Why I Hate DHL

So, I have referenced my complete disgust in the shipping company DHL in past posts. I work at a cricket farm and my main job is to process the orders for shipping. I.E. I decide upon which shipper to use and what shipping method to choose (ground vs. 2nd day air). In order to get the crickets to the customer alive, they (generally) have to be delivered within 2 days of when we ship them. If out for 3 or more days, especially during the very hot or very cold seasons, the crickets will arrive D.O.A. and we will have to issue a credit or reship them.

Without going into more details than anyone wants about what makes us choose which shipper, suffice to say that when it is hot we often choose DHL because they have smaller delivery vehicles which often have climate control inside for the drivers. The UPS trucks are big and brown and not cooled or heated so we have trouble getting the crickets to customers alive (although at LEAST they get them!!). If not for this, we would probably rarely ship via DHL because their transit and delivery is so completely unreliable that we never know if the shipments are going to be delivered on time.

I have started to track every package we ship via DHL and file claims for each one that doesn't get delivered within the quoted transit time they post on their website. I do this every Monday now for the previous week, simply out of principle.

They make it a habit of denying my claims for a list of rediculous reasons. Last Friday, I had been pushed over the edge and this is the following email I wrote - which, by the way, has still not been replied to or addressed by DHL:

I have now spent close to an hour total trying to receive credit on this one shipment which was not delivered on time according to the DHL quoted transit times for this location. Additionally, my coworker spends hours checking every shipment on our bill every week because the DHL billing system is so inaccurate. When shipping a live product, we choose the shipping method based on the quoted time in transit. The DHL transit times have become so unreliable that we will soon be forced to choose our alternative shipping company for most, if not all, of our ground and second day service shipments. The fact that we have to spend considerable time bickering with DHL service employees regarding credits when DHL fails to provide the service they promise will only hasten our decision to switch carriers on a more permanent basis.

On a weekly basis we ship an average of 125 2nd day service and 125 ground service packages via DHL. I'm certain you have customers who do more business than we do and I am not dropping numbers to impress. Out of these shipments we have an average of 40 or more packages weekly which do not get delivered to our customers withing the quoted transit times for their locations. When the packages are in transit longer than the two days maximum we depend upon, our product DIES. Of these shipments we usually must reship - at our cost - the product, often using a next day service - again at our cost. We do not EVER as for reimbursement for the product or shipping materials. We understand there is a nominal risk shipping a live product and are reasonable about what we ask for as credits. If we were shipping sweaters, believe me, we would not be so concerned with receiving the service we are promised by the companies we choose to ship for us.

I find it exceptionally frustrating getting the run around by several levels of customer service representative regarding credits for service failures. Often, the fact that the shipment was delivered several day outside of the quoted transit time is completely ignored and we are given ridiculous reasons for denial such as "hazardous materials" and "excessively large dimensions". These are, once again, DHL errors. We never ship hazardous materials and the maximum dimension of any shipment which leaves our facility is 24x12x18.75 inches. The average package size is 12x12x6 inches.

Below is a copy of the latest denial request I have had forwarded back to me. PLEASE pass this along to any superior who can take care of this (these) issue(s). Our customer service representative does the best he can and is very helpful, but often finds his hands tied by the red tape and jumping through hoops required by DHL bureaucracy. I am, by no means, complaining about the service we receive from him.

While investigating this request (Service Adjustment Request: xxxxxxxxxxx, Airbill Number: xxxxxxxxxxx) please look into these other two which I am certain will have the same email sent back to me telling me to contact your department.
Service Adjustment Request: xxxxxxxxxxx, Airbill Number: xxxxxxxxxxx
Service Adjustment Request: xxxxxxxxxxx, Airbill Number: xxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your time regarding this matter.