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Are DHL the pits or can it get worse ?

Chris

Chris

pfm Member
On May 31st I paid for some car parts from a VW Beetle dealer in Germany and on 1st June I received the DHL tracking number that it was on its way to me in Tenerife (Spain, in theory). To cut a very long story short, and according to their tracking service my parcel has travelled to Madrid 3 times only to be sent back to Germany 2 or 3 times, I am not quite sure. It has had its tracking number changed and is now showing as being in Barcelona. On pointing this out to DHL Parcel customer service I was informed in a noreply mail that it has been (or is being) returned to sender and they gave me a tracking link which shows the parcel to have been in Barcelona for the past fortnight. I just want to speak to a human being but I think that DHL is an army of E.U. droids. Is it the same in the UK ?
Any fishies have a friend whose cousin´s neighbour actually works for DHL Customer Service ?
Is there a Courier Ombudsman ?
 
Never had any problems with DHL, domestic and international.

The comment about returns was not needed - I had "guessed" that the sender was very likely at fault in some way from your first couple of sentances.
 
DHL Express is the best there is.

Is this DHL Express? There are many subsidiaries in DHL for the 'cheaper' end of the market such as DHL Post, DHL Local etc. Its annoying that there isn't enough known separation between the services, people just refer to every service as 'DHL'

It could be that the shipper hasn't paid the Tenerife 'tax' (more postage), and just chose 'Spain' as the destination country.

I've been caught out with that before as Royal Mail on their booking system automatically accepts Tenerife as Spain when its an autograb from Amazon/eBay etc.

DHL Express customer service in the UK is excellent.
 
Only had one DHL delivery go wrong (waited in all day for a delivery that never turned up), but it was the sender's error, which they freely admitted. Hermes and Yodel have been the two worst in my experience.
 
Deep down, I know the "hiccup" is caused by using the destination word Spain for the Canary Islands in certain software which reads barcodes on labels. The Canaries are politically Spain and E.U. but economically and fiscal-wise they are in a sort of limbo, along with Portuguese Azores and Madeira, French Guadaloupe etc. known as " E.U. ultra periphericals" which have their own import duties not covered by the VAT blanket treatment and therefore should be treated as exports as in to shipments to any other third party nation. Obviously costs for sending to the Canaries are not the same as those for the European mainland.

My gripe is the pathetic DHL customer service who don´t read my pleas and trust whatever their system says and there is no provision for a final phone conversation between sentient human beings. Mind you , strictly speaking of course as the recipient I am not their customer, merely the only interested party in the transaction, having coughed up in advance.
King Crimson were right - nowt worse than an ex-pat for complaining - 21st century schizoid man, indeed.
 
only ever had one DHL go wrong, and that was when the van was hit by a cyclist going through a red light.
 
I've always found DHL to be really good. The only problem I had was when the sender told me the package had been collected by DHL and would arrive the next day. It was actually still with the sender. As The Villagers said, 'I waited for nothing and nothing arrived.'
 
It’s time for the ‘insert name of delivery company’ is shit, threads to stop. They all have bad days, with the amount of packets being delivered the odds are things are going to go wrong.
 
If you think 2 and a half months on and not the slightest sign of a solution after half a dozen appeals for help to its customer service from a world class courier is OTT, then forget it. For me a company shows its merit when it hits the fan, not when all goes smoothly. It’s obviously my fault for not living in the centre of the world.
 
I really dont know what the issue is.

Contact the company you purchased from and have them sort it out with their courier or ask for a replacement item to be sent and ensure they choose the correct postage this time.
 
Zero issues here with DHL, same with UPS and Parcelforce - they're the only couriers I'll use here in the UK

It maybe different in other countries
 
Chris said:
If you think 2 and a half months on and not the slightest sign of a solution after half a dozen appeals for help to its customer service from a world class courier is OTT, then forget it. For me a company shows its merit when it hits the fan, not when all goes smoothly. It’s obviously my fault for not living in the centre of the world.
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From the sounds of it, you are not DHL's customer; the seller of the goods is most likely that.

I suggest you take it up with them?
 
Parcelforce are terrible around here. DPD are excellent, but their local endpoint delivery courier lives down the road so we know where to find him.

He is kind enough, when he knows we are awaiting a food delivery from our online butcher, that he puts us first on his list.
 
I blame 52% of you lot for having voted Brexit. I have always dealt with UK suppliers and Royal Mail for my hifi gear and vw spares. Never had the slightest problem and vat free which used to pay for the freight.Now so many small uk companies refuse point blank to send anything to the EU because of the paperwork, hence I looked to Germany thinking it would be a piece of cake.

simon g said:
From the sounds of it, you are not DHL's customer; the seller of the goods is most likely that.

I suggest you take it up with them?
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well aware of that. all I’m saying is that when recipient and customer are not one and the same, things can go tits up. and until dhl get their finger out and return to sender, people tend to look the other way. It’s Catch 22.
 
Out of DHL, FedEx, UPS, USPS, I've never found one service willing to let you discuss a parcel's status while it is still in transit, even if it seems to be stuck on a world tour going everywhere but the intended destination. Only when it finally stops moving and disappears will you be able to file for "lost package" status.

What kind of VW Beetle parts are you trying to acquire? I hope it's not something big like a set of floorpans...

 
Yank said:
Out of DHL, FedEx, UPS, USPS, I've never found one service willing to let you discuss a parcel's status while it is still in transit, even if it seems to be stuck on a world tour going everywhere but the intended destination. Only when it finally stops moving and disappears will you be able to file for "lost package" status.

What kind of VW Beetle parts are you trying to acquire? I hope it's not something big like a set of floorpans...

Click to expand...

No, I purposely made a small order to test the water. Just a carb, and odds and sods. To be honest I can’t remember the list but I do remember the 300 quid or so.
 
@Chris presume you’ve tried the two main DHL Spain numbers? 902 123 030 and 919 199 224. There used to be a way of getting a human to talk to you by pressing * and 0 but I haven’t tried it for quite some time. No idea if the Spanish numbers “cover” Canarías, but maybe worth a try if you haven’t already worn out the phone trying that number?
 
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