Example of DHL at its Worse During the Holidays

I am so pissed off at the nightmare that DHL's negligence has created for me in shipping a package that is a gift for my son. Below is the letter I just sent them.

I made sure I let them know I was going to promote this through Digg.com and let people know to avoid using DHL at all costs. I would be interested in hearing other DHL nightmare stories so I can post them on here.

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DHL Express
Office of the President
1144 W. Washington St.
Tempe, AZ 85281

RE: Incredibly Negligent and Unprofessional Customer Service

Good day,

I am writing to inform you of my extreme disgust and discontent with the customer service I have received from DHL on shipping for the following package: 4749982XXXX

Here is a timeline of the long line of mistakes committed by your team:

12/8/2006: My Frys.com order shipped via DHL

12/11/2006: The package is delivered to XXX Ocean Ave. instead of XXX Ocean Park Blvd. Come on… don’t your couriers know their own route and region??? There is whole word after Ocean and it is a Boulevard not an Avenue! And to top it off, instead of calling my cell phone number on the order, the courier decides to send it back to the shipper, right in the middle of the Christmas season…great thinking wouldn’t you say?

12/12/2006: I speak to one of your Customer Service Representatives and they assure me they are going to reroute the package to the DHL service station at 1757 Stanford St., Santa Monica, CA

12/14/2006: After checking the new tracking number online (6470542XXXX) I notice that it hasn’t been re-rerouted, and in fact is on its way to Ohio, back to the shipper. This is bad, because this particular item is a Christmas gift for my son, and the item is sold out everywhere. So I speak again to one of your Representatives and they tell me that it is “hard” to get in touch with your main station, but that he has rerouted it back to the DHL station in Santa Monica, CA. He asks me to check back on Tuesday 12/19 for a new tracking number and status.

12/18/2006: I notice that the package is still on its way to Ohio so I call again, and of course, one of your Representatives assures me that it has been rerouted to Santa Monica, CA.

12/20/2006: At 10:00 AM I check online and see that I have been misled and falsely reassured all along, and the package has been, in fact, delivered back to the shipper. Needless to say, I am extremely frustrated. I call DHL at around 10:15 AM, and try to contain my frustration. In a spectacular display of world-class customer service skills, your Representative gets an attitude, decides he doesn’t want to help me, and simply hangs up on me.

I am speechless at the extreme lack of courtesy and professionalism displayed by this man. Don’t you train your people to handle these types of difficult Customer Service situations? Is their instinct to just hang up on someone really not discussed at all before they start answering calls on your behalf? In my opinion, this person’s call history with DHL should be reviewed, because I’m sure it’s not the first time he does this, and then he should be fired.

At 10:20 AM I call back and speak to a supervisor. She explains to me that the package was indeed sent back to the shipper. And I explain to her that I will never, ever use DHL again. I can tell you that I will make it my personal mission to tell everyone I know about my experience with DHL and urge them to use a different shipping service if they want to avoid a mess such as this one. You are in the business of trust, reliability and operations, and today you have failed. This is definitely going on a blog and will be actively promoted via Digg.com.

I spoke to Frys.com and since the item I ordered is in high demand, they cannot guarantee that they will ship it back to me, my item will probably be resold to someone on a waiting list and I will get a refund. Merry Christmas DHL…