DHL shipping... your thoughts???

[pixelmonkey]

what are your thoughts and/or experinces with DHL shipping company?


i dont think too highly of them at the moment
chris<pixelmonkey>

[ConanLloyd]

T-mobile shiped my phones out through DHL.  The thing I found slightly screwy was that the post office actually does the home delivery!  DHL takes it to your local post office and lets them do the rest.

[scratch]

Shipping business-to-business is okay.

In my opinion, it is safer to have things sent to your work, because that is where you are during the peak delivery work hours. I always tell my fellow employees to have their stuff sent here (I'm at work), that way the package wont be left on their porch for somebody else to swipe.

[dgyver]

They SUCK!

They left a hand written note on a tornoff piece of paper on my door wanting me to sign it so they could leave a package. F them!

[chinox22x]

DHL - formerly airborne express in case u guys didn't know


as with any shipping company,  service more or less depends on the driver.  there's just some drivers out there that don't give a damn if you get your package or not or if its stolen out of you front door.  this applies to ups and fedex as well.

[Dom]

In my opinion, it is safer to have things sent to your work.

Ditto.  I have all of my mail sent to my work, my bank accounts have my work address(helps with Pay Pal verification so I can get packages sent to my work) and my license even has my work address on the front.  

[dgyver]

They must hire all the stupid driver then. I have seen this same question asked on other boards about DHL service. The comments are the same, nothing good about them.

I will never ship through them.

[JetSwing]

DHL - formerly airborne express in case u guys didn't know

actually, dhl and airbourne express had merged along with a few other companies

[callmelenny]

Funny you should ask about DHL.

I was home during the day last Friday and the DHL man delivered my new computer router. I just happened to be looking out the window as he walked up and tossed the package the last 10 feet to my door. It banked off the door and thudded to the porch. :x

I quickly opened the door and he turned with a surprise look on his face, I just said thank you with a funny a look. I had this flash of saying something more but then I imagined him dealing with my future packages.

That may just represent the driver not the company. My brother used to work for UPS loading trucks and he used to tell me some scary stories about contests they had while loading.

[mrblink]

We live on the 3rd floor in our apt complex.  Our USPS guy musy be pissed when we have packages bigger than our tiny ass mail box.  He walks up about halfway on the last flight of stairs, and hucks our packages over the railing.  He also stuffs boxes in our mailbox that are way too big, and I have to cut them out sometimes.  Oh, and my girlfriend orders comics and other collectables that come with DO NOT BEND written all over them, and he folds them in half.  What an asswipe.

[Dom]

Mr. Blink,

If I were you I would buy an lockable wallmount mailbox.  They come big enough to fit a comic book and you could bolt it to the door right over the mail slot.  Check 'em out.

[mrblink]

Thanks for the suggestion, but that wouldn't work in our apartment complex for a few reasons.  1) We can't mount stuff like that, 2) our mailbox is way far from our apartment, and the dude ruins stuff in our mailbox, not at the front door (throwing our boxes hasn't broken anything yet), 3) I doubt the bastard would use it anyway, and 4) we're moving to New Jersey in about a month....

[scratch]

DHL/AEI bought Airborne. Both DHL and UPS are union, so the drivers don't have to care about the service they give, because the union will save them from losing their job. FedEx is not unionized. I beleive USPS is union.

[Gofer]

DHL is one company I hope never to do business with again.

Got the tracking number for the package, went to the website and checked--said it was in town. Didn't arrive that day. Didn't arrive the next. Called the local "delivery hub"(aka--Office Max) and they said it was on their truck. Same the next day. And the next. Finally just told the buggers to take it off the bloody truck and we'd come pick it up ourselves. In light traffic, it's less than 5 minutes from Office Max to my house; in heavy traffic, perhaps 20. Lazy sods.

Moral of the story: DHL sucks!

[stevemac12073]

IMO they suck big time. The idiots lost my helmet that I ordered from a company. What complete morons. Luckily the place I bought it from was kind enough to send a replacement. DHL SUCKS! How hard is it to deliver freaking packages.  :guns:

[nathanael]

DHL/AEI bought Airborne. Both DHL and UPS are union, so the drivers don't have to care about the service they give, because the union will save them from losing their job. FedEx is not unionized. I beleive USPS is union.
_________________

Well, in a sense you're right here. DHL itself is unionized, however, they subcontract out many of their stations to local delivery companies that are not unionized. So many, many of their drivers are working without a union and the pressure to deliver packages fast/on time is very, very stressful. If you deliver stuff late you WILL get fired. Because of this, the drivers often drive like crap/throw stuff at the door/don't get signatures, etc...  The problem is that a lot of the subcontracted companies are very low quality and will push the drivers to do more work than is possible (or at least safely possible).  This policy of subcontracting is very lucrative for DHL because then they can hand off a lot of costs onto the contractor (for example, the contractor must provide the trucks, service the trucks, hire the drivers, and then pay any benefits to the drivers, of which there usually are none.)  Plus, DHL can say that they're "unionized", which is somewhat of a lie.  Believe me, if all of the drivers were unionized the customers would receive much better service because they could negotiate a contract that doesn't involve delivering 200 packages in two hours.

I don't mean for this to be a union/anti-union debate. I'm just pointing out that in many cases it is not the driver's fault about poor service. It is a systemic and large-scale problem. I'm not saying there aren't drivers who just don't care, of course there are, but most of them are just trying to figure out how to deliver all their packages on time and not get fired.

I worked as a driver for Airborne/DHL for years. I always tried to provide the best service possible, and enjoyed a lot of the job. However, sometimes I would have to drive mach 3 and break the rules in order to get all my packages delivered. It was either that or my job. All the drivers did it, and it was not a good choice to have to make. I even wrecked my truck once because I was driving too fast trying to get a package delivered with one minute to spare. Even if the package is ONE MINUTE LATE, you WILL get talked to. Eventually you will get fired. I just think a lot of people don't understand the pressure that delivery drivers are put through. This goes for FedEx/UPS too. And yes, UPS is unionized, FedEx isn't. I'm just as unhappy as the next person when my packages arrive damaged/late/poor service/etc. But I will never blame the driver. I know what it's like.

[Rema1000]

So if you get UPS ground, or somesuch, does that take the pressure of the delivery guy, enough so that they don't feel the need to use the attic launcher to send the package that last 100 yards?  I mean, what does "1 minute late" really mean when they have a 5-day window to deliver the package?