DHL and the definiton of insanity

I recently sold a USB cable to a buyer in Australia who contracted the pickup and transport with DHL from the US to Australia.  For the past week they have promised the buyer that they will pick up the package and deliver it only never to show up each time.  I think DHL is merely yanking his chain and will never pick it up.  Now the trick is for the buyer to realize this and cancel his transaction, even if it requires contacting his credit card company to deny payment to these DHL clowns.  This is a sad state of affairs but seems to be more prevalent lately.

Wasn't this a Ziggy?

I got a fee for customs evaluation from Fedex ground for an international shipment that then went to them.  There were some questions asked that delayed the shipment a couple of days.  There were no duties due or charged. I got the impression that the fee was from the US govt and Fedex was passing on a fee they paid.   

Jerry

Most shipping companies if they are shipping to a residential address will act as the customs broker unless a different one is specified. That is pretty normal. DHL does not fine you. Customs does, they just pass along the charge. They will contact you if documents are missing. They don’t check the accuracy of documents provided. That’s the shipper or importers duty. I would take up the costs with the shipper.

DHL have extended their business model and they now collect all customs fees and taxes.

This allows governments to use fewer customs officers and DHL gets additional revenue.

On a recent Chinese import the shipper had screwed up they waybill which was obvious. DHL fined ME for misdeclaration @ double the fine and underdeclared duties.

Throughout the whole process I wasn't allowed to speak to a custome officer.

DO NOT USE DHL UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE.

@pinball101 Sounds like you got a customer service agent with skills beyond kindergarten. My guy insisted that there was no way to change the shipping instructions that they got from the shipper in Hong Kong. I was just glad I was not in a hurry since I had another new amp entertaining me. glad you got yours.

I always have value items sent to work for the same reasons.  Although our doors get locked at 4pm and I don’t usually answer calls that I’m unfamiliar with.  A DHL delivery was turned away a while back for this reason.  I went on line and was able to have it delivered and held at a mailbox type business with a relationship to DHL. I was able to sign up for notices and stopped by on my way home from work the next day.  
 

there are ways.  

Perhaps you can pick it up at DHL?

Very sad indeed.

Happily, I order from my dealer. When he gets it. He brings it over and installs it. I got too old for that stuff.

@larsman That is the same result.  Not a different result.  

 

@helmholtzsoul - Every time I practice the same session on piano, I expect to get progressively better. 

Update:   As I said in my original post, I was lucky to have another amp that I'm really enjoying.  So I'm just treating this as a source of humor.

Went down to the mailroom to pick up some tubes that had arrived for my current amp and guess who drove up--the DHL driver.  

I told him customer service said the package would be there between 1900 and 2000 and there was nothing could be done to change it.  He basicly said the customer service agents are idiots and if drivers didn't resolve these situations themselves the company would go bankrupt.  He was a pretty dang nice guy.

So I got my amp, listened to it for an hour, and I'm back to my current amp with the new tubes.  Both are excellent but these new tubes sound very sweet.  New amp sounds great too.  I'll work on getting more hours on the new amp over the weekend.

Jerry

@steakster Yes, I always use my business address.  I do not ever want a multi-thousand dollar package sitting on my front porch and I don't want to have to tell the seller how to ship it, lots of downside there. I get probably 20 packages during a normal week and generally no problems.  Only very occasionally is there something I really want that gets delayed a day because of no evening delivery. I believe the amazon order was a part for something I was building and wanted to finish that evening.  But most things come during the day time. 

I've always thought that overused definition of insanity made zero sense, and I cringe when anyone uses it.

'Classic definition of insanity'???

I can't believe how silly some of these 'sayings' are. Maybe they mean Jimmy Einstein, this crazy guy I used to know....

Doing something over and over and expecting different results is called 'practice', or 'scientific measurement', not 'insanity'.

   I see packages get returned very often because of missed delivery attempts,and customer unwilling to go pick up said package.   Good luck. I hope this gets straightened out. 

"As for waiting outside:  I've done that before with Amazon and Fedex.  Both times I was setting in front of the building (the only way in or out) when I got the text "delivery attepted, notbody to recieve package"

So, you know not to have it sent to your business address?

And I thought FedEx was bad....ordered my tannoys from the UK to US, took what seemed like forever to receive. Then to boot, i was notified by DHL that I still owed tarrifs and /or taxes. Had to pay them an additional $140. Ordered many things from over seas and never got a separate bill from the shipper. Thankfully, I saved a bit over a grand on the price of the tannoys. 

As for waiting outside:  I've done that before with Amazon and Fedex.  Both times I was setting in front of the building (the only way in or out) when I got the text "delivery attepted, notbody to recieve package".  So I concluded the drivers know it is closed and don't even drive by before they report "nobody there".  

 

@carlsbad I'm in equally a frustrating situation with DHL here in the UK. I'm waiting on delivery of a DAC I bought here in the UK from a manufacturer only 200 miles away, maybe less.

It is now Good Friday, my DAC was originally due to be collected on Tuesday last week, wasn't until Wednesday, it then sat in their depot until today, it is rescheduled to be delivered next Tuesday. So basically, a whole week to travel just less than 200 miles. 

Just for context, I ordered a Bluesound Node PSU upgrade and LPS from Poland last week, and it is installed and in use right now. 

DHL are simply awful, followed by UPS

 

Have them hold it at their hub,and go pick it up. 

Looks like you will have to sit outside the business until 8:00pm.