Lost item and refuse to admit it, cannot track their own tracking number

<p>I recently ordered an item from a US based company, which was shipped via DHL, supposedly for delivery in 4-8 working days with full track and trace.</p> <p>It was shipped on 21 October, and allegedly arrived in SA on 5 Nov. According to the tracking on their website they attempted delivery (after hours to an office address) on 9 Nov, the last note on the online tracking is that they will attempt delivery again the next day. Nothing has happened since then.</p> <p>When I call DHL local they say they cannot track the tracking number that their own company provided, even though it works online. They either direct me to call the post office or to call their internationcal call centre. </p> <p>The international call centre also seems to have trouble tracking the number they provided, as they cannot tell me where the package is. They say they've handed it over to the SA postal service but are unable to provide any proof of this or a ZA tracking number.</p> <p>When I call the post office tracking centre they insist that they have no record of the tracking number provided by DHL and that the item has not arrived in SA.</p> <p> </p> <p>So where is it?</p> <p>Is this tracking number even used for anything, since no-one seems to be able to track it?</p> <p> </p> <p>I don't understand how DHL can simultanously say that they have attempted delivery of the item and also that they have handed it over to another postal service. </p> <p>I don't understand how delivery can have been attempted if the package is not actually in SA.</p> <p>It seems that DHL's departments are not connected and the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing.</p> <p> </p> <p>It has now been 5 weeks that I have been waiting for an item that was supposed to arrive in a week, and it seems DHL has no idea what they have done with the package.</p> <p> </p> <p>I ordered something else from another company at around the same time, who use a different international courier and the comparison is a sad indictment on DHL, as that parcel actually arrived on time and cost less to ship.</p>