Standard shipping to be avoided for SA orders

I placed an order on 04/07/2015 for two textbooks and chose standard shipping (10-21 days) - it has now been 25 days (20 working days) since their e-mail confirmed it has been despatched.<br> <br> Unfortunately there is no tracking number, and I am attempting to find out who they used to ship the parcel - the only answer I keep getting is that it was shipped priority mail, there is no tracking number.<br> <br> International parcels are not shipped for free, so there has to be a receipt with a reference and some sort of document trail, but I can't seem to get that from the UK customer service staff.<br> <br> My intention to contact the company in UK (whether local post office, royal mail, etc.) to try and establish if they can check on the parcel or if it has arrived in SA and who takes over from them, our SA Post office (hope not!) or someone else.<br> <br> Please avoid standard shipping option - I thought UK company will at least provide decent standard shipping service.<br> <br> I just hope someone will look at the actual documentation to try and assist instead of just a computer screen.