posted on July 14, 2004 11:41:43 PM new
Has anyone used DHL? They are trying to make a run at UPS & FedEX. Been lots of national TV advertising. Haven't seen much of locally.
Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
posted on July 15, 2004 04:52:40 AM new
DHL is a huge worldwide shipper doing business in over 200 countries with trucks, planes, ships, rail cars, etc. They recently bought out Airborne Express (2003) which is why we see more of them on the road in the USA.
posted on July 15, 2004 08:03:12 AM new
I am impressed. Had a package sent from a company called NoPassportRequired.com and it was raining when DHL went to deliver, it was left at the door in a nice, plastic bag, protecting the package against damage. I had another package from InstantStyle.com and it too was put in a bag for delivery to the door, due to rain. Florida is in the rainy season, but FedEx and UPS do not go this far...
posted on July 15, 2004 08:31:43 AM new
I have been using them for 2 or 3 months and I really like them. They are still a bit disorganized and you need to check each invoice for errors but so far the prices are great within the US.
I don't use them for items in the 1 or 2 lbs range as USPS is less.
I ship just under 300 lbs of chairs from FL to Calif for about $160.00 (I had to box them) I know that was the cheapest rate out there.
posted on July 15, 2004 04:09:12 PM new
We used to use Airborne and did when they went through the DHL change. They are actually really fast. Faster than UPS and Fed Ex. Like the person said before, you really need to check your invoice. We ended up having two problems with them beside that one.
The first was that they charge a huge amount of money for rural areas. It was terrible, some times they would charge an extra $7.00 for shipping to some place in the middle of now where.
It wasn't normally that bad, but there estimate system would not add this rural charge in, and the book they had to check it was never up to date. So getting good estimates of cost were terrible.
The second was the claims department. They would pay the $50 and under claims just fine, but if it was over $200 good luck. We had to fight tooth and nail for payment.
The final straw was when they denied a claim because they couldn't observe the item that we were making the claim on.
They have a rule that the item, if damage, has to stay at the delivery location for 30 days so they can view the damage. The problem was, that when I called the person who we shipped it to, they said it was still sitting in there shop and that no one from DHL had come by to look at it or call.
I had to threaten to take DHL to small claims court and that I had the person mailing me a sign and notarized letter stating the fact that they still had the item on location and that no one had contacted them from DHL at all. I was finally transfered to some one who finally told me that the paper work for the claim was lost and that they did not know were to send a person to look at the item. Yet because of their mistake they lied and denied my claim.
That made us switch to Fed Ex who has paid every claim to date that we have filed and also offers their Fed Ex Home delivery, so that we don't get charge any rural fees at all and get exact shipping estimates for all our shipping. If you mainly ship to residents it is the cheapest shipping out there. On average we save about $2.50 on every shipment to residents with Fed Ex then DHL. I got those numbers after going over our invoices from Fed Ex our first three months. We ship on average about 100 - 130 packages a month. So that turned out to be a big savings.
To give DHL credit I did have a rep call me once and tell me they had work on that and it was better. But I had already change to Fed Ex and was happy by then.
Sorry for the rambling, but it's always good to tell your bad stories and get them out of your system.
[ edited by bountifultool on Jul 15, 2004 04:11 PM ]
posted on July 15, 2004 04:34:25 PM new
Thanks for the info, bountifultool. And it wasn't anti-DHL, just what problem areas you had. And where you found satisfaction. I would recommend FedEx and DHL over the competition.
posted on July 15, 2004 09:22:27 PM new
OK, Thats enough for me. I have very good luck using FeEx Ground & will continue using them. I had heard bad things about DHL before & don't trust them. From what I have heard, most of their delivery vans are on franchise, so you can't trust the reputation.
Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
posted on July 15, 2004 09:41:44 PM new
I also have had excellent service from FedEx so I have no intention changing, no matter how elaborate the TV commercials for DHL are.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on July 15, 2004 11:58:43 PM new
DHL delivers quickly but the claims process is a real hassle! They are back-logged 60-90 days for claim settlement. When you call their Service Reps, you are told "the claim is in process". Service Reps will not allow you to communicate with the claim adjuster.
Finally, a supervisor gave me a name and a fax number as I wanted to offer a compromise for the salvage. Of course, no reply yet. I would never use them myself! We are the receiver in this case and the item was damaged by them. The appraiser has been out to see the item and has sent DHL the report (we have a copy) and now we can only wait! $1,300 and I'm about ready to do a credit card & paypal charge back.
Use DHL at your own risk!
posted on July 16, 2004 03:39:10 AM new
Now I'm getting nervous. Just got another invoice and they charge a $3.00 pick up fee when I had 5 items - should be free pick up. This is the second time on this problem
posted on July 16, 2004 07:01:16 AM new
I had constant problems with Airborne, so I think I'll stick with UPS.
All air courier services stick it to you with gobs of extra fees added on to each delivery, so you might as well use whichever is most convenient. There's a UPS store one block from my house.
