This is a heads up and a warning to you guys and gals who ship and buy stuff.

AVOID DHL...........a few months ago I bought a complete 4-speed manual changeover from the flywheel to and including the driveshaft from a 240D pedals and all. Paid $372 with shipping to a Dan Holden who sells on Ebay ander oryx_world_hq. The seller has a good feedback of over 1387 and 99.6% positive.

Shipment was lost by DHL at their Ohio center......poof vanished....well after making me jump through a lot of hoops including getting a copy of the Waybill from the seller, the dragged this out 2 months...........and then only refund me the cost of the items......$199 not a dime of the shipping which was the balance of the $372. They refuse to refund me that even though they lost an entire pallet of parts. Of course now too much time has passed and the credit card company can't do anything...........Seller is not retuning emails for the last week and this is all I can do.

Moral of the story............AVOID DHL.

Avoid DHL

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Us FedEx folks love these kinds of endorsements!

But seriously, we follow competitors and their practices...what we hear most is that DHL is price competitive, but their service levels are poor.

Don't know if they will ever turn that around, but if you need a critical item shipped to you, trust the company with the track record of delivering it FAST and on time! FedEx!

Okay, commercial over...back to OD tinfoil hat mode!

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

Hmm.
DHL delivered a shipment to my door from NEPAL in four days. That's the only experience I've had with them. We ship UPS (atlanta thing...)

sucks about the lost stuff, and the crappy service...

__________________
Cannondale ST600 XL
Redline Monocog 29er
2011 Mini Cooper Clubman
2005 Honda Element EX

www.djugurba.com
www.waldenwellness.com

DHL is not of the same ilk as UPS or FedEx in terms of quality -- that's a fact. But I don't agree with your conclusion here. The fact that DHL refunded you anything strikes me as remarkable. The refund should have gone to the vendor, the vendor should refund you. Moral of the story: avoid the vendor, unless he responds and credits you the difference which you are entitled to.

Avoid Ohio while you're at it, too

I was UPS driver while in college. I picked up shipments for overnight delivery from local businiesses, including Mobil, which was UPS' biggest overnight shipper worldwide at that point (just a little pride there!).

From experience, I'd wholeheartedly endorse UPS or FedEx. But stay away from Airborne Express!! They're just not up to the standards of UPS and FedEx by a longshot. I remember on more than one occasion laughing one of their drivers because he'd forget the key he needed to open and empty a drop box of overnight letters. He'd have to physically turn the thing upside down and shake out its contents!

Just stay with UPS or Fed Ex and you'll be alright.

__________________

Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

Airborne is DHL (DHL bought them out).

Huh. Maybe that's why I can't remember seeing any of their trucks for a while now!!

__________________

Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

Hey G-Benz -- I have a question for you. Is it common for FedEx to show a package as "out for delivery" on their web tracking page but not see the item that day? I was expecting an alternator this week, and it showed as on the truck for delivery on Saturday morning (~3:30am). I waited and waited for the damned thing, and it never came. No footprints in the fresh snow to indicate an attempt either. So hopefully they'll leave it on the porch today (???), as I'm stuck at work all week. Frustrating, but hey... stuff happens! Maybe the weather fouled up their routes that day or something.

Tks,

Chris

__________________
1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)

I've used DHL for parcels and letterpaks . . . never a single problem.

It kinda depends on where you ship to. DHL does pretty well in most large urban areas (although it isn't uncommon for 2nd day packages to arrive a day late). They really struggle when the destination is too rural for them. I could tell you a couple stories that would make your jaw drop.

Well these idiots expect to keep the money you paid them to lose your shipment.....I mean its a pallet of parts..........not like a letter that you can easily loose.

Tonight some people are getting called......managers........I get my money or I will sue them in small claims court.

They lost it in one of their distribution centers.....they better pay me back for all of it.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

A similar thing happened recently with an item I had shipped, except that it showed as "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" for several days. A call to FedEx brought no information that I hadn't already seen on their web site. An e-mail to the recipient confirmed that he hadn't received it.

He asked around a bit, and was informed that road closures due to mudslides had really put a kink in transportation between Ventura and Santa Barbara - talk about stuff happening! The package was delivered 4 business days after it first showed as being on the truck.

It's the first time that I've had even the slightest hitch with FedEx, and I ended up looking good anyway. The delay didn't bother the recipient, and I think he appreciated that I was looking out for him.

I have had things like this happen too. That's just TERRIBLE business. How they can look a customer in the eye and say they're not going to refund the $ you paid for them to ship an item, after they have LOST said item, is beyond me. Terrible business sense there. They ought to refund the $ and say " the next pallet's on us." Too bad those kind of principles are so rare in this day and age.

__________________
1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)

Maybe the snow we got delayed it... that's all I can figure. Oh well. Life goes on!

__________________
1992 300D 2.5T
1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold)
1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy"
1974 Triumph TR6
1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's)