DHL very BAD Guys

I would strongly advice against shipping with DHL/Airborne. I currently have snakes coming from Kathy Love. They where sent out DHL next day AM on 06/29/04 to arrive by 12:00 (noon) on 06/30/04. As of right now 8:45am 07/01/04 DHL has no clue where my delivery is. All they can tell me for sure is that it left Fort Myers, FL at 6:08pm on 06/29/04 and that it "should" have been headed for Ohio. To add insult to injury I have got the following replies from DHL supervisors:

"No I can't confirm where your package is at the moment but I believe in my system and your package will be there this morning" Well in that case why did I not have it Yesterday?

When I asked a customer service lead supervisor why they could not tell me where my package was I was told:

"Unfortunately it is not always scanned when it comes into or out of a major sorting facility." Well why the heck am I paying for tracking?

I'll update this thread as I get more info. But as of right now I will never ship through DHL again. Unfortunately that means there are some really great breeders I'll no longer be able to buy from

Jeff C.

Just a quick fallow up. The snakes finally showed up near 11:00 this morning. Unfortunately all of them were DOA. So much for a sipping company that guarantees "LIVE" arrival

Jeff C.

Who guaranteed LIVE arrival? DHL?

on any animals as they dont allow them to be shipped in their system to start with it it very unfortunate the snakes arrived DOA but other then DHL dropping the ball on the shipping it cant actually be their fault for a DOA . sorry for the experience

So much for a sipping company that guarantees "LIVE" arrival

I'm also wondering how you came to the conclusion that DHL guaranteed live arrival.

It's unfortunate about the snakes - but I'm sure Kathy will be more than happy to help you out in this situation.

i sent a ackie monitor yesterday and the shipping store said it will be next day and i even inssured it. well they never arrived at the buyers door and when i called about it they told me they didnt do "remote area" next day and it will be monday at the latest. and they said if it was doa they would not reimburse me because they dont ship animals(even though it said live animals on the package) the shipping company misrepresented our services so they are not responsible. also we found out that they turned it over to a local delivery service and they have no record or phone number of the company. so they dont know who has the package. the buyer said he would goto the company to pick it up but they can not find the company.

Wow, this is horrible news. I don't think I will be shipping through them. I loved AirEx, I had no problems with them. It's such a shame.

Thanks for posting this information and giving eveyone a heads up

Unfortunately, if you talk to enough people, you will hear this same kind of story about FedEx, UPS, and even Delta and other airlines. Luckily, it seldom happens with any of them, and even after a mistake the outcome is USUALLY (but not always) ok IF the shipper is very careful in packing, confirms delivery with the recipient, and requires a signature. But it DOES happen occasionally with ALL of the companies that provide transportation. Unless you only buy and sell through shows, it is a difficult aspect of the business that has no perfect solution. Actually, I (and other breeders as well) have even lost a small number that somehow got overheated even when transported to a show by the breeder's own car or truck, so even that is not perfect.

I have been shipping through Airborne / DHL since 1996 with their permission, but with the condition that they DO NOT guarantee contents, and neither will FedEx or UPS give such a guarantee - I am the one who guarantees the contents of my shipments. During that time I have lost a small number of baby corns due to Airborne's mistakes. I would estimate less than 10 shipments out of MANY hundreds (or more) of shipments contained one or more babies that died due to a shipping mistake. To put it into perspective, that is a lot less than the babies that ended up dying since 1996 just because the little brats just don't want to start feeding!

I am also working on becoming FedEx certified, but only because they may have faster service to some areas. I don't really expect less mistakes.