As I am writing, DHL is holding a package belonging to me in their storage house some twenty kilometers from where I’m living. They’ve been holding it there now for five days – after bringing it in just 22 hours from Bradford, UK to their storage in Helsinki, Finland, but unable to deliver it to me during these five days. Courier companies are very efficient in carrying the packages from country to another, but for some strange reason the last mile is always very difficult.

The package briefly visited my home door five days ago, however no-one bothered to inform me in advance that there was a delivery coming, and no-one happened to be home just that moment. After this it took them 52 hours to send me an SMS informing me about failed delivery attempt, and requesting me to contact their customer service. I immediately called the number on their SMS, but it was Friday evening and I got answered only by a machine.

This morning I called them again, asking them to deliver the package to my office instead and they even promised to deliver it between noon and 2 pm – which never happened. After calling them again in the afternoon, they apologized that “the driver had forgotten to take my delivery with him” and told me that they can only deliver it to me the next day. We’ll see what will happen.

As I was quite annoyed by this kind of inaction, I asked to talk to someone to whom I could complain. The customer service officer connected me to her boss, who told me that I wasn’t really allowed to complain as I actually wasn’t their customer! Only the sender is their customer, she told me – and I should complain to them!

Courier services like DHL are seen as premier in compared to ordinary postal deliveries. However, I probably would have got my package days ago through traditional postal service – and for the sender it probably would have been considerably cheaper.

It would not be difficut for DHL to get their processes and attitude right. Here is what they should do:

  • Get their attitude right. For each delivery there are two customers: the sender and receiver, and in many online shops the receiver is able to choose which service to use for delivery. If DHL doesn’t treat the receivers as their customers, why choose to use them?
  • By sending the receiver SMS before trying to deliver the package would probably save DHL’s drivers thousands of useless visits behind closed doors every day. By receiving information about arriving delivery, the receiver would be able to make the needed changes in advance.
  • If DHL would really like to serve their customers, they would send the SMS or email immediately when they take the package to be delivered. The receiver would then be able to change time and destination of delivery through DHL’s website, thereby making whole process much more efficient.