DHL Is Decadent and Depraved

slika_dhl_packaging_2.jpgJust a quick post to inform you all to avoid DHL for international shipping, especially if they trust fly-by-night drop-off points. I’m a watch nut so I like to buy and sell watches. I was about to sell an expensive watch to a guy in England who wanted me to use DHL. I rarely use DHL — I prefer USPS for international shipping, even though they’re equally decadent and depraved here in New York — but I went along. I found a local drop-off point, Shiprite in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and dropped off the package just like I would any other package — walk in, smile, say this is for DHL, and leave. I’ve done this countless times with UPS and FedEx with no problems.

ShipRite isn’t a very fancy place — just a counter, really — but I don’t know what the hell they’re up to in there because after almost a week, the package is still missing, untraceable, and the employees there claim that the package went out on Friday while DHL thinks that it never left my hands and I spent $73 on a DHL ticket because I like paying $73 for shipping I never use. DHL is fairly common overseas but relatively new here and I think they’ve got too many bugs to work out to trust for anything of any value.

For example, I asked to be able to talk to the local DHL shipping center to perhaps talk to the driver. The customer service folks couldn’t let me do that. This small thing has saved my ass in the past with UPS and FedEx — you sort things out with people on the ground, not in a call center in Iowa. I’m still in the search process, apparently, but my search ticket has been closed and I think they’re writing this off as a “moron loses package” situation when it’s abundantly clear that either ShipRite or DHL is in the wrong — and I have little recourse with either entity.

Perhaps the folks at ShipRite ganked my stuff. Perhaps the DHL driver dropped it on his way to Dunkin’ Donuts. I don’t know, but if you ship anything, stick with companies you can trust.