.
1 comment:
So funny. Germany is like that too: Some things are amazing, like public transportation. Then it takes you 3 hours to go pick up a package that they won't deliver because they don't know what is in it. Really? It had a customs label on the outside that clearly said "Leather gloves." Inside were 3 pairs of. . . Leather Gloves. Three hours and a 10
Euro train ride later. . .
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