DHL EXPRESS not that express after all... Hands over packages to third parties!

It's quite sad to see how a once top-notch international courier went down hill.

I paid almost R1400 in shipping fees for a package from the US to SA (Cape Town), the international leg was painless and very quick, credit where credit is due, however once in South Africa it became something else.

First complaint - I had to phone customer support in order to find out why my shipment was on hold, I eventually found out its due to an import permit that is required, had I not phoned in the package would still be at customs, luckily the permit issue was soon resolved and package cleared.

Second complaint - Once released by customs I just got a message that the package was forwarded to a third party, nothing else explaining what that means, I don't think any other courier has worse tracking updates than DHL, it's all cryptic. Eventually after much frustration I managed to find out from support that it was handed over to RAM couriers, and man what a nightmare.....

Collection booked with RAM to collect on the 14th of May, the day went past with no collection and no tracking number for RAM at all from DHL.

Only the 15th of May I eventually got a RAM tracking number from DHL, which also showed that is was booked on the 14th for collection, unfortunately the 15th then also went by without any collection, this after being told earlier in the day by RAM themselves that they assigned a driver to collect, only to later in the afternoon be told by someone else at RAM that a driver was never assigned and that the previous person didn't tell the truth. This time the excuse was that they are short on drivers and that due to bad weather they have a backlog and struggling to catch up. In the end, no collection on the 15th either. Keep in mind that this is suppose to be an EXPRESS service!

I'm now without my package, one of the items was a birthday present that I needed for the weekend, however I now have to make an alternative plan because of incompetence.

I did not pay RAM courier to handle my package, I used DHL Express as they promise end-to-end delivery of the shipment, why is RAM then trusted with my package? RAM is not a good courier and is dragging DHL's good reputation through the mud.

Unfortunately, due to the way this is being handled, I would be thinking twice in the future before using DHL express again, I had a way better experience with FedEx and even Aramex before, and they are cheaper and does deliveries themselves locally.

I really don't know what to make of all of this, hopefully next week I'll finally be in possession of my package after 2 weeks, again keeping in mind that this is suppose to be an Express service...