DHL committed to customers?

It seems DHL no longer offers reliable personal and manual services. In an email from an exporter, I was advised that a shipment from Australia was sent by DHL to me on Sept. 13 and received in Indonesia on Sept. 22 at 4:09 p.m. -- had I received the shipment?

I checked with DHL on the morning of Friday, Sept. 24, giving them what was apparently the wrong AWB from the exporter. The shipment was not to be found.

As there was no way to do a manual check, they pushed me to find out for myself, but promised to follow up on the matter and phone me back.

By 10 a.m on Monday, Sept. 27, I had received no call. This was a familiar pattern to me as DHL lost my new VISA card for one-and-a-half months when it was shipped by them in January. They didn't call me back as they had promised to, nor were they able to do any manual tracking.

I phoned them again, now with the right AWB number in my hand. But, once again, they couldn't confirm they had received the parcel, let alone locate it.

Alas, at 4 p.m. that same day (Sept. 27) I got a return call from DHL saying "Sorry we could not help you today, maybe tomorrow! We have certain procedures and cannot phone Australia to manually follow-up".

The point: DHL advertises themselves with pride as a courier company that is quick and reliable. But they have yet to prove their commitment.

SOREN LAX
Jakarta