Timing is everything. Thursday I joined the people bitching about DHL and Friday I came home to find a letter responding to my November 17 complaint.It’s long and wordy, but Deborah Laehu, Customer Relations Specialist says she is “deeply disturbed” by the company’s failure to perform as expected. She says Executive Management in the Norwalk, CT facility has been advised and an investigation will be conducted. She adds “The results will determine the level of disciplinary action needed and what additional training these employees need” blah, blah, blah.But what about DHL’s role in our not receiving play tickets in a timely manner? Since the fault is clearly their’s and not American Express’s, how will they make good to the customer?They won’t.“DHL only considers compensation for actual loss or damage of the goods in the shipment.” So, since they didn’t lose or damage the tickets, just merely screwed up in their timely delivery, they feel they’re off the hook.There’s no effort here to make the consumer feel their business is desired. Additionally, it wouldn’t have taken much to provide us with some tangible evidence they want us back. Instead, I should take comfort in knowing their minimum wage driver will be better trained the next time.Of course, given a choice, there won’t be a next time.
Small claims court?
“DHL only considers compensation for actual loss or damage of the goods in the shipment.” So, since they didn’t lose or damage the tickets, just merely screwed up in their timely delivery, they feel they’re off the hook.
I say they did damage the tickets. When AmEx entrusted the package to them, the tickets were valuable and useful. They became valueless and worthless as a direct consequence of DHL’s failure to deliver them as they had been contracted to.
The only reason companies like DHL exist is because business needed something more reliable than the US Postal Service. Apparently, DHL isn’t even concerned about reaching that level of service.
Umm, Bill, speaking as an employee of the USPS, WE have a service (called Express Mail) which compensates for late delivery. If AmEx had sent the tickets with via regular Express Mail service, and the tickets were not received by 3PM on the second delivery day, the USPS is required to REFUND the cost of delivery (I don’t deal with Express Mail myself but I believe regular Express postage would be around $15 for a pair of tickets). Also, the USPS offers a nominal amount of Insurance at little-to-no charge (I believe up to $100 can be “bought” with no charge, though some paperwork is involved regardless of the insurance amount).For the record, also, Express Mail can be delivered ANY day of the year (including Christmas Day) in most cities. I don’t believe any of the private delivery services offer that level of service.
The service couriers deliver seems to vary widely. I see horror stories all the time on the car boards I frequent about shipments going missing, being delivered to the wrong address and then returned to the sender, or showing up damaged or destroyed (example: previously-mint-condition plastic ’71 Barracuda grille shows up broken, with forklift tire tracks on the box. Scratch one $1500 non-reproduced part. Carrier says “How do we know it wasn’t broken before we got it?”).I do like the idea that tickets that arrive after the event date are rendered worthless (or “damaged”) by the actions of the carrier. That’s worth pursuing.