I have recently had a bad experience with DHL and have just received a call from their customer service centre, but it seemed like all the blame has been shifted to me for their staff not being efficient, and I just feel helpless. Is their anything I can do? Even if it is just making my situation public?
Let me explain what has happened, my husband wass stranded in Spain due to some complications with his passport and had a meeting at the UK Consulate in Madrid on Thursday 3 weeks ago, so on the Monday prior I had to urgently send him all the documents he needed for this appointment and was assured by DHL that they would be with him by Wednesday, as he had to travel from Malaga to Madrid that evening, in order to be ready for his appointment at the Consulate first thing in the morning. All went well, the documents were collected promptly from my house on Monday. I handed him my envelope which had the address clearly written on and the contact number in Spain just below the address, also very clearly written. As soon as I handed it to the chap he immediately began filling in the Shipment Waybill, quickly made me sign on the line and off he went. All happened very quickly as I could tell he was in a rush to get to the next collection.
We then began following the progress of the documents online, and all was going well, until suddenly on Wednesday afternoon we noticed online that it said that the delivery was on hold. With my heart racing, due to the importance of the documents being delivered, I quickly phoned DHL in the UK and wanted to know why they were on hold, and the lady quite simply told me that there was a problem with the address, so I asked her why had they not contacted my husband on the telephone no. supplied on the envelope, and she told me that I had not written any number on the envelope, I mentioned that I was 100% sure that I had written it on there, but she quite abruptly insisted that she could see the scanned copy of the envelope and that I definately had not written it on there, she really made me feel like a bit of an idiot when I knew that I was right. It is a pity that I did not get her name, but I was in such a state, as should my husband not have received the documents that day, he would have missed his appointment at the Consulate and the next available one would only be on the 5th of October, he is the main breadwinner at home and he has two small kids.
Anyway the lady told me that the only thing that could be done down was for my husband to phone DHL in Malaga, Spain and talk to them directly, which he did and was told that there was nothing more that could be done that day, and that he could either collect it in person or it would have to wait till the next day, which the next day was not an option for us. So in a panic my husband had to catch a taxi and do the one and a half hour trip to the other side of Malaga to collect the documents. So on top of paying almost £90 pounds for the delivery of the documents he still had to fork out the costly sum of the taxi to and from DHL Malaga.
It turns out that the chap who picked up my envelope of documents, then must have put it in a DHL envelope and failed to put the house no. and the contact telephone no. on the Waybill, when i had so clearly written it on the envelope so that there would be no complications. And obviously the lady on the phone that I called could see the drivers scanned copy on her screen, and not what I had written, and she would not believe me that I had written the correct info. The driver filled in the Waybill so quickly, pointed to where i must sign and went off really quickly. DHL's drivers should be told that they must assure themselves that they write down the correct information, as they are messing with people's lives when they dont do their work properly or give the Waybill to the customer to complete.
Let me tell you that we had been going through the worst time of our lives,as our lives have suddenly been turned upside down with this problem with my husband's passport, and with two young kids, it has been absolutely nerve-racking, and the last thing we needed was to have to deal with this mountain of extra stress due to the inefficiency of DHL staff. The emotions that we went through on that day, because that would have messed everything up for us, and my kids would have had to be without their father for a much longer time. Words can not express the panic we endured. I wrote to DHL and have now received a call from their Customer Service Dept. wanting to know, after paying what to me is a lot of money, for the parcel to be delivered, who compensates us for the taxi there and back that we had to pay due to DHL's error, and not just that , who compensates us for the worry, stress and panic that we had to suffer. The lady from DHL has just said to me no that all she can do is apologise but that it was my fault for signing the waybill and not checking all the info, even though I had provided the correct info. on my envelope. I feel so angry that they are not even concerned about their driver's inefficiency.
Normally I would let things pass, but on this occassion and because it put my family in danger there is absolutely no way I will let this pass and if I can I will take it further, which is where I need your advice. I always thought that DHL was a delivery company above the rest, well my thoughts have very quickly changed.
Looking forward to your thoughts,
Regards,
Maria Sendra-Garcia
30 Springfield Close
Crowborough
East Sussex
TN6 2BN
Tel: 01892 661032