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Thread: DHL: A warning

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Waimauku near Auckland
    Posts
    502

    Default DHL: A warning

    Just collected a package from DHL containing a couple of business suits and half a dozen shirts for work sent by my wife still in the UK.

    When my wife checked into the simplest (and cheapest) way to do this, DHL seemed the right choice and she paid £127 for their 10kg or less service. We used their website to watched as the package travelled quickly across the UK and then across the world to arrive an Auckland airport.

    I decided to phone them as the package status became stuck on "Clearance Delay" and they initially informed me that they couldn't process the package as the consignment details were missing / incomplete and they didn't know what the package contained.

    They then asked me to contact my wife to confirm what was in the package and demanded an additional $250 before they would complete the original delivery.

    After two half hour long phone calls they agreed that their agent (WHSmiths in the UK) had failed to scan the paperwork into the DHL system and that the additional $250 was to process the paperwork required for MAF & NZ Customs.

    I then drove to the DHL collection point at Auckland Airport to see this "complex" paperwork that was going to double the delivery costs.

    Is it complex? Only if you find transcribing details from one document to another confusing! I suggested that their staff do this as the problem was they on mine and it was done free of charge in less than ten minutes.

    Taking the completed paperwork over to MAF & NZ Customs, they explained that DHL try this "complex" paperwork trick all the time.

    My wife will contact DHL / WHSmiths for an apology and compensation for their failure to follow their own procedures and expecting the customer to fix they problems.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Manchester > Now Tauranga
    Posts
    4,393

    Default

    Thanks for that, useful to know. Anything that we can check whilst at Smiths / DHL to ensure that there isn't the opportunity for this to arise?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Dairy Flat, Auckland
    Posts
    1,789

    Default

    we used dhl once, never again. we sent valuable documents from New Zealand to UK and not only did they deliver to the wrong house they left it in the letterbox so when we contacted the people to where it was delivered they said they never received it so we had to go back to solicitors and get another set done. This time we used fed express with no problems. We did eventually get an apology and a refund but we wouldnt use them again. This is our personal experience and our own opinion.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    162

    Default

    I use fedex if at all possible as they don't seem to charge extra fees for customs processing etc. http://www.parcel2go.com/ fedex service was used by someone sending something to me recently and seemed to achieve a better price than going directly to fedex.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Wellington
    Posts
    177

    Default

    Useful info, thanks. I'll use UPS soon and will let you know how that went.

    Cheers

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Wellington
    Posts
    1,870

    Default

    Sounds like a nightmare, Roger!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Palmy- from US
    Posts
    2,516

    Default

    Yikes!!! What a pain!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Auckland<->Penang
    Posts
    221

    Default

    Oh no. I just sent some urgent documents to Auckland using DHL. I have been tracking the parcel every few hours and it has been stuck at "Departed Facility in HONG KONG" for the past 24 hours.

    If i had read this earlier, i would have used an alternative.


  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Manchester > Now Tauranga
    Posts
    4,393

    Default

    Well don't try parcel farce. They sent all my qualification documents express to Moscow and then lost them for a month. Unbelivably, they bar code it on arrival at LHR, but then not after they manually sort into bins. So if mis - sorted then it is only apparent once it is scanned at arrival in the wrong place, at which point instead of expressing it back to the departing port, or to the destination it is treated as low class surface mail as it's not been paid for in Russia / wherever.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Auckland, NZ
    Posts
    230

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bulu View Post
    Oh no. I just sent some urgent documents to Auckland using DHL. I have been tracking the parcel every few hours and it has been stuck at "Departed Facility in HONG KONG" for the past 24 hours.

    If i had read this earlier, i would have used an alternative.

    Bulu, not sure what you were sending, but DHL is the only courier in Malaysia that will handle passports. I called up UPS and Pos Laju and they confirmed that they don't do passports. In fact it was the UPS guy who asked me to go DHL :P

    Hope it arrives safely!

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