One would think that placing ‘FRAGILE’ and ‘HANDLE WITH CARE’ stickers on a box containing individually bubble-wrapped items would be sufficient to protect a shipment from Manila to Sydney. The sender, one Rosmina Colina from Quezon City, was even discouraged by the courier company from placing a value in excess of $100 because she would have to pay a lot more in insurance premium.
The shipment finally arrived but only after making several international phone calls. According to the sender, The courier company admitted that the shipment was sent to the wrong facility no less than 3 times, in spite of the correct address marked on the box. The box contained individually-wrapped souvenir items to be given away in a birthday celebration. All items were broken and could no longer be used.
The consignee who requested not to be named said: “I am utterly disappointed in the service that a multi-national company like DHL has provided. From day one, it has been nothing but mistakes by TWO DHL companies from the Philippines and then Australia. You would think that sending a box to a single address would be a straight forward process, but in this case, it seems like DHL has hired pre-school graduates to do the job. I could not believe how one box got sent to the wrong address/location multiple times. We have made several phone calls to DHL, each of those times confirming the same address with SEVEN different people. What is baffling is that DHL was given the correct address in the first place! If it were not for our countless calls to their call centre, locally and international, we would never have gotten this box.”
When asked for a comment, DHL said: “It is not our job to follow up with the customers what is happening to their shipment. It is the responsibility of the sender and recipient to check online on its progress.”