DHL Spoils My Christmas Efforts

Ok – I am about to vent out my frustration at DHL. Here goes.

I just spent my first Christmas in Malaysia away from my family in France. Christmas is very meaningful to us and though I was not able to be there with my parents and three sisters physically, I still wanted to share it with them. I sent gifts from Malaysia hoping they would arrive safely and just in time for Christmas as a nice surprise. For those reasons, I went to DHL.

This is the first paragraph of a letter I sent to DHL on the 29th of December. The rest of the email and story is hereafter:

Dear Sir or Madam;

Unfortunately, despite the DHL promise, it is now 5 days after Christmas and my gifts have still not arrived at their destination and your customer service has not at all been helpful or empathetic to my case. I am writing you this letter because you are a brand that promises “fast and reliable services that exceed customers’ expectations” and I hope that you will promise to do so for me.

I went to the DHL office in Bangsar on the morning of December 22nd to mail the following gifts:

- One Royal Selangor wine stopper and one Japanese bobble-head figurine (called “Nohohon”) for my parents
- Three Thomas Sabo charms for my three sisters
- Five homemade Christmas cards.

Your customer service representative went through the contents of my shipment in detail, agreed to send it in a 1kg shipment to France and said it would arrive at its destination within two days, on the 24th. He did not contest my shipment or highlight any issues. He charged me a sum of MYR 443, including insurance for security, and I was given receipt number 3301773661. I went home thinking all was well and that my family would receive their gifts on time.

I tracked the shipment’s progress, first successfully through Singapore and then through parts of Europe, but on the afternoon of the 24th discovered to my dismay there was a clearing delay in Lyon. This remained the case from the 25th through the 28th. I tried calling the Lyon offices twice but no one responded.

It was only this evening, December 29th that I received a call. But, it was not from DHL Lyon, it was from my parents. They were contacted by Ms. P. (let’s be nice and not go personal…) from DHL Lyon saying they were still trying to clear the shipment and that they needed to know the shipment content in order for my gifts to clear customs. I was a) surprised they did not know the content despite my registering it in Bangsar b) took five days to react to this delay and c) contacted my parents before me, the sender.

Still, I emailed Ms. P. the content details; but and again to my dismay, was informed DHL could not process customs because the three Thomas Sabo charms were considered “Jewellery” which in France is subject to customs. What is upsetting is that no one up to this point – one week after my first transaction with DHL in Bangsar – alerted me until it was too late. To make matters even worse, Ms. P. said I had to arrange for customs on my own and at my own charge to sort the matter out. She also advised me to contact DHL Malaysia to report this incident.

My gifts are now five days late, still “delayed” in Lyon and it is now my family who has to arrange for customs themselves – not the nicest Christmas surprise.

Please sort out this problem ASAP.

After a few email back and forth with DHL Malaysia, they informed me they were not able to help further, hoping I would understand “this situation”, and advised me and my family to arrange for custom in France ASAP. With no other option, my parents did arrange to get everything sorted by the 31st – fortunately they managed to get someone helpful on the line instead of Ms. P.. They received it in the evening, after paying Euro 50 for the customs + some DHL charges apparently (not sure on the last part).

At least they finally had their Xmas gifts in hand !

On the second of January I received a call from DHL Malaysia informing me they were still trying to sort the situation out. Apparently DHL France had not scanned the shipment properly, so they did not know it was delivered… I informed them.

This afternoon, I received another call from DHL informing me the shipment was delivered (thanks!) and should I wish to pursue with my complaint I was to send them another email. I will not. If they don’t get the message by now, I won’t lose my time with them. I have to recognize though, they do follow up. Unfortunately it is not the kind of follow up / service I was signing for…

One thing’s for sure. They won’t see much business from me in the future !