Reply With QuotePack of bar-stewards.
I'm posting this in WT as it'll probably get seen by the most people, but I thought I'd share an experience I've had with DHL this week which will ensure I insist on a different postal service when buying in the future.
Anyway, last week I bought a watch from a collector in Sydney. I'd seen his listing on both eBay and WUS, checked his references, connected with him on LinkedIn (he's a senior manager within a large bank over there) and felt very comfortable paying up front with the promise of immediate despatch by DHL to follow. Indeed, he was as good as his word, and the watch arrived at Heathrow less than two days later.
That's when the fun started, because after another two days it hadn't gone anywhere. I began a chain of phone calls with various people, ending up with managers in both DHL's Customer Relations and Complaints departments, but nobody I spoke to was able to get my watch released; in fact, it transpired was that there was a credit stop on the company I used as a delivery address. Furthermore, I was told that it would definitely not be released until the "account holder" cleared the debt that was owed to DHL.
Now, I work at present for one of the two highest profile financial institutions in the UK, and we have about 3000 staff over here; however, we don't have an account with DHL. Luckily, I know the right people and after half a day of investigation I unearthed an invoice relating to late payment charges of £55 that had been levied against someone in our legal department. Note, this was a PERSONAL account and invoice, for which the guy concerned had used the same company name and address for delivery as I'd used.
Fortunately, he was very understanding and settled his invoice immediately after I spoke to him; within minutes my package was released, but this was after three days of angst, hours on the telephone, and an attempt to settle the invoice myself just to get the watch in my hands (that didn't work either, because it had gone legal, apparently). In any event, DHL consider that it's completely lawful to withhold a package destined for an individual, due to a debt owed by another individual, and in fact they have a policy to do just that. All it needs is for the delivery details to be the same and you're effectively stuffed.
You've been warned!
Pack of bar-stewards.
Shocking Behaviour. Fedex ftw.
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That wouldn't hold up in court. Shocking service and attitude tho'.Originally Posted by learningtofly
That is ridiculous.
Glad it got sorted out
Now, the question is -what was the watch?:-)
So does that mean if you move to an address, lets say a private residence, that had a defaulting payer in the past that you have no connection to apart from rented the same house at some point, you will not get a delivery of your goods, is that legal???
Bad experience for sure.
I've dealt with them a few times for watches in the last few months and found the service pretty decent tbh but obviously it would only take one bad experience to change it all.
I often wonder when you have to type in what is in the box and value,if you put something different to"watch" would it invalidate the insurance you had on it?
A lot of the Far Eastern sellers like Gnomon and Creation watches, both in Singapore use DHL as standard, so not sure how you would get around that if you didn't want to use them. My experiences with DHL from both these sellers has been good, although Heathrow LALA (as its known) more like LA LA land, does seem to take forever.
What a mess... witholding a delivery because of a debt owed by someone else because it just happens to be the same delivery address. I am amazed they could not resolve this without the settlement of the debt after you escalated the issue. Very poor service indeed.
Glad you got it sorted in the end. Hopefully the other big names would show a bit more common sense in this situation
Wow, that's scary! I've never liked using FedEx, DHL or UPS and prefer other carriers such as USPS for incomings because they seem to use RM or Parcelforce at this end. If you have to go to the RM depot, you will be seen quickly. This hasn't been my experience with FedEx, DHL or UPS, but Amtrak are the worst that I've dealt with since the dark days of Citylink.
What a bunch of....
Thankfully you are free of their jobsworth attitude. Something's still amaze me.
It's just a matter of time...
Thanks for sharing Tony. Nothing more stressful than the transit time of a new watch!
Just a few points worth mentioning in addition to the sorry tale above...
Firstly, this was a duty-related issue and so I suspect that the risk may only be in respect of overseas items that pass through customs. I also noted that the customs form was completed slightly differently to the address label on the package; it had the company as the recipient, followed by me as the contact (which is standard practice, I think).
Secondly, I was very lucky in that y team managed to trace the invoice; the guy concerned was willing to settle it; and it hadn't been something relating to one of the hundreds of often transient contractors that work in the building, many of whom come and go quite regularly.
What's going to really sting is getting DHL's invoice (which will probably arrive next week) for duty owed plus their handling charges
Well worth putting up on their social media pages. Got to be shamed for this scenario.
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If I was the OP I wouldn't be happy, but I can see why DHL have this policy.
This underlines the drawback in using your place of employment to accept personal deliveries; if your employer is blacklisted you' ve got a problem. That blacklisting can easily be caused (as in this case) by someone not paying his bill. I've no sympathy with folks who don't pay bills on time and in this instance that's where my anger would be directed.
It's frustrating when you end up beng penalised through no fault of your own, the guy who created the problem because he didn't pay up is to blame. DHL could've been more accomodating when the OP tried to resolve things but that's typical behaviour from a large concern where individuals have very limited scope to make decisions.
Paul
Last edited by walkerwek1958; 11th February 2017 at 12:52.
I am not at all surprised by this. It's going to be a problem with any freight forwarder or carrier.
While I'm sympathetic about what happened, from DHL's point of view they were apparently delivering to somebody who owed them money. This tactic is fairly widespread and I've had the self same shit from virtually every carrier over the years.
It can usually be overcome by not using your "works" address for delivery of personal items or by making sure your vendor has your billing address and your delivery address. It's a slight pita for the vendor as they have to fill in extra info when they ship and in some cases it can't then be done on-line.
Last edited by aldfort; 11th February 2017 at 13:30.
Can't imagine how fustrating that was and I am glad this all got resolved. Can't imagine what would of happened if your colleague had left your company. Out of interest what have you purchased?
I've heard of similar situations before and not just with DHL (Desperately, Hopelessly Lost) to be fair.
Labelling is usually the issue because, as Tony said, they had the Company as the Customer at their address with him as the contact person. Only a slight error somewhere causes massive headaches.
Moral of the story; always have it delivered to your home address if humanly possible, even if you end up having to collect it yourself from a local point.
Crikey. what would happen if the home adress is in a apartment block
Nothing, they're different addresses (and recipients).
Last edited by Kingstepper; 11th February 2017 at 13:25.
The "slight error" is usually a flag set on the system. This produces the normal "computer says no" result and there will be few people in the organisation empowered to change the default position. (We don't employ people who have common sense any more.)
This is hopefully true but not always. Flat 1a, no27 Anystreet is not the same as no27 Anystreet, Flat 1a to a computer.
A real hairpuller OP. My mate in Trumpland going through the postal dance now, bought a watch in Oz & they had it in their postal system a week before it got near a US bound plane!
For reference, I bought a watch in the US last Sunday and it was on my doormat 10am Wednesday morning!!! UPS for me for overseas stuff from now on😀
Hi Tony......hope all good with you.
Have been away working and not really active forum wise!
For me all transactions have a variable stress level....my last with DHL was a sale of my 5513
from here to Scotland.....DHL lost the package for a long weekend..thanks be the buyer was a
trusting soul. max stress and for me buying from anywhere outside the EU is a no no.
keep safe
David
Glad you got it sorted, OP.
Look at it from DHL's PoV. Two shipments to a business address distinguished only by having different recipients. They don't have an account for the business so how are they to tell that the two are unrelated?
Again from their PoV, their policy got you to sort out the bad debt for them...success!
I'm not saying it's right, but it is understandable (IMO).
I can't understand people trying to justify DHL's actions.
It is a different recipient,for God's sake.
It was addressed to the company (FAO LTF). Completely understandable assumption that it was company business.
Maybe LTF C/O the company would have been better.
Indeed - most of the large organisations that I have worked for will not permit personal items to be delivered to their premises. Partly it's because of the liability issue (what happens if an expensive watch is signed for by their mail room but then gets lost or damaged before the buyer collects it?), partly because of legal issues (what happens if an employee gets illegal items delivered to their premises?), and partly financial (what happens if - as in the above case - an employee's undischarged debt could adversely affect the organisation?)
Personally, I keep work and home as separate as possible - which includes not getting personal items delivered to work, not using my work laptop or mobile phone for personal use, etc.
Awful.
That was some investigation you managed to pull off there. Glad you reached a satisfactory conclusion
Exactly my thoughts, first the recipient, thereafter his location/address...
Ok, my apologies, I misunderstood this: -
Not withstanding this, unless there is "c/o" or suchlike present, DHL cannot know that you are (not) receiving the package for the company.
Last edited by Kingstepper; 12th February 2017 at 13:42.
My employer used to allow packages to be delivered to my workplace postal room and the messengers would then bring them to us. However, there were a few instances of stuff going missing en route after being signed for and the senior management got fed up with messengers being occupied doing unofficial business. I think there might have been potential security issues too. Therefore, we can no longer have packages delivered to work unfortunately. Nevertheless, when I was able to use this service, I only used to use my work address (in my name) for domestic packages or stuff from the EU, so there was no question of import duty, customs etc to pay.
Yes, but I was referring to the DHL form, not the sellers own declaration form.
In any event, my point is that DHL's policy is both legally and morally questionable. The fact that they can't know whether a package is a private or commercial delivery simply supports my view. Using "C/O" doesn't confirm either scenario.
I have to agree.
As far as DHL is concerned the items were both sent to a business address and both named recipients may have been acting on behalf of the business.
What's to stop unscrupulous companies just claiming the the goods are for an employee and avoiding fees in the future? From a business point of view DHL has (IMO) to assume that the goods are commercial.
Indeed, glad it worked out in the end though.
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