Wrong DHL Delivery

Guys,

A “big Time” delivery service called DHL went to the wrong address
with $6,000 in diamond, the package was going to a jewelry store,
instead the driver went to a gas station. The driver dropped off the
package and left. When this mistake was discovered, the gas station
employees said they threw the package away.

There is more to this, but now I wouldn’t trust DHL, they did pay the
jewelry store for the “lost” diamonds, but this should have never
have happened.

Jerry

the part-time Fed Ex driver has been leaving my packages at the door
step on signing or anything sometime during the day a customer would
tell me about it I retrieve it so for nothing lost I complained to
the regular driver and said she would speak to the relief person
we’ll see

Don in Idaho

It happens… happened to me about 8 years back. At the time I was
receiving packages addressed to B. P. Marshall Studios. Across the
street was a BP gas station. The temporary driver delivered it there.
Someone signed for it.

As this was around XMas time, I wasn’t paying attention until the
client called to set an appointment to look at the diamond. I called
the supplier to ask where the stone was - and the supplier said
someone signed for it. We both called the Sheriffs Dept.

Turned out the owner of the BP station (who knew me personally - and
knew what I did for a living) had opened the package. It contained a
memo made out to me with my address on it.

He decided to keep it anyway. Took it home. The Sheriffs recovered
it from him. I thought that the diamond dealer should have prosecuted
him, after all the stone was worth $12,000… That puts it in the
grand theft category. They chose not to. By taking it home (to
another city) he was obviously attempting to steal it.

Even though the stone was recovered - I did lose the sale, because
by then client had found another stone. Could have been worse, I
suppose…

Brian

In my area we like to call DHL “Don’t Have Location”, because they
never seem to be able to find our rural addresses. I reported DHL to
my postmaster last year when they “delivered” a package to my US Mail
box on the road instead of driving in my driveway to deliver it to my
house. When I called DHL themselves to complain about this, the
service rep said that perhaps a neighbor had put the package in my
mailbox because they had wrongly received it. Some excuse, huh? My
postmaster said that she had been getting other complaints about
this, and it seemed like the delivery driver was just lazy and stuck
the packages (illegally!) in residents’ mail boxes instead of
actually delivering them.

M’lou Brubaker, Jeweler
Goodland, MN

In my area we like to call DHL "Don't Have Location", because they
never seem to be able to find our rural addresses. I reported DHL
to my postmaster last year when they "delivered" a package to my
US Mail 

Thanks for the morning chuckle. I have the same running battle with
UPS. They have stuck high dollar gem orders in my mail box that had
“Call before delivery” written all over the box. The only service
that will brave my 1.5 mile driveway is FedX. I wonder if all of us
that live in rural places have this problem. What really ticks me
off is the companies that will only ship by said carrier. I have a
PO Box that I prefer to have orders come to. Getting some companies
to use the mail instead of UPS is like asking for their first born
child. However I would not trade my rural mountain location for
anything.

Elrond

The worse case I heard of had not to do with jewelry, but with an
international shipment for a publishing company going from Norway to
Lisben, Portugal. The company I was working for had decided to print
a book outside the country for the first time. This was back when
they still had to have everything converted to special films for
printing, something which costs quite a bit. Anyway, they sent all
the files and films via DHL to Portugal, or so they thought. When
they didn’t arrive in Portugal, they contacted DHL, where they found
that DHL would only cover aproximately $100 of the parcel’s much
higher value. They eventually found that instead of Lisben, they had
gone to Lagos, Nigeria, where customs didn’t want to release them.
When they finally released them, they ended up in Brussels where
customs wanted a huge sum there to send them on to Portugal. It did
eventually get to the printers, but not without sereious hassle and
delays! Just imagine if it had been gems or jewelry…it never would
have gotten out of Nigeria!

Jeanne
www.jeannius.com
www.rhodes-moen.com

Hello,

UPS does the “drop-by” thing in urban areas, too. We live in
inner-city San Antonio, and the UPS guy will ring the doorbell, yell
"UPS" and then he runs (I guess) back to his truck. Meanwhile, I’m
running just as quickly from my studio at the back of our house -
leaping with my huge pregnant belly over the baby gate, and to the
front door, and he’s already gone. It’s like getting pranked. Our
house is only 900 square feet, so it’s not like there’s a huge wait
for me to arrive at the door, even with cat obstacles. Once I was
even by the front door, and he was gone - I guess he vaporized.

I just make sure I’m home when the package is expected - the
tracking number makes this easy to pin-point. Short of lying in wait
on the porch, I don’t think I’ll ever lay eyes on the man.

Best wishes,
Susannah

Here is a DHL story that will make you feel good about them and the
bank:

  ABN Amro loses tape with data on 2 million mortgage customers;
  claims no customer identities compromised 
  http://www.crainsdetroit.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=7556

A friend who is into stamp collecting told me to send things U.S.
Mail within the states, via registered mail, signature required and
insured. He has never had a problem with USPS doing this.

Jerry

Short of lying in wait on the porch, I don't think I'll ever lay
eyes on the man. 

Just for the sake of balance, I will mention that I had a friend who
worked for UPS a few years ago (now dead from AIDS, rest his soul)
and the schedule he was given made it an absolute necessity to run
whenever he left the truck, in order to have any hope of completing
his deliveries on time and keeping his job. He was also classed as
part-time and couldn’t get his status changed, even when he was
working more than 40 hours a week, since then he’d have gotten
benefits.

You know, it is an old saying that the communist system is based on
man’s exploitation of man, but capitolism is just the opposite.

Noel

Noel,

I like your communism/capitalism comparison, I heard that before. I
have never had any problem with UPS and generally give my route
driver a Christmas gift.

Currently I have a small package, very high end electronics, $8,000
in value about the size of a pager. It died and the manufacture sent
a replacement, and wants this one back. The over nighted the
replacement to me via UPS, the want DHL to pick it up. DHL never
showed up. I did report this to the manufacture.

Jerry

A friend who is into stamp collecting told me to send things U.S.
Mail within the states, via registered mail, signature required and
insured. He has never had a problem with USPS doing this. 

Yikes, I have had a few issues with US mail- registered… insured,
etc…

The packages arrived oh about 30-40 days late, opened, some contents
removed, resealed and then delivered! My customer had to file
lengthly claims with the post office so I could get paid for the lost
merchandise. It was a hassle, but thank God, I did eventually get
paid!

The area of Northern California where I spend my summers uses
contract delivery for USPS. This means [according to the local
postmaster] that the postal service doesn’t control what they do. Our
mailman will not hand deliver a package even though there is a person
sitting in a booth [it’s a resort] not 100 ft away. He either leaves
a slip, which means a 40 mile round trip to pick it up. OR he drops
it on the ground at the base of the mailbox…this on a main highway.

I just bless the pionted little head of my UPS driver every time he
comes!

Reva

Yikes, I have had a few issues with US mail- registered...
insured, etc.... The packages arrived oh about 30-40 days late,
opened, some contents removed, resealed and then delivered!

I have used registered insured USPS for over 20 years for jewelry
and no problems. It is signed for each step of the way by each
carrier.

I have used registered insured USPS for over 20 years for jewelry
and no problems. It is signed for each step of the way by each
carrier. 

After I posted the above, I realized that what we should base our
decision on is the comparision of which service has the best record
of complaints related to successful deliveries. Every service will
have problems, so with which one will you have the best chance of
success? It seems that the people who are having the most trouble are
not at a business address and where you are located presents some
difficulty in being available to a driver. Perhaps the people having
problems with home delivery need to have their package dropped off at
a business where someone is there all day during normal business
times, and you go and pick it up, and that is the price you pay for
being harder to find by delivery services. The service with the most
rules and regulations, USPS registered insu red, might be the safest
overall under normal circumstances, business to business.

Richard,

I have used registered insured USPS for over 20 years for jewelry
and no problems. It is signed for each step of the way by each
carrier. 

I realized that all of my problem USPS has been to Hawaii… one
post office in particular! It’s probably a small group of people (or
one individual) at this branch. I usually use UPS everywhere else and
I almost exclusively send to businesses. Haven’t had one snafoo with
UPS, but am looking at about a 20% failure rate with USPS.

Let me ask… are you identifying that it’s jewelry you’re sending
on the outside of the USPS package? I started to think that maybe
the high insurance rate on the USPS package was tipping them off.
Anything special you do in terms of labeling/packing that you think
works?

Thanks so much!
Amery

Avery,

Let me ask.... are you identifying that it's jewelry you're
sending on the outside of the USPS package? I started to think that
maybe the high insurance rate on the USPS package was tipping them
off. Anything special you do in terms of labeling/packing that you
think works?

Any package that we send out, instead of Jewelers Gallery, the name
of our business, I just use initials JG. Most businesses we send to
do not specifically contain info as to what they do, but some do. What
is really interesting, in the number of businesses that will memo
gems or diamonds, and use Fed Ex with no insurance. We have not had
a package go missing, and I don’t know what other business’s
experience as far as loss. My wife regularly gets a Fed Ex package
from different companies with thousands of dollars worth of sterling
jewelry, a pick box that she selects what she wants and sends the
rest back, no losses so far, and she has been doing it for years. Have
you spoken to the postmaster at that post office? Or yours? It must
be frustrating for you and I am sorry you have to go through that.

Richard Hart

are you identifying that it's jewelry you're sending on the outside
of the USPS package? I started to think that maybe the high
insurance rate on the USPS package was tipping them off. 

I thought it might be useful to pass on a solution I picked up at a
seminar. I use the idea myself, though not in as organized a way as
I should…

If you keep track of what it costs to insure shipments, how often
there are losses and how great the losses are, you can figure out
what you are actually paying to insure. It may be worthwhile to
“self-insure” on most shipments. Put the money you would normally
pay for insurance in a special account. Pay for any losses out of
this account. If your original calculation showed you would come out
ahead, chances are this will save you money. Really large-value
shipments should probably be an exception to this, especially before
you’ve built up value in your “insurance account”.

This notion came from a business seminar with Barbara Heinrich. If
the idea helps you, credit her. If I screwed up the details in any
way-- my fault. She is very organized and business-like about her
business (unlike me), and very generously shared many ideas,
customs, and business forms with the Chicago Metal Arts Guild.

Noel