Customer Service Has Disappeared
When a global icon like DHL can't collect a package that has been paid for 3 days later due to poor staffing what hope do they have?
For those of you that follow me you may remember the problems I had with finding a reliable internet provider 18 months or so ago. Thankfully the issues I have been dealing with over the last few days is not them, but a global household name called DHL. The excuse of you live in Africa so what do you expect cannot be an excuse all the time as the "services" are not cheap.
Last month my daughter asked me to help her find a reliable courier as ARAMEX was not reliable and failing on their collections. I thought immediately of the big names and chose DHL for no special reason except they are well known. Price was not a problem as everyone is very similar and $100 for an envelope weighing not more than 50g is standard.
The first collection was for documents that needed to go to Hong Kong and took 4 phone calls to make it happen. The problem is you have to get a quote first in order to pay in order for them to send a waybill so they can collect. Easier said than done but fairly painless even though we were the ones chasing them. Maybe they were having a bad day so they deserved at least another shot at the business.
Last week more documents were needed to be collected and delivered to Hong Kong and after having done it once this should be a copycat execution. I spoke to Clementine who was very helpful until things started unravelling. We received banking details so we could pay, but no quote. The following day Clementine was unavailable and spoke to another lady who was very pleasant and the quote arrived which was paid and proof of payment sent.
Another red flag when no waybills were emailed which resulted in numerous phone calls. Today we saw an email from Friday stating the parcel was not ready to collect and why it wasn't collected on Friday. I must admit I was rather angry and took off with them today as still at 4pm the documents were sitting on my desk. Obviously no one works on Monday in management as after over 30 phone calls I still had managed to speak to no one besides the switchboard operator.
The driver finally arrived at 5pm and left immediately as he thought we were paying cash for the delivery not knowing we had already done an EFT on Friday. He arrived back 10 minutes later saying he will take the documents with no paperwork which I had to refuse as who knows if they will ever reach Hong Kong.
The deal on Thursday which they advertised to me on a recorded conversation was that they guaranteed delivery by midday Wednesday otherwise there are no charges. Tomorrow is Tuesday so I guess we will be reimbursed for this chaotic service we have received so far as it has been non existent.
The crazy thing is that many companies in a service related industry are offering no service. The public have become so used to accepting second best nothing ever improves or changes because they have low expectations already. Many personalized services like banking and such have become an online thing that people are forgetting the human side of things. How can companies employ individuals that are incapable of just doing the basics.
We wont be using DHL again and next stop is FEDEX as surely someone has to care about what they are doing and we may have to work through a list to find someone who does. For one I am still hoping this is the case as ARAMEX and DHL have been scrubbed.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
