Handed over to a 3rd Party

Generally have always had excellent service from DHL. However my most recent experience had been a frustrating one. Had a parcel come from overseas, it was going fine, cleared customs very quickly. However to my dismay dhl handed over my shipment to a 3rd party courier company without my approval. The excuse was they do not cover that delivery area. Which is complete nonsense. All my previous parcels/shipments have come to my door from dhl. Never in my experience have I come across handed over to a Third party. My Shipment is now being delayed from RAM hand to hand corriers. When you expect to pay for dhl you expect them to deliver it, not handed over to someone else. Also did not know who it was handed over until a phoned in to customer service. Very disappointing especially from a courier company that I initially always trusted