Here’s a lovely coincidence: DHL keeps “losing” brand new shiny laptops from Dell. How mysterious!

I am a first semester graduate student who needs a computer. In mid-September (2007) I placed an order for a laptop with Dell. The laptop finally shipped in early October, and it arrived at the DHL warehouse in Las Vegas (where I live) on Thursday, October 4. On Friday, October 5, I called DHL to see when my order would arrive at my apartment. I had to call the national 800 number as I could not find the local DHL number. They let me know that my order would arrive by the end of business that day. My order had 3 parts: a printer, software and my actual laptop. The printer and software arrived fine, but my laptop did not. I called DHL again and they gave me the first of many apologies. They said that for whatever reason, the laptop “didn’t make it onto the truck.” They assured me that my laptop would arrive at my apartment by the end of business on Monday (they don’t deliver on the weekends). This didn’t make me happy as I had many papers due the following week.

Monday, October 8 rolled around and still no computer. I tracked it online and called DHL at 200pm to find out where my laptop was. I talked to someone (who apologized) and he said that he would contact the local Las Vegas DHL office and ask them to call me back within an hour. They would not give me the local number. At 320pm, I called DHL again and let them know that no one had called me back. The customer service rep apologized (of course) and told me that he would send another message to the local Las Vegas office and “hopefully they would contact me before they closed for the day at 500pm.” I didn’t like that answer, so I asked to speak with a supervisor. I explained what was going on to the supervisor and she apologized. She put me on hold while she contacted the local office. After about 10 minutes, she came back on the line, apologized, and let me know that they could not find my package, that it was “missing”. I then asked her if DHL would be paying for a new computer and she told me I needed to file a claim with Dell. She said this like it was no big deal. She also let me know that DHL would not be searching for my package any more.

I wasn’t too happy, but I contacted Dell (via email, since the customer service queue was closed). The next morning Dell contacted me and told me that they had talked to DHL and my laptop was indeed “missing.” The Dell rep told me that they would be creating a new laptop for me (the exact same as the old one) and that it would ship on or before October 15.

I waited and on Saturday, October 13, my Dell account showed that my replacement laptop had been shipped. I tracked it to the local DHL office and by that day, it had arrived at the Las Vegas warehouse.

On Monday, October 15, I called DHL because I noticed in the shipping info online, they did not have my apartment number, they just had the street address. The DHL rep apologized and let me know that my laptop would arrive at my apartment by 300pm that day. At 310pm, I called my apartment office (they would be signing for my computer). They let me know that nothing had been delivered for me. I then called DHL and asked to speak with a supervisor. I got one on the line and asked where my laptop was. The supervisor apologized and let me know that the delivery driver for my laptop had to be pulled in (she never told me why), but there would be a PM delivery and my laptop would arrive that night. At 630pm on Monday, I still didn’t have my computer. I called DHL, and asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor apologized and let me know that the delivery drivers would not deliver that late at night and that I would not be getting my laptop that night. She also let me know that the Las Vegas warehouse had closed so she couldn’t even find out what was going on. She suggested I call at 800am the next day when the center opened to see what was going on.

At 820am today (Tuesday, October 16), I called DHL and asked to talk to a supervisor. I got one and she apologized, and let me know that the Vegas warehouse didn’t open until 830am. She said she would send them a priority message and have them call me back within an hour of them opening. At 1000am, I still hadn’t heard back from DHL. I called them, got a supervisor (who apologized) and then she transfered me to a supervisor at the Las Vegas office. The supervisor at the Las Vegas office did not give me her name and she was rude to begin with. She said “I am going to be honest with you, we cannot locate your package.” At that point I was not happy and I yelled “What?” She then yelled back “I am being honest with you, so don’t yell at me.” I was dumbfounded. She said she would look further for the package and get back to me. I then told her that maybe she should be looking for security cameras and trainers for her warehouse since there were obviously a bunch of thieves working there. She snapped back at me “We’re working on that!” and she hung up.

I never did hear back from the Vegas office. I heard back from the “executive customer service” department who talked to me for about 2 minutes and said they would look at providing further Loss Prevention training for the Vegas office. I then called DHL back at 300pm and got a supervisor. I told him I just wanted the update I was promised. He said the computer had been updated at 1130am and it said my laptop was officially “missing.” I vented to him for awhile and he said that Dell is very experienced in taking claims from DHL and that this type of thing was all too common. He was the only decent customer service person I dealt with. He seemed generally sorry for my inconvenience.

So that’s where I’m at. I have filed another claim with Dell and am waiting to hear back from them. I still don’t know what was with the Vegas supervisor and the whole “I’m being honest” thing. It was like she thought she deserved a medal for telling me the truth.

I will be telling Dell that my next computer needs to be shipped by FedEx, UPS, USPS or courier pigeon for all I care, just not DHL

Sue sent us an update today and say she’s now getting the runaround from Dell as well. Time to launch an EECB.
Sue has the patience of Job. We’d have just canceled or done a chargeback. There are plenty of laptops out there to choose from.

(Photo:zyphbear)

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