Dell of course shipped the laptop via DHL — to turned a one day drive from Nashville to Louisville into a week-long oddessy while they bounced my laptop around two different facilities in Ohio and faked an “attempted delivery” before I finally got my laptop.

After I complained loudly to both DHL and Dell, I received both email and telephone assurances from Dell that I could get future orders without having them shipped via DHL.

In May, I ordered another Dell laptop and a mouse. Dell decided they would ship the mouse separately, with a projected ship date more than a week earlier than the laptop.

The ship date for the mouse came — and Dell “delayed” the shipment giving a new projected ship date a week later (but still earlier than the laptop).

Today I checked the status on line and it said the order was “changed” (with no explanation of what was changed). The website gave a 800 number to call to find out what “changed” so I called the number. After wading through several layers of voice prompt menus I finally got someone in customer service (obviously overseas despite a fake American name) who first told me that the order was cancelled, not changed. Then told me that orders are never cancelled without notifying the customer; but that her system showed that my order was cancelled and did not show anything about anyone attempting to contact me. Her system also showd that my mouse had been cancelled for “incompatible configuration” meaning that the mouse I ordered (from Dell’s website) was not compatible with the laptop I ordered (it was the mouse that Dell sells for this laptop when you order it online). After more than a half hour on the phone to get this much information, the girl offered to find the part number for the right mouse so I could reorder. Fifteen minutes later she had figured out that the part number for a wireless laptop mouse for a Dell Vostro laptop was the same number that they had just cancelled. She then transferred me to “Sales” for them to fix the problem.

At Sales I got someone who finally admitted that the order for the mouse had been cancelled because the shipping instructions were “Not DHL” and that wasn’t allowed. (Keep in mind that Dell had had the order for over a week, had delayed it once, and had now cancelled it - all without bothering to contact the customer; and all without also canceling the order for the laptop itself which was also listed the same way “Not DHL”)

I asked the Sales guy for his supervisor, so he transferred me to Dell’s so-called Customer Care (not his supervisor), we went through the same nonsense all over again (now the third time) before the “Customer Care” lady passed me to her supervisor — who assured me that no one could do anything about it because the computers are shipped by “Manufacturing” and “Customer Care” wasn’t allowed to talk with Manufacturing.

His best (HA!) idea was that he could annotate the order for Customer Care to keep track of the order and keep track of the shipment so they would know where my package was at all times. When I pointed out that this did not give them any control over the shipment he eventually admitted that it was really just the same tracking information that any customer would have available on the DHL website (the same way that I had watched my previous laptop bounced between two DHL facilities in Ohio and watched when DHL said that they had “attempted delivery” while we were home).

By then I had been on the phone with Dell for one hour and twenty minutes and I had to leave for a meeting. The so-called “Customer Care” so-called “supervisor” was supposed to find out who had authority to do something and call me back — of course he never did call back.

here is the kicker. the package was tracked to king of prussia pennsylvania…… and delivered to a shipping dock. so as of the moment it looks like DHL will get sued. it also says it was signed for by a person with a name other than mine. interesting that they have a policy of letting anyone sign for a package in the wrong state… screw you DHL.

So, I call DHL and their response is, “We only guarentee 2-day delivery to business address.”

Buh? OK. I’ll just pick it up.

Nope! They need to make a failed delivery and verify the address before it can be picked up. WTF?!? I have a drivers license with my address.

After about 5-days and no package, I finally realized I would only get my package if I made it cost them money. I called them every hour on the hour. After ~4 calls they finally put me through to a local manager that let me pick up the package from the depot.

I also complained to Dell who refunded the shipping cost (moral victory).

Now, I avoid DHL like the plague. If/when I cannot avoid it, I ship to my work address.

We ordered a printer from Dell, a company I have always used and respected and still do. I like their stuff.
Two attempts were made to deliver it (we both work and weren’t home) in good faith so we called DHL in Portland and were told it would be delivered the following afternoon, a Friday. I took off time from work to be at home to get it because is required. That’s fine.
To make sure, Friday morning I called to confirm. Seems they didn’t put it on the truck, something I never would have known I had not called.
I asked them why. “It didn’t get on the truck.” I told them I knew that, but why not, after delivery had been promised. “It didn’t get on the truck.” Get the drift?
I was told they would not bring it by on Saturday even though they do make higher-priority deliveries that day. I thought by virtue of missing a lot of work based on their promise, I might qualify. Wrong. Only stuff that comes in goes off the dock that day. Could someone hand the printer to the dock peoole and say, “please drop this off? Apparently not.
Also, they said I could not go out to their depot on Swan Island on Saturday and get the printer they know my son needed badly to finish college applications, only some of which are going on line. (He’s 16 so I don’t know why that is, nor am I sure it matters here).)
I had no way to get there on Friday for a variety of reasons including one that my wife had our car at work on the assumption that I would be at home waiting for the delivery (true) and not need it.
And let no proper American even THINK of finding a local phone for these folks. All that is listed is something like 1-800-bang-your-head-against-a-brick-wall. They’ll get back to you (which, in fairness, they did.)
So now they say they will deliver it on Monday. Maybe they will and maybe they won’t. Their track record here isn’t great. So I will have to find a way to get out there on Monday during daylight (recent eye surgery) , something I should not have to do.
Whoa! This just in. DHL calls to say that with Dell shipments they normally make THREE delivery tries. Why didn’t they in this case? Nobody seemed to have a clue.
Dell might want to think twice about future delivery arrangements if this is anything approaching the typical. Are those of us rusting out here in the rainy Pacific Northwest alone? At issue here, I think, is not what DHL could do but what it chose to do or not to do.
When I agree to do something I do it. I suspect DHL has similar expectations of those with whom it does business.
During a decade of ducking bullets in Central America for a major news agency in the 1970s and 1980s we came to rely on them as the one company that could do the job, and we were not disappointed. Times change, I guess, when you get big.

Thanks for the use of the hall.

Ken, you can always ask a neighbor to watch out for deliveries, especially if you live in an apartment. Having had some experiencing in locating (or not) lost packages, this seems to work and is also a good ice breaker if the neighbor is reasonably approachable. Or, you could just bring over some good wine and a couple of glasses.

I got lucky.