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Dell - Time To Lose DHL

by Matt Hartley on April 10, 2008 at 5:41 pm · Comments
Categorized by GnomeREPORT / More Information

I have recently ordered a Dell Ubuntu powered notebook and while Dell managed to get their end of things moving on schedule, their choice of shipping agencies is really making me angry. In the past, I have NEVER had one, single good experience with DHL - not one. And keep in mind I receive a lot of deliveries. The last time I had a package sent to me through them, I actually came home just in time to see the driver drop the package from standing height at my door step, spin around and back-kick my door as to serve as a knock. Needless to say, I am glad that I was driving up as I saw this, so I could alert the company to this behavior.

Today is day three of the yet to be delivered notebook. Unlike FedEx or even UPS, DHL tracking is utterly useless. Foolish enough to believe in an accurate tracking system, I have made myself available since April 8th as this is when the notebook was set to arrive. When it did not, I called at the end of that day only to be told that it will be arrive to my home on the 9th. Fine, this happens. Yet the tracking still showed it as departed the Washington State Hub. Curious, I questioned the rep over the phone why this was not being updated - I was then told that this tracking is often not very accurate. Great.

Today, feeling like a pattern might be developing, I decided to call in order to verify the package arrival today. Wait for it….”I am sorry Mr. Hartley, it appears that it is not scheduled to arrive until tomorrow”. At ths point I am furious as DHL has lied to me already with explanations like “scheduled” and “will be arriving”. I am tired of DHL wasting time as I sit here waiting for this delivery. I have a life, things to do, places to go.

Dell, if you ever expect me to make another purchase from you in future, I suggest switching shipping companies immediately. I will happily pay the little extra for a competent delivery service. Is this a fluke? Not at all, DHL used to deliver the checks for the company my brother worked for and again, they were late at least once a month. WAKE UP Dell, it’s not a matter of cost, it is a matter of commonsense!!

Edit: Just got off the phone with them again, was told to call first thing in the morning to simply pick-up my package from the Portland location. Yes, it’s apparently been sitting there, waiting to be unloaded since yesterday.. On the plus side, the DHL night people are really friendly, if nothing else.

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What Do You Think?

Mike Harla - April 11, 2008 @ 5:14 am

Matt,

My only experience with Dell and DHL are from work, and I will say that in five years they have been trouble-free for us. This involves situations including: small deliveries; parts replacements, and depot exchanges.

In contrast FedEx mis-delivered some (non-Dell) orders, a Dell order assigned to Con-Way vanished somewhere between RoundRock and us, and Dell itself set up a duplicate shipment recently.

Perhaps this another example of the two-tier treatment that I’ve heard about with Dell, where they are supposed to be nicer to their business clients. Aside for a period several years ago, even the phone support isn’t too bad….

Mike in NJ

Matt Wilkinson - April 11, 2008 @ 7:16 am

Hey Matt — Matt W here.

I think all major shippers are a “your mileage may vary” type of experience.

Although — funny thing — in my role as IT Procurement Lead for my company, I’ve had two brand new Dell Latitude laptops go missing whilst in DHL’s hands. At the same distribution center near Atlanta, GA. So, they obviously have some security issues. What alarmed me about it, is when I called, they seemed pretty nonchalant about it — like it’s normal.

I have a great relationship with my UPS guy, he and I know each other by sight.

I use FedEx a lot for outgoing packages, never had much problem with them. Except for when I used FedEx Ground, which I understand is mostly comprised of independent contractors that lease routes and vehicles. When I was shutting down my company’s downtown Chicago office, they were less than reliable when it came to pick ups.

embee - April 12, 2008 @ 3:01 pm

Shipping issues vary greatly depending on where you happen to be.

Shipping by “UPS only” is common in among US companies. It also means those companies get no business from me. I’m in Canada. It becomes tiresome to keep refusing shipments when I get the phone call demanding an enormous “brokerage fee” from UPS Ground. Especially when this fee exceeds the value of the item PLUS its shipping cost and there is no duty payable. Simply stated, it’s a ripoff and a scandal. And it’s solely from UPS Ground.

By contrast, some companies seem able to ship here at a reasonable cost with no border issues whatsoever. And other carriers don’t run a scam. As to DHL? I’ve never had a problem. For shipping from Canada to Europe, DHL has historically been among the best.

John Meyer - April 12, 2008 @ 8:00 pm

I run a shipping warehouse for a fortune 500 company that uses all three of the major carriers(UPS, FedEx, and DHL). My experience leads me to believe that there is certain areas within this country that DHL does have problems with, however, overall I know that they run at or around the same service levels on any given day. If I ship ground, I prefer UPS, overnight would be FedEx, and for international DHL. But on any given day anyone of my carriers can and do drop the ball somewhere along the line and being that it is customer routed I hear these exact same stories every single day about every single one of them. We ship over 500 shipments a day and during the holidays it’s in the thousands, so I feel pretty confident that this area that you are referring to may have a bad IC, driver, or something particular about it, because truthfully they are not that far off from the other two if at all and the price isn’t less across the board with DHL either, so it’s not just about price. But good luck with it .

Michael Sievers - April 13, 2008 @ 8:02 pm

Matt,

I’m extremely sorry for the frustration that you have gone through. While I cannot provide an explanation to the horrible service that you were provided, I can provide you with an avenue to seek further action and commentary.

You can write a letter to our corporate office in Plantation, FL (address below), or you can submit an email via our website (www.dhl-usa.com/custserv/contactus.asp?nav=ContactUs).

DHL Express
Corporate Office Contact
10097 Cleary Blvd. #403
Plantation, FL 33324

Please note that I cannot speak on behalf of my company (DHL Global Forwarding) or our sister company (DHL Express), but do want to make sure that your issue is resolved to your satisfaction.

RichardatDELL - April 14, 2008 @ 12:07 pm

Hi Matt,

Sorry to hear about the issues you had with the DHL delivery of your new Dell. Im glad things appear to be resolved and good to hear that the DHL folks were good to work with, including Michael’s follow up here.

John, embee, Matt and Mike, thanks for offering Matt your perspectives on the various delivery firms and there certainly is a range of opinion and perspective. Nevertheless, we appreciate all the feedback, but Matt, especially sorry you experienced delays in this.

On a happier note, thank you for purchasing the new Ubuntu powered Dell notebook. Hope its all good from here on it. Again, appreciate the feedback

Matt Hartley - April 14, 2008 @ 2:39 pm

Hi Richard.

Actually the folks at the national center (DHL) were doing okay everything considering, but the Portland Hub was amazingly troublesome.

On the Dell side, we were told that in order for the loss to “register”, it would mean another five days+ of waiting, then we get to go through the whole thing over again with the same shipping options - I had to pass.

I fully realize and have had this happen with other shipping companies. But when I have the Portland Depo telling the DHL national folks that there is a delay due to snow, then again with a lie about how they tried to call me at a set time but the call went unanswered - as the claimed time had not occurred yet, something is broken.

What was comical is the poor national DHL rep I had to delicately put on the spot after she told me about a missed call placed to me, only to have me ask her if she knew which time zone I was in. After a moment of silence, it clicked for her - she realized the details about the call were untrue. The missed call allegedly took place ten minutes ahead of the current conversation, thanks to data from the Portland Depo.

Then the icing on the cake when my wife went to cancel the damned order. The Dell rep stated that we had to wait for DHL to send them new information on the lost notebook. Dell was claiming that more information was needed while DHL was clear in stating that everything was already sent over (DHL was right on this one). After about 25 minutes of on-hold / off hold again, Dell finally allowed the refund process to take hold.

Richard, I am thrilled to death about the efforts made by Dell on the Ubuntu front. The Linux development side of the company has my support. But you need to pass along that this crap above is what drives people like me elsewhere. Honestly, I don’t care if you use Superman to deliver the goods, just make darn sure that if you are going to limit folks to one carrier, you have a streamlined means of package replacement in place as it has been the single worst experience I have ever had. And I had some doozies with various other companies, believe me.

Would I buy a Dell with Ubuntu locally? Sure, I would support the great effort being made. Will I ever trust the mailing/exchange/loss process with Dell again? No way.

I went with a competitor, ended up with free 2nd Day UPS shipping, personal email support from someone I can reach easily and the price difference was not too bad either.

Paul - May 4, 2008 @ 8:22 am

These reflect precisely my experiences with the worst, bar none, delivery service in the country. First, despite the fact that my house number is clearly visible on a post at the street, DHL has failed to locate it. Albeit, FedEx and UPS experience absolutely no trouble. Second, DHL has delivered sensitive electronic equipment to my neighbor’s step, assuming that it was my house. Oh, forgot to mention that the delivery was made in the rain. Third, I teach at a high school where deliveries are made every day to the same location: RECEIVING. This area is open until 10 PM every night. During school hours, DHL indicated an exception claiming the business was closed. Fourth, DHL failed to deliver an important image gift from Shutterfly to a friend. To this idea, I have no clue as to the location of the package and Shutterfly was required to repeat the shipment free of charge. Boycott DHL!

Vincent - May 7, 2008 @ 3:33 pm

DHL is a JOKE!!! I sent a laptop from my San Francisco office to my Sunnyvale office and they screwed it up. These offices are roughly 40 miles apart and an admitted DHL error caused the package to be in a third Bay Area city - Dublin Ca. DHL did absolutely nothing to try and get the package delivered. They wouldn’t send a driver on the hour trip to make things right. Instead, they sat on their hands and cost my company a day of business - and they didn’t seem to care. I am in the process of taking our major account away from these clowns …….

What are your thoughts?

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