The Cat Food -part 2

We told part of the story of "The Cat Food" a few weeks back when it appeared imminent that it would be released from hostage by the government. We went to the Customs people with a short letter saying that the shipping company inadvertantly sent it to Bangalore instead of Chennai or Mumbai where food products are supposed to go and they appeared to recognize that we were not trying to circumvent Indian laws, though it is not yet clear that they understood that it was not we who shipped the food to Bangalore, but, instead, our well known US shipping company who charged a lot of money for the shipping! In any case, it took another 3 weeks for the customs to people to release the cat food, but they took more time to decide what duty to charge. In the end the 2 boxes were at the shipping company office with total charges about twice the cost of the cat food in the US! Included in the charges were Duty - a bit less than the value of the cat food- plus warehoure and agents fees for more than the value of the cat food! We assume the agent's fees include an "honorarium" for the customs people, but do not know. We disputed the charges with the shipper and had to speak to the manager who agreed to reduce their charges. He seemed to recognize that they had not done well at fulfilling their responsibilities. It took them 5 days to get the paperwork done and bring the boxes to our apartment. When the delivery guy arrived he said he was told to collect more than we had agreed upon with the manager and the paperwork showed the original amount. We got angry with the guy and he tried calling his bosses. We finally pushed him outside the door and locked it with the boxes inside and told him to get his bosses to come and collect the money. We felt some sympathy for him as he did not know what they had decided- only what he was told. Meanwhile, Jim called the manager's mobile phone and he remembered the story and we gave the phone to the delivery guy who was apparently quite upset because he was not supposed to leave the boxes without being paid. The manager told him the correct amount and we paid it and the guy left. We suspect that the people in the office told the guy a lesser amount to deduct from the bill and if we had paid more, they were going to keep the difference. However, as is often the case, we do not know- we only suspect. We finally have the cat food. About 10 weeks after shipment instead of about 2 weeks.
Overall, this is probably the worst case of combined government paperwork, corruption, incompetence with private paperwork, corruption and incompetence that we have experienced.
A friend, who works in logistical operations for a large company said of an experience they had "how can India expect to compete with China when it often takes a very long time just to clear things through customs that have been cleared many times in the past?"
A parallel experience is that we also ordered some cat food from a company that specializes in shipping things from the US or Europe. Their shipment was also delayed, but it arrived in half the time this one took. They also charged a high fee, for the service, but it ended up being quite a bit less expensive than "The Cat Food".