Opinions on DHL shipping

[rjh]

HomeSeer is considering using DHL for shipping. Please take a moment and take our poll. Your feedback is important to us.

[jasv]

My wife and I work...

The only issue I have with anyone outside of UPS is that they enforce the signature required which can sometimes delay my deliveries by 2-3 days or worse I have take time off work to pick up my item.

I refuse to buy from any vendor that requires a signature unless it ships via UPS. UPS knows us and drops anything off without requiring a signature.

[krmiller53]

In the past five years I have only had 3 DHL deliveries as compared to maybe fifty or sixty UPS deliveries.

The only issue I have had with DHL was about this time last year. I happened to be home and looking out the front window when the DHL truck stopped outside and the driver threw a package over the fence into the front lawn. I had sort of expected the 'door step' delivery so that was a bit of a surprise. The package wasn't harmed and luckily I was home so it didn't get watered down by the lawn sprinklers.

I have had no issues with UPS.

If possible offer a choice of the two. I would not refuse to buy something shipped DHL but would definitely choose UPS if given a choice at checkout time.

Ken

[completelyhis]

I'm actually a big fan of FedEx. They've got at least as diverse of serivce options as UPS, but usually a bit cheaper. FedEx Home delivery has delivered many things to my home on Saturday, which is nice, cause I'm not often home during the week...you can make appointment deliveries, have it delivered on a specific date, and with FedEx Express available as well, there's really no reason not to use it. Oh, and did I mention that each FedEx Ground or FedEx Home Delivery truck/van is owned by a local independant contractor? That's good for local business, unlike DHL, which I've heard is owned by a company somewhere over in Europe.

Oh, and I work for FedEx Ground (have for over a dozen years), so pardon the bias!

[yelloow7t]

HomeSeer is considering using DHL for shipping. Please take a moment and take our poll. Your feedback is important to us.

There is a DHL driver in north texas with a brand new Dell Laptop.... My package tracking stopped with "on the dock in Dallas". Dell finally had to ship anohter one, and used UPS.

[tenholde]

I recently retired as a senior officer of a fortune 150 company. One of my responsibilites was Purchasing. About 2 years ago, we competitively bid our package shipping business (we are a mail order company, and shipping is our lifeblood), eventually selecting DHL.

Many problems, as expected, in the conversion to DHL. But, 4 months later, service was still a disaster. We went through the pain and heartache again of converting to another carrier. We were VERY disatisfied with DHL.

Please be aware that this was 2 years ago. Cannot speak to there current level of service.

[nightwalker]

I haven't had major problems, but have to admit that i get much better service from UPS.

[TechnoCat]

DHL is okay. IBM ususually uses them. Never a screwed up delivery, but they're a bit insane on requiring signatures so home delivery can be a pain. FedEx is the best in my area.

UPS is incredibly dreadful - so bad I've documented it over the last six years. We have about a 30% rate of UPS simply delivering to the wrong address (both ways - our stuff goes elsewhere or someone else's shows up here), or holding it for a week or longer due to "weather" when it's clear and sunny, or in a few cases last year repeatedly losing it as it goes to the wrong nearby distribution center. Just astonishingly inept.

[jackpod]

I have only had a couple deliveries from DHL, one as recent as a week or so ago. They do not do doorstep delivery, which in my case means my package is left at my gate 200+ feet from the house. UPS and Fedex have actual route drivers who are cool enough to carry a gate code, get out of their truck, open my electric gate, drive into the property, put the package on the front porch, drive out and close the gate. The Fedex driver delivers to where I work and often will come in and put my packages on my desk if he happens to be in the area.

So the short answer is I would rather not use DHL

[HiTech]

I live in a very rural part of East Texas and I have had DHL packages transferred to the USPS, so my mail carrier delivers them to my door. On one occasion, a laptop was delivered by DHL to my driveway while we were out of town for a week. I was so lucky it was still there when we got home. The package tracking was useless and when I complained about the laptop setting outside for a week I was told they had a signature for delivery, but because we were not home I know this could not be true. I would rate FedEx and UPS about the same and highest on my list then USPS, then DHL at the bottom of the list.

[Majkman]

DHL has mis routed at least 80 percent of the shipments

DHL has mis routed at least 80 percent of the shipments that have been sent to me or my Family or Friends. REALLY. It's a 3rd world class shipping company. They have messed up things from Dell, Newegg, Medco, IBM, Microsoft, the Canadian Government (routed a package TWICE to MEXICO before someone finally figured out that it needed to go to the USA) . It has to be embarrassing to be working for them. Always an inconvenience, I hate DHL.

Use USPS click and ship,
use Fed-EX,
use UPS,
use anything but DHL. PLEASE!

[Guest]

I have had a lot of issues with DHL. Lost packages, delivering to my neighbors instead of me, showing delivered on their tracking web site hours before the package was actually delivered, failing to show up for RMA pickups, failing to get a signature on signature required packages, damaged goods, etc.

Majkam said it best, they are 3rd world class.

Alan

[TeleFragger]

im a fedex guy here.... that is all i prefer to use now...

[bdickhaus]

I am not sure you are going to get consistent results on this poll as I suspect it has a lot to do with local variations. You might want to consider giving at least two options.

Fedex is on the very top of my list. But not Fedex Ground fka RPS, they are a separate company. They have the blue/green lettering (the real Fedex is blue/orange)

DHL is a close second, and I have only had one issue with a signature because the shipper specifically chose an optional service requiring an adult signature (no idea why they did that) otherwise they deliver consistently and on time (I get overnight frozen food delivered by them regularly). That said, some places I order from have moved away from them (to either UPS or Fedex) because they were having problems on their end (I know because I asked why they stopped using them).

UPS is hit or miss and depends on the driver. By far this is where I have had the most problems with signatures being required. I have lost count of how many times I've had to drive the 30+ minutes one way to the depot to retrieve packages. They are also the worst of them all as far as crushing and shredding packages. In my area there are 4 or 5 drivers and a couple of them are great, and the rest are not so great. I rate Fedex Ground about the same as UPS. USPS is also a very good carrier, particularly if it is Priority. If I have a choice I usually pick in this order: Fedex, DHL, USPS Priority, UPS, Fedex Ground, even if the cost is a little higher.

Bill

[rjh]

Bill,

I agree. If I put the poll up and used UPS I bet I would get the same results. I have recevied calls from users who tell us UPS is totally unreliable in their area and we have had to use a different carrier. We shipped a HomeTroller to a user not long ago and the box was in pieces. It really is a local problem. We may offer both carriers for a while and see what happens. It looks like DHL might be better for International shipping, and it should be less expensive. We do receive packages from vendors who use DHL and never had a problem on the reception end.