This website has been created to provide information material to what can be expected if you attempt to trust DHL or a variant of its branding to ship your products or belongings. This website is not owned by or affiliated with DHL in any way, created to provide you with information that should be material to making a wise shipping decision.
Why you should never trust DHL
It is better to judge a company by how it handles problems not its successes.
Gone are the days when DHL could claim “Ain’t no mountain high enough”.. DHL demonstrate a dramatically high risk of screwing things up…. AND when things do go wrong, they’ll make the whole experience far worse.
Never forget, a good review tells you very little.
On the 03rd August 2024 Trustpilot.com reviews showed a huge 30% of reviews as being rated one star. Out of the 53% of five star reviews many of them had issues before upgrading the rating!
With ratings like this, it means that you will have slightly more than a one in three chance of experiencing problems, frustration, loss of goods, loss of personal effects and so much more, which is absolutely shocking, far worse than Evri with 12% one star ratings.
You would have better odds playing Russian Roulette.
There are of course some companies that are equally as bad as DHL but many are much better, like DPD with just 1% of one star ratings as of the 03rd August 2024 on Trustpilot.com
When a company makes mistakes and tries to cover them up or even blames you for their failings it is the last company on the planet you should use.
DHL’s default position can be discovered in THEIR terms and conditions, which they will insist that YOU should have read the BEFORE entering the contract to send the package.
In a nut shell, DHL state in their terms and conditions that if things go wrong, UNLUCKY!! You have little or no recourse subject to DHL’s terms and conditions to remedy your loss.
DHL relies on two things, that you won’t read the terms and conditions and if you do, you won’t understand them.
If you do have the time to read them and can understand them, you would never use DHL as you will see that you have little or no chance of being compensated for their failures, and remember, they are good a screwing up, certainly as of the 03th August 2024 a massive 30% chance!
DHL relies on the customer investing trust and then gambles with your patience and your good will, hoping that you do not have the tenacity, willingness and resources to fight.
DHL is a perfect example of a company that you would be wise to never trust, and for very good reasons.
When things go wrong, when you really need them to go right, and you have paid good money for the service, the last thing you need is to be kept in the dark, even lied to or even worse, blamed for the somebody else’s failures. If something goes wrong, you need proactive support by capable personnel in resolving problems, not personnel that are willing or possibly trained to evade and muddy the water, avoid responsibility, this behaviour only makes the experience far worse, much more expensive, time consuming, frustrating and down right annoying.
The experiences that have been carefully reviewed demonstrate that DHL at the very least, is utterly incompetent when things go off track.
DHL are good at screwing things up and even better at making things worse!
Things you should know before attempting to use DHL Parcels or Express or Ecommerce or any DHL branded product.
- DHL service point personal are NOT qualified to provide shipping advice other than cost.
- DHL will refer you back to their terms and conditions, knowing that you will have likely been sucked into a contract at the point of sale without being properly advised to examine the terms and conditions before paying.
- DHL points of sale do not publish anything at the point of sale that forewarns you of the trouble you might experience, trouble that they will blame on you.
- DHL will twist and turn and evade all responsibility when things go wrong, referring to their terms and conditions to hide behind, knowing that you are unlikely to take them to court.
- IF you are LUCKY you might eventually receive your parcel after things have gone wrong.
- DHL will do as little as possible to assist you within a reasonable time, they don’t care.
- DHL will pass you from pillar to post to wear you down, so don’t use DHL unless you want a one in three chance of failure!
- Be AWARE, DHL will destroy or “dispose” of your package if YOU don’t respond to them if they have failed to deliver! DHL screws up, YOU pay again!
- DON’T forget, DHL service point personal are NOT qualified to provide shipping advice other than cost, how helpful is that. IT certainly tells you a great deal about the risk you take if you gamble with DHL
You will find a DHL shipping point at RYMANS (Hardware stores). Rymans obviously believe that DHL will bring customers into their stores, adding value and profit to their brand. DON’T USE RYMANS, they clearly don’t care about how DHL might treat you, use another hardware supplier, like Wickes, Homebase or B&Q!
What proof, why should I care?
The example published here represents just one of thousands of DHL victims, just let that sink in! Just look at Trustpilot.com.
In the example provided DHL has cost the customer (to date) over £1,200 to ship a car key, and two tiny A5 documents that belong with a car in the receiving country, Spain, a car that is registered in Spain and owned by the sending customer, in Spain.
The nature of the contents of the package sent using DHL should have attracted NO customs duties or customs challenge as they are personal belongings that belong in a valueless category. DHL were fully aware of the contents, as this was properly disclosed at the point of sale, RYMANS. NO warnings were provided at the point of sale. At a later point, DHL makes it very clear that they expect the customer to know this sort of information BEFORE sending, falling back on their terms and conditions.
What DHL’s terms and conditions actually allude to is; a possibility that there can be a customs challenge, for any reason, and this can or might be the cause for an entry refusal for the package, a duty to be paid and of course a delay. DHL can and will use a customs challenge as an excuse to avoid responsibility for any delays or problems that DHL might cause through its own incompetence.
However, and this is important, when you take the care to note times and conversations, put everything in writing to DHL, at each point of the delays experiences as they happen, you will very quickly become aware that DHL are extraordinarily incompetent when it comes to the most critical part of the service you pay for, managing your package through the customs process.
To be very clear:
- DHL state that they handle your parcel from end to end, no third party involvement.
- DHL avoid, properly and clearly informing a customer that when shipping overseas (in this case) there might be an issue. Discovery shows a huge amount of issues occur!
- DHL are entirely responsible for extracting important information from a customer that might affect transition of a package through a country’s customs process, nobody else. The customer pays for this service.
- When the customs challenge a package contents, DHL has the information immediately to hand if they have done their job properly.
- Only DHL can attend to these issues, not the customer, the customer has paid DHL to do this for them.
- DHL have a duty to remedy any issues as swiftly and effectively as possible, there is nothing in the contract, the DHL terms and conditions that excempts them from acting reasonably.
DO NOT LET DHL PULL THE WOOL OVER YOUR EYES, FIGHT!
It is very important to note, DHL sell you a service from A to B claiming they control the whole process, ie no other contractors involved, just DHL, but omit to tell you that if things go wrong with customs, which is between A and B it’s not their problem.
The first thing you’ll know when things have gone wrong will be an email that in effect threatens to destroy your package if you don’t do as they ask, in a very short time frame, and this warning will be the first you hear from DHL usually days beyond the implied delivery date provided at the service point.
BE WARNED, Never use DHL unless you are happy to take a one in three chance of failure, especially after reading how onerous their terms and conditions are.
This website cites a case that has been very well documented, it demonstrates that DHL will twist and turn, in multiple directions, knowing that the delays in this case are entirely down to internal failures.
The customer when aware of an apparent problem, reacted within ten minutes.
The customer very quickly realised that the delay revolved around a combination of DHL’s internal failures, its general lack of care, it’s lack of capacity and interest in honouring the contract and very likely the necessary skills to actually fulfil the contract and deliver.
This website provides evidence from an event that took place in June 2024, it will be updated with other examples of the disgraceful service DHL provides when things go wrong.
In a nutshell, Case 1.
On the 07th June 2024, the customer, needing to urgently get a very small package from the UK to Spain made the grave error by choosing Rymans/DHL shipping point to send the package.
The package contained a car key and two very specific car identity documents, all pertinent to one vehicle, registered in Spain, and owned by the DHL customer. The package was being sent to a receiver in Spain, a car parking facility, who had been requested and instructed to carry out work to have the car ready for use on arrival in Spain. This shipment was contracted with a good deal of time leeway to allow for any difficulties in getting the car ready for the road.
After four days and the package having not arrived with the receiver, the customer was advised by DHL that there were difficulties in completing the delivery, claiming there were issues with the receivers contact details and there was a customs challenge needing to be addressed before delivery could be made.
To be clear; the receivers details in Spain had been correctly supplied to DHL and were immediately checked by the customer having been alerted by DHL of an apparent problem. It was a blatant lie to state that contact could not be achieved.
On day FOUR, within TEN minutes of receiving the DHL email, the customer responded, providing additional contact information.
The reader should be aware that the first email from DHL contained a “Threat” that the package and contents would be destroyed if there was no response to the email within (7) Seven days. The email also offered to return the package. The important point here is; had the customer not had access to email for any reason, and not responded within DHL’s really narrow window of demand, the package would have been lost forever!
The receiver in Spain, within just a few hours of the first email from DHL on day FOUR, confirmed that DHL – Spain had made contact. DHL Spain were claiming that Spanish customs were demanding €150.00 for customs duties before the package could be released, along with a description of the contents.
At this point, it was clear that DHL, both UK and Spain were not supplying the contracted service.