DHL Strikes Out

I just started a network of blogs about three months ago. It's time consuming to find authors etc - I am not certain exactly how people are going to scale this to a business model but you can bet since Weblogs Inc has been sold, you are going to see a ton of these blogging businesses starting up. Well to monetize the blogs I used everyone's favorite contextual advertising, Adsense. I recently passed the threshold for payment and eagerly awaited my Google check. Google in it infinite and computational correct wisdom mailed my check to my my AdWords Account mailing address. This was undoubtedly part of the Great Google migration to a Unified Field Theory of logins. (Google had users that had seperate logins consolidate them). This meant the check was going to an address that no longer existed ;-)

So I requested a new check. Google gladly shipped a new check immediately. They did so using the world class shipper DHL! DHL a company which has only recently entered the consumer shipping space. Previously they were a business to business shipper which is where I think they should have stayed. I waited roughly one month for payment. Then I thought maybe I should write Google. I did so and here's what I got back.

Hello Brian,

Thank you for your email.

After reviewing our records, I can confirm that your reissued September payment was mailed on Oct 11, 2005. For reference, your DHL tracking number is 9683572813. Please visit www.dhl.ie to track the package.

So I go to DHL.com and look it up

10/24/2005 6:03 pm Returned to shipper. Santa Fe, NM
10/12/2005 1:04 pm Delivery Attempted.
Please Call 1-888-273-8876. Santa Fe, NM
8:49 am Arrived at DHL facility. Santa Fe, NM
2:38 am In transit. Los Angeles, CA
10/11/2005 10:19 pm Arrived at DHL facility. Los Angeles, CA
11:53 am In transit. London, United Kingdom
8:35 am Arrived at DHL facility. London, United Kingdom
4:39 am In transit. East Midlands, United Kingdom
10/10/2005 10:19 pm Arrived at DHL facility. East Midlands, United Kingdom
8:14 pm Departing origin. Dublin, Ireland
4:03 pm Picked Up by DHL.

So apparently DHL attempted delivery on the 12th and shipped it back on the 24th. I called DHL to find out what happened. I know I was in for a rough time for it when the DHL customer service rep said this

"Sir, we held the package for thirty days in Santa Fe. The address was incorrect."

Here's a basic customer service problem. I have access to online tracking information. I can read a computer screen as well as the next guy. Doing simple math I can see that DHL received the package on 10/10/2005 and it arrived in Santa Fe on 10/11/2005. So by any sort of math we are looking at 13-14 days, certainly not thirty. I then pointed this particular fact to the rep on phone, she then said "The address was incorrect." I then confirmed the address with her and not surprisingly it was absolutely correct.

This is strange. Why would a customer service rep lie directly to me? She knows I can view the tracking data to see that the package was held for 13 days, not 30 as she stated. This is what I like to call the "deny all wrongdoing" method of customer service. This has grown more common. With companies' lawyers increasing providing input of every aspect business process, it has become easier to simply lie to customer than to provide customer service. By lieing or misdirecting the customer the company is hoping to lessen any exposed liability by failure to perform. It seems like since Iran Contra, the mantras of "I don't remember" and out and out lieing are becoming all too familar.

I then requested if they could send the package back to me, perhaps via US Mail. They said they could not and requested I contact the shipper. So off to email Google I went. I got the following response from Google on November 15, 2005.

Hello Brian,

I have just spoken with DHL and the shipment will be rerouted to you. They unfortunately could not explain why they only attempted delivery once before returning the package. The should leave a note when they attempt delivery and try a couple more times.

So the package arrived safe and sound on my doorstep the next day? Nope. Instead DHL holds on the package and then redelivers to the wrong department at Google. Eventually the right department finds the check and mails it via UPS. It arrives the next day after two months of attempted delivery by DHL.

Clearly DHL dropped the ball as well as Google. But what actually happened, I don't know but here's my guess. Las Vegas, NM is roughly 61 miles from Santa Fe or 122 round trip. The DHL driver in Santa Fe saw the address on this slim letter envelope and then said, "I will wait until I have more going to Las Vegas." When nothing materialized he then sent the package back rather than actually deliver it.

Here's a note DHL. If you are going to be in the consumer shipping business, you don't actually get to decide what packages are important and which are not. As far as customer service goes, more transparency is better than none. Simply telling obvious and easily disproved lies, has the opposite effect on the customer you may think it has.

If you don't want to deliver a package, don't accept a contract to do so. Or just stick the big container shipping that was your previous business model.