I don't have any first hand experience from any courier company really I don't sell parcels and when I do I just take them to my local post office. I rarely have purchases delivered to my house and when I do they still come with the good old postie or in the good old posties red and yellow van. So when I excelled myself and actually brought an ipod online I was quite surprised it was going to be delivered by DHL I had never really heard a lot about them and I suppose I just thought they delivered to and from companies but apparently not.
I wondered why they needed to send such a small package by courier then my mum pointed out that I had actually brought my ipod from a French website! So the guaranteed delivery within 48 hours seemed a little unrealistic for my poor postie to meet thus making the penny drop that no wonder European companies used worldwide couriers to get parcels to different places because they obviously guarantee quick delivery. Or do they ??
A BIT ABOUT DHL
DHL started out in 1969 with three men Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn which made the name DHL they started flying newspapers from San Francisco to Honolulu to cut down the time spent in harbours clearing customs and to save customers money. Parcels where also now being delivered by the end of 1979 as before DHL where only able to ship documents. By 1988 DHL had employed 16,000 employees and was present in 150 countries! Which is quite amazing that such a big thing came from such a small idea. In 2002 they where taken over by Deustche Post World Net and now 3 years after that the company has over 160,00 employees, 72,000 vehicles and is present in 220 countries worldwide! Not bad for a company introduced to ship newspapers from one state to another.
WHAT SERVICES DO THEY OFFER?
DHL are mainly a company that business use to ship things most people will not use these couriers just for normal day to day deliveries they tend to works with small and large business to take as many items as they to the right place. They do Air express and road express. When I ordered my item it showed up as road express but that must have been a long road from France to Leicestershire.
DHL boast good prices, an excellent service and very quick delivery. Whether this is all true or not only experience can tell…
MY EXPERIENCE
Ok enough of the history I am sure you are thinking just get on and tell us what you really think. Well I ordered my Ipod on the 17th September the night before my birthday I knew I couldn't get it the day after as that was the Sunday and I wasn't sure if they worked on a Sunday so I thought it may come on the Tuesday as it said maybe 24 hour delivery but guaranteed 48 hour delivery so I thought great it should be here my birthday week! It wasn't this was not at all down to DHL the company called it "warehouse problems" in other words they had been inundated with orders and they couldn't cope with the back log of the weekend as they where offering good deals if they weren'
t I wouldn't have bothered and after two weeks of waiting I wish I hadn't.
Finally I got an email through one afternoon with a DHL tracking reference so I was really excited logged on to www.dhl.co.uk clicked on tracking then a
large white box was at the top I put in my "waybill number" and up came a long list of my poor little ipods journey. I quickly scrolled to the bottom
to see the comments attempted delivery at 10:15am and homeowner refused delivery. I am sure you can imagine my face I was fuming. What the hell did that mean? My mum had been home all day and no one would refuse delivery of a package would they even if it wasn't for them! I quickly got on the phone to the
customer services department who I must admit where very efficient. I think the lady on the other end of the
telephone could sense my anger as she was a bit snotty at first well I suppose you cant blame them I know how easy it is to take things personally especially when I answered the phone "this is my reference it says home owner refused delivery now where is my parcel!" as she instantly said "it doesn't mean that literally" but what are you supposed to think I think it is a very silly thing to put if that really wasn't the case. She asked all the usual questions do you live in a flat? Is it hard to gain access to your property? If this were the case would I really be getting things delivered? I told her the house was on a busy street and someone had been in all day. She then advised that she was going to find the courier and call me back and also left her name for reference, which I thought, was quite good.
Ten minutes later I get a call
"Hello, I am afraid the couriers has left for the day but it seems that he couldn't find your house"
This left me thinking well what if I hadn't spotted this comment on my tracking would my parcel had been left in the DHL warehouse forever? I was angered by this but knew I had to stay calm to get my ipod so she continued
"I have had a word with my manager and he is looking for anyone that lives in Loughborough and if there is anyone he will get them to deliver it on their way home and she would call me before 5 with an answer if she didn't call back just assume it would be delivered tomorrow as we close at 5"
Now I am getting very hot and red at this point I have to make a comment.
"I'm sorry but no I leave for work at 8am and no one will be here to receive it and we will be having this problem again wont we? I need it tonight or first thing tomorrow"
In the mean time
my boyfriend comes home and we needed to go to his mums and it was now 5 past 5 so I gave up thought that she had gone home and I was back to square one! My mum came home I told her I was going out and if they called give them an ear bashing!
When I got home I was expecting that they hadn't rang and my mum said she had some bad news "they had lost the parcel" I was just about to erupt and she said she was joking and that they where going to deliver it the next day at 7:30am RESULT!
I know that me and DHL set off on a bad note but I thought that the customer
service centre where great and the lady I spoke to was very helpful and truly did her best to sort out the bad situation.
SO WHAT DO I REALLY THINK
Well I think lazy good for nothing couriers 0 out of 10 DHL customer services 10/10 they really helped me out and the courier the next day turned up at 7:20am! I don't think he dared come late, I think it is a good job the bad couriers have such a good call centre to back them up or DHL would lose out on a lot of custom. I know some people might have thought I was a bit over the top I was annoyed at the first company delaying my order so DHL messing the delivery up just topped it off!
If I owned a business this would no put me off using DHL at all and I wouldn't be worried if another company offered to deliver my goods via DHL. I would be worried if they sent that first dozy courier though!
I did think of complaining something I know too well but to be honest after I had listened to my great new ipod I couldn't be bothered but if it happened again I wouldn't think twice about getting the old pen and paper out. It is good to have a nice person who sort's things out for you but if the courier did the job he had been paid to do none of that work would have had to be done!
If you have a bad experience with DHL give them a call on 08701 100 300 and once they have your tracking number they will put you through to your local warehouse where your parcel had come from.
Alternatively if you have had a bad experience with them write them a letter (it always help relieve the stress!!)
DHL International (UK) Ltd
178-188 Great
South West Road
Hounslow
Middlesex
TW4 6JS
I hope my courier is reading this !!! Bad Boy 
