1 reviews | Active since Aug 2019
DHL uses South African Post Office.
Certain items are not available locally but can be ordered from overseas. About 5 years ago I ordered an item from a store in New York using UPS for delivery. UPS in turn uses South African Post Office to deliver items locally. I am still waiting for that parcel.
Subsequently DHL managed to deliver a number of items from US suppliers successfully. Recently I placed an order for a small item at a photography store in the USA and chose DHL as the courier as I considered them to be a reliable company. What I did not realise is that for DHL Saver and DHL Global Mail options they now also use South African Post Office to deliver parcels in South Africa. This has not always been the case. If I knew that I would have used a different company.
The item I ordered arrived in South Africa on July 30th 2019 but to date (27-8-2019) it has not been delivered yet. When I contacted DHL they gave me Post Office telephone numbers and email addresses to contact. None of the telephone numbers seem to be working and I held on for more than an hour without being able to speak to a post office operator. I have sent them two emails which to date remains unanswered.
Needless to say that if you choose an unreliable business partner your good name goes down the drain as your service is only as good as that of the weakest link. DHL does not want to take responsibility for the poor performance of the partner they chose. And frankly it is not my responsibility to talk to South African Post. I feel that DHL has to find out why delivery has not taken place yet. I chose them as the courier and who they ask to take care of the final stage of delivery should not become my problem.
A DHL representative suggested that I put in a claim with the supplier. The problem with that is that if courier companies regularly fail to deliver items suppliers will get fed up paying for lost items and they will stop shipping to South Africa. There are number of companies who used to supply products to South African addresses but refuse to do so now.
I guess I will therefore just have to order and pay for the same item again and this time I'll use FedEx as they recently delivered an item from the same supplier in under a week.
Thank you for contacting us at DHL Express.
Looking at the tracking number mentioned, I can confirm that your shipment is moving as part of the services offered from Germany called DHL Paket, under the DHL Deutsche Post Banner and that of DHL Express. This means that your parcel did not move via Express but via Global Mail and as such will not be delivered by a DHL Express courier.
These shipments are handed over to the local postal services in each country to handle the delivery with no tracking available on the DHL Express Network. Please contact Global Mail on *** to find out the current status of your shipment or the South African Post Office on either *** or by Phone: ***.
I hope that the provided information will be helpful. Once again, I regret any inconvenience caused by this matter.
Kindest regards.
Avery VisagieCustomer Care Executive
Thank you for contacting us at DHL Express.
Looking at the tracking number mentioned, I can confirm that your shipment is moving as part of the services offered from Germany called DHL Paket, under the DHL Deutsche Post Banner and that of DHL Express. This means that your parcel did not move via Express but via Global Mail and as such will not be delivered by a DHL Express courier.
These shipments are handed over to the local postal services in each country to handle the delivery with no tracking available on the DHL Express Network. Please contact Global Mail on *** to find out the current status of your shipment or the South African Post Office on either *** or by Phone: ***.
I hope that the provided information will be helpful. Once again, I regret any inconvenience caused by this matter.
Kindest regards.
Avery VisagieCustomer Care Executive
I left a message on the DHL website requesting them to contact the Post Office to find out what happened to the parcel and the reply I received was the same as the above one. (Telephone numbers and an email address to contact.) I suspect it was an automated reply.
It would have helped if they told me that parcels are sent to the post office closest to your street address and you have to collect it there. It seems that the DHL employees does not know this.
I assume that the more expensive door-to-door delivery options work well. If you chose one of the low cost options that rely on national postal services for delivery, it is an absolute disaster. In South Africa at least. Don't expect any assistance other than contact numbers that does not seem to work from DHL. DHL I am sorry to say but your service sucks!
I left a message on the DHL website requesting them to contact the Post Office to find out what happened to the parcel and the reply I received was the same as the above one. (Telephone numbers and an email address to contact.) I suspect it was an automated reply.
It would have helped if they told me that parcels are sent to the post office closest to your street address and you have to collect it there. It seems that the DHL employees does not know this.
I assume that the more expensive door-to-door delivery options work well. If you chose one of the low cost options that rely on national postal services for delivery, it is an absolute disaster. In South Africa at least. Don't expect any assistance other than contact numbers that does not seem to work from DHL. DHL I am sorry to say but your service sucks!