Just ordered some blanks from CA to be shipped to the east coast via DHL. The box of blanks made it from Ca to a DHL hub in Ohio and were then mistakenly shipped back to the blank company. I called DHL when I noticed what was happening on their tracking program and it took 2-3 hours for them to figure out there was a problem. In the mean time the box arrived at the blank company and they subsequently repacked it (it had been poorly handled) and sent it out by another carrier. I received a call from DHL this morning and they were going to set up a pickup for the box. I told them they had their chance and blew it. Is this incident a rarity with DHL or should they be avoided.
They all have that. Sometimes you get rain with typhoons, lighting, tornado, hail, but mainly you get sunshine.
At my work, we tried to get Fed Ex to change an address after no delivery, and it was waiting in the receiving station 2 miles from the correct address . . . but they lady kept saying something about adult signature lock and effin wouldn’t re enter to resend. She said the package was being returned to sender and we would have to resend it.
Can we say paying 2x? NOthing doing but hey gotta pay to play I guess.
Good thing it wasn’t critical . . .
Brown, well its brown because sometimes you get shit stains. my friend sent a package to me, and it was lost. After filling out 30 forms for insurance claim, 2 months later, we call back with the ref number, nothing exits. We have the paperwork, so bring it the Brown station and they say we have to re file and fill out 30 new forms. So I fill it out again. Same thing happend, when I check 6 weeks later. By then my friend and I had already replaced the goods . . . .
about DHL i have tried them 1 time to ship surfboards and they lost them and then sent me a credit, then when i used the credit they tried to charge me and sent that to small claims.
As I mentioned earlier DHL returned the blanks to the blank company (Marko). This was Friday 2/23. Marko repacked them and sent them out that afternoon by Estes Freight. They were in my hands on the following Thursday. Less than 5 work days and in great shape! Estes also e-mails the progress of the shipment and it was very timely.
DHL managed to muck up about one of every 2 to 3 shipments. They were our exclusive carrier for blank orders under 5 blanks for over a year and we finally bagged them completely because the time dealing with problems did not justify their lower rates. As far as I am concerned, going DHL is just asking for trouble. I will say, they were good about working out the problems but you could spend an hour on the phone, fax, email, etc to work it out. Not a good deal. Order 10 blanks and get them on a semi.
Just ordered some blanks from CA to be shipped to the east coast via DHL. The box of blanks made it from Ca to a DHL hub in Ohio and were then mistakenly shipped back to the blank company. I called DHL when I noticed what was happening on their tracking program and it took 2-3 hours for them to figure out there was a problem. In the mean time the box arrived at the blank company and they subsequently repacked it (it had been poorly handled) and sent it out by another carrier. I received a call from DHL this morning and they were going to set up a pickup for the box. I told them they had their chance and blew it. Is this incident a rarity with DHL or should they be avoided.
Dave_D
I used to use them for shipping boards. They lose or damage almost everything they touch and their billing is never correct. One of their issues…is they have a shipping hub in Ohio that everything must pass through before it goes anywhere else. Imagine the cluster f…
UPS and Fed ex are best…Fex ex is getting pretty crappy as well.
Just ordered some blanks from CA to be shipped to the east coast via DHL. The box of blanks made it from Ca to a DHL hub in Ohio and were then mistakenly shipped back to the blank company. I called DHL when I noticed what was happening on their tracking program and it took 2-3 hours for them to figure out there was a problem. In the mean time the box arrived at the blank company and they subsequently repacked it (it had been poorly handled) and sent it out by another carrier. I received a call from DHL this morning and they were going to set up a pickup for the box. I told them they had their chance and blew it. Is this incident a rarity with DHL or should they be avoided.
Dave_D
One of the hats I wear at my day job is responsibility for computer specification and procurement, so I have a lot of exposure to shipping issues (~70 locations, ~1000 computers refreshed every 3 years). While all of the major carriers will drop the ball from time to time, and results may vary from one location to another, my experience is that DHL/Airborne is by far the worst of the three major ship-on-demand companies in the continental US (the others being UPS and FedEx). Their real saving grace is that they are somewhat cheaper. Dell used them extensively for about two years, but now seems to be moving away from them. My guess is that would be based on customer complaints. My preference would be either UPS or FedEx with the choice based on rates and pick-up times. You also might want to check into Eagle. Their on-line tracking is not up to the standards set by the others (particularly re delivery confirmation, but they do seem to be reliable, and if Dell is using them I assure you the price is right. If you want the url, PM me - there are a lot of “Eagles” in the freight business, and I’ll need to find the site by looking up some actual computer deliveries starting at my Dell intranet site.
Hmmm… The “Eagle” to which I referred turns out to be EagleGL (NASDAQ “EAGL”), a logistics management company (http://www.eaglegl.com/portal/page/portal/EGLHome) Not sure that they accept individual pkg shipments, although it looks like a blank company with a regular and predictable shipping schedule might want to check them out…
Hey Dave,
We are Doing some test runs with Marko Foam. After the 2011 Surf Expo we will be stocking blanks In our East Coast warehouse in Maryland. We can ship to you and have it land to your door in 1 to 2 days regular ground. Shipping will run around $120 for up to 18 blanks or so.
If you have any interest check us out at www.coastalsurfsupplies.com hopefully we can help solve that headache. Call me if you have any questions 1-888-569-7038
Thanks
Spike