DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> DHL to cut 9,500 jobs and close US service centers
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 24 of 24, (reverse)
AuthorThread
11/10/2008 09:06:53 AM · #1
WTF is going on here????

The Story
11/10/2008 10:16:23 AM · #2
They're useless and many, many folks have stopped using them. The mailing center that i use has had a sign up for a year stating that they will accept DHL packages, but make no guarantees on when they'll be picked up or the condition they'll be in when delivered.

The only time i had a package that was shipped via DHL, it was my first good digital camera, my 8800. I got notice that it had been delivered but no package. Called the service center, who called the truck, who gave a description of where the package had been left. The house and cars he described were not mine. They called back later and assured me he had been mistaken in his description, that my package had been delivered to me. Uh, huh. It never did show up, and it took me 6 weeks to get a refund and re-order (elsewhere).

Can't say i'm sad to see them go.
11/10/2008 10:21:12 AM · #3
Coincidentally, a RAM order I placed last week was shipped out via DHL. The tracking number says it was delivered to my office on Saturday, but of course the office was closed and there's no outside mailbox. This should be fun. :-/
11/10/2008 10:23:28 AM · #4
I bought a $35 shirt shipped from USA to Canada. The DHL bastard showed up with my shirt and wanted $35 more for their dumbass expediting (or whatever) fees. So now I have a $70 shirt.


11/10/2008 10:29:39 AM · #5
Originally posted by Strikeslip:

I bought a $35 shirt shipped from USA to Canada...

You should have refused it. Either way, you lost your shirt...
11/10/2008 10:30:27 AM · #6
I know someone that works as a Customs Broker in Calgary, AB. Every day in her job she has to deal with one or more MAJOR issues with DHL. She tells everyone she can to spread the word that they are to never be used.

Incompetence will come back to bite you in the ass eventually, seems that's happening here.
11/10/2008 11:42:13 AM · #7
After using DHL once, I stuck with FedEx and UPS.

11/10/2008 11:42:15 AM · #8
I can't believe I have three DHL stories, but here ya go:

When I bought my house the lender "missed" a vital document in the initial packet. Three days before closing they sent the document out via DHL overnight. Nineteen days later it arrived. Luckily I had also requested they send me a copy via email (I got that in five minutes).

Five years ago my parents attorney sent me a copy of their will via DHL. It was misdelivered five times before arriving at my door (I know because every person that got it had written a note on the envelope). I got it over a week after it was shipped overnight. The day after it was supposed to have been delivered I phoned the distribution center and was told I had signed for it. The woman got rather rude with me when I explained to her that I wouldn't be calling to find out where my package was if I had signed for it. When my parents attorney called her later that day she told him that he had signed for it- apparently this was as surprising to him as it was to me.

I ordered three books through Amazon: One shipped via DHL, and two were shipped Fed Ex and arrived two days later, the same day DHL showed my package as "delivered". Two week later I got a DHL packet in my mail box. Someone had taped over the front of the envelope and stuck $3 in postage on it and dropped it in the mail. The return address was the DHL distribution center.

DHL's motto should've been: It'll get delivered, some time, some where.

Message edited by author 2008-11-10 11:45:09.
11/10/2008 12:56:38 PM · #9
Yup, same for me -- I've NEVER had as many problems receiving something shipped via DHL vs. any other method. If I have the opportunity (i.e. a phone order), I specificly confirm how my order will be shipped, and if it's DHL, I demand something different, even if I have to pay more.

The first time I ever had someone use them to send me a package was a few years ago. It was a very expensive piece of studio audio gear (a digital audio workstation worth over $6k). It was in several boxes, but only one tracking number. Hmm, okay, that might work... Until I tried to track the number they gave me, and the web site said it was already delivered. To someone in another state. Last week.

I made several calls to their support numbers, and when I finally got someone who might actually be capable of understanding the issue, they explained that they simpy "recycle" tracking numbers. Okay, so why doesn't this recycled tracking number show it's being shipped to me now? "I'm sure when you receive the package, it will be updated with the correct information." WHAT?

In all, it took over a month to get all of the packages in my shipment, and having a single tracking number that continued to show the previous tracking and delivery info, it was impossible to get anyone I spoke to at DHL to understand the underlying issue. If it hadn't been for the kindness of the people who mistakenly received the other parts of my shipment, I probably never would have received them at all.

That customer rep was right, though. When the LAST package was finally delivered to me? It updated the tracking number they gave me all along, and it showed a straight delivery from where-ever I bought it from, to me... with a transit time of six weeks, and no stops in between. WOW. I saved a screen-shot of the web page just for laughs -- I wonder if I can find it around here.......

I'd be quite pleased if DHL just goes away. I feel bad the folks are losing their jobs, but that place needed to shape up or ship out (har har) a long time ago.
11/10/2008 01:53:08 PM · #10
Wow lots of stories. I have one too.

I had ordered some photo equipment and left the cash with my son so when DHL delivered to my door, my son would have the money for the duties, etc. Great. I get a call from my son saying the DHL guy is there with the box but he won't accept cash. Huh? I phoned them complaining about the situation and all they offered was for me to come and get the package myself (But I already paid, why would I go get it?) I understand their reasons (lack of confidence in their employees, theft) for the policy but any company that does not accept my cash doesn't deserve my business. Glad to see them go down. Blame it on bad management.

Sears is another company that refused cash IN STORE. On the black list they went.
11/10/2008 02:09:11 PM · #11
Ok, I've got one - waiting for a delivery on a 5D, we watched the guy come up the driveway, stop (still in our driveway) about 10 feet from the front door, and then lob the box on a diagonal at the door. THREW it at the door, then went back to the truck and drove off. Not to mention it was a package that was supposed to have been signed for...

Other instances of packages going missing along the way, too numerous to mention.

I will not buy from merchants that insist on only using DHL or won't let you specify that they use some other carrier other than DHL, and it's been my policy for a couple years now.

The idea that they are getting out of the US market simply because the competition is too tight is a bit of a joke, it's their quality of service that makes them non-competitive.
11/10/2008 02:28:06 PM · #12
Originally posted by krnodil:


The idea that they are getting out of the US market simply because the competition is too tight is a bit of a joke, it's their quality of service that makes them non-competitive.


Oh, absolutely. When one delivers (pun intended) abysmal product in a marketplace well-supplied with quality competitors, the competition DOES look a little daunting :-)

R.
11/10/2008 03:37:52 PM · #13
FWIW, I did get the RAM today. The mailer had a couple of holes in it, and the label was slapped on at a 60 degree angle, but it was delivered.
11/21/2008 02:22:16 PM · #14
Originally posted by Jac:

Wow lots of stories. I have one too.

I had ordered some photo equipment and left the cash with my son so when DHL delivered to my door, my son would have the money for the duties, etc. Great. I get a call from my son saying the DHL guy is there with the box but he won't accept cash. Huh? I phoned them complaining about the situation and all they offered was for me to come and get the package myself (But I already paid, why would I go get it?) I understand their reasons (lack of confidence in their employees, theft) for the policy but any company that does not accept my cash doesn't deserve my business. Glad to see them go down. Blame it on bad management.

Sears is another company that refused cash IN STORE. On the black list they went.
First let me start by saying that I am sorry for what you went through with your photo equiptment. I am one of those Laid off DHL drivers. Actually I worked for a contractor. I hope I can explain the cash situation for you. DHL, doesn't make the rule for payment of received goods. The company whom ships the product makes that call. I worked for Airborne Express as well, and it was the same way. I also worked seasonal for UPS, and they to have the same policy, (however, I have known drivers to except the cash and they go purchase the money order.) Never the less, it is implemented to protect you ( by having proof you paid).
11/21/2008 02:40:48 PM · #15
FedEx is starting to follow in DHL's footprints. I had a package left on my doorstep the other day. It was addressed to a truck repair business that is two doors down from me. There are exactly 3 houses, a business (great big tractor trailer garage place) and a firehall on my street. That is all. The only thing I wonder is if the delivery guy was such a moron that he couldn't tell the difference between a residence and a business. I of course had to walk it down to the business.
11/21/2008 02:45:34 PM · #16
The fedex guy that delivers here won't come up my driveway. He claims it is too hard for him to turn around it (I live on the side of a mountain).

I asked him how big a truck he drove because the UPS man didn't have a problem. He didn't like that.

At least he calls. I have him leave it at a neighbor's house. I figure he is just trying to save 10 minutes.

This past week, though, I actually changed original plans so that fedex wouldn't be coming. UPS is my first choice. A distant second is USPS with fedex and dhl behind them.
11/21/2008 04:53:46 PM · #17
Our company used to have a nation wide agreement with DHL. They were our shipper of choice. I can't really say that we had any more problem with them, than we did with FedEx or UPS.

When I was refinancing my house a few years ago, we had the paperwork set for Saturday delivery. Finally we called the service center, and we were told that it was undeliverable, and had been returned to one of the local offices. The problem was our address was not on the driver's local maps.

Our house, along with the other houses in our neighborhood, was built in 1961. The street, and our address is easily findable on mapquest, google maps, just about any mapping software, and on every local map I have ever seen. The house is less than 1 mile from the local post office and well within the city limits of Sacramento.

To make things better, we arrainged to go to the FedEx office to pick up the package. After they spent 20 minutes hunting around the office, they made a few calls, and evidently they had it wrong, and the package was on 30 miles across town at the other FedEx office on the other side of town.

I don't think that DHL was really that much worse, they were just the first to run out of money.

UPS makes daily stops at our facility also. There is a reason they are called brown.
11/21/2008 04:57:44 PM · #18
Last couple of times I used them it was pretty good. But that's Russia/ Europe.
Delivering faster than expected, fast, fast, good service.
And we receive goods regularly in our company. No complaints.
11/26/2008 09:03:50 AM · #19
Originally posted by Kelli:

FedEx is starting to follow in DHL's footprints. I had a package left on my doorstep the other day. It was addressed to a truck repair business that is two doors down from me. There are exactly 3 houses, a business (great big tractor trailer garage place) and a firehall on my street. That is all. The only thing I wonder is if the delivery guy was such a moron that he couldn't tell the difference between a residence and a business. I of course had to walk it down to the business.


LOL! I'm so mad yet I have to laugh. I think FedEx hired the laid off DHL drivers. Note the quote date when they left a package for someone else at my house. Now forward to yesterday... my package which was shipped from California last week was supposedly delivered to me yesterday. Then it was picked back up & redelivered to me yesterday. I called last night and got customer service in Texas (I'm in NJ). I explained that even though it shows delivered on their tracking site, I did not receive the package. His answer, "are you sure?". Ummm, yeah, quite sure. Now I tell the guy, your delivery man didn't have any trouble dropping a package off on my steps last week for someone else, so he must know where my house is. Then he tells me to call him tomorrow (today) and he'll take care of getting the guy to go back and pick up the package and actually deliver it to me this time. Guess what?! He's off today! The package is a car part that I need and it was about half the price online compared to the stores ($150 vs. $325).
11/26/2008 09:23:12 AM · #20
I'm going to resist the urge to totally speak my mind....I'll just say that when I worked for
Airborne Express/ABX,Air Inc.(prior to DHL buying us out), the service we provided was excellent. Our aircraft maintenance and on-time performance was the best. I will never understand DHL's management decisions. I feel they destroyed a great company.
11/26/2008 09:42:47 AM · #21
I have only had two encounters with DHL, both of which has resultet in me refusing to buy from online shops that use them for shipping.

The first package was lost. Tracking revealed that the driver delivered it to a strange person with a totally different name and address (a person not registered in Norway so probably a fictional name) and the second package was delayed by 2 weeks - in the hands of DHL. I had to pick it up at the DHL office 30 miles away in the end.

The drivers I met look very questionable. I will guaranteed never use them again. I have as of yet not had a single bad experience with UPS or FedEx (knock on wood!).
11/26/2008 10:46:28 AM · #22
Sounds like stories fro DH-hell.
All I know is an 1800 outlet jewelry chain we deal with here switched from using DHL to UPS-WorldShip. I think the change in prices may have been the reason.

11/26/2008 10:50:37 AM · #23
It appears that Fedex has in truly hired the DHL drivers. We have had 4 packages in the past 2 weeks get misplaced and delayed by 2 days each. Some even ended up on the wrong truck in the wrong state. Now my own personal stuff so far is OK. But my 24-70 is suppose to be on a fedex truck to my house from a Canon repair in NJ. I need it tomorrow so it better show up, or I'm going to visit the Fedex facility myself tonight.

Matt
11/26/2008 10:53:16 AM · #24
Originally posted by Azrifel:

Last couple of times I used them it was pretty good. But that's Russia/ Europe.
Delivering faster than expected, fast, fast, good service.
And we receive goods regularly in our company. No complaints.


I also had good experience with them. Even when the sender misspelled the name and address (no comment) I still got the envelope.
But then again, it was in Europe.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 06:11:46 PM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 03/28/2024 06:11:46 PM EDT.