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Share my grief....
Message #1 Posted by cbuhmann on 8 Nov 2011, 2:01 a.m.

Hi guys, I ordered three 15C LE from SE to be sent to Germany in middle of September. They were shipped immediately after my order with USPS and handed over some days later to the customs here and further to DHL. So far so good, when the deliverer came to our office I was in a meeting so I could not take it personally. Unfortunately the deliverer had to take the additional taxes (~60,- EUR) cash. The receptionist did not know what to do, couldn't reach me and...... refused to take the parcel... !!! After one hour I tried to call DHL to redeliver it. After long discussions with the hotline I could convince them to try it. Tracking the parcel I saw the way it went. Back to the parcel center in Hamburg (I tried to call again). Nothing happened again. Then it was one week in the center, lying around. I called again daily. Nothing happened. It went back to the airport in Frankfurt. I called again.... And there the story is now. It is still in the export center (five weeks after the one and only delivery try), waiting to be sent to the States back.

Now tell me guys, what can I do...? I really want these three pieces of hardware back.

Rgds Chris

      
Re: Share my grief....
Message #2 Posted by Frido Bohn on 8 Nov 2011, 3:28 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by cbuhmann

Sounds like a piece of Kafka...

So, there is no way to let the parcel be sent to a central delivery station
where you could pick it up? Parcels which cannot be delivered directly, usually
are stored somewhere but not sent back to the sender. Maybe, that the way your
receptionist managed this let the DHL deliverer assume that you refused the
acceptance. Consequently, the parcel is going back to sender. Interesting is
that there appears no way to intervene - a really weird situation.

This frankly is the problem when you get private mail to a company. In my
company, the mail central generally refused to receive private mail a few years
ago. Possibly, just because of such kind of problems. So, it would be better to have a
notice in your mailbox at home and go to the central to pick up things personally.

I got my HP-15 LE few weeks ago and had to pick it up from the customs in
Berlin. It took about 2 hours to get it. But in summary this is much less than
the time and annoyance you are experiencing now.

      
Re: Share my grief....
Message #3 Posted by Alexander Oestert on 8 Nov 2011, 3:58 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by cbuhmann

File a "Schadensmeldung" or "Verlustmeldung" or "Nachforschungsauftrag" immediately at your nearest DHL office. Feed them all the known information where you assume your package is, maybe that will keep the items from being send back.

I'm also in Hamburg and I find it very interesting that DHL even tried to deliver the package to you and wanted to collect customs fees. I was never that lucky, I had always to go to the central customs office which is now based in Hafencity and 'bail out' my deliveries all by myself!

I've read about Samson Cables being very customer friendly and trying everything to get your items to you. If all fails, I have two and would be willing to part from one of them...

            
Re: Share my grief....
Message #4 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 8 Nov 2011, 7:25 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Alexander Oestert

Quote:
I'm also in Hamburg and I find it very interesting that DHL even tried to deliver the package to you and wanted to collect customs fees. I was never that lucky, I had always to go to the central customs office which is now based in Hafencity and 'bail out' my deliveries all by myself!
If declaration and bill are visibly accessible from the outside, then DHL may cash the custom fees. I was lucky enough to have it delivered to me on a Saturday, which was a big surprise since I already considered it lost.

I underline your idea with the 'Verlustmeldung'. It's worth a try.

                  
Re: Share my grief....
Message #5 Posted by Alexander Oestert on 8 Nov 2011, 7:39 a.m.,
in response to message #4 by Thomas Radtke

Quote:

If declaration and bill are visibly accessible from the outside


My last one was my 15c LE delivery from Samson Cables which must have looked just the same as Chris', I suppose. But I'm not complaining: I safely got mine!
      
Re: Share my grief....
Message #6 Posted by John B. Smitherman on 8 Nov 2011, 7:17 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by cbuhmann

If you can find the name of a high level manager in DHL's organization I would write and call them to request that they intervene to try to solve your problem.

Good luck,

John

      
Office delivery
Message #7 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 8 Nov 2011, 9:55 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by cbuhmann

Just a silly advice: If there is a risk of customs handling *never* use your office address as a delivery address. In most cases, you need to pick up the package at local customs and they will issue an invoice to your company (requiring ZOLL ATLAS number, Warentarifgruppe and so on) which could lead to all kind of taxing troubles. You might be able to talk them out of a company invoice when an invoice sheet with your home address is included - but that rarely seems to be the case.

Honestly, I don't think there is a way to reroute the package back into delivery, but you should simply call DHL to find out.
I have this number on file, not sure if it still works:
DHL Gold: 01803-221122
Otherwise, the DHL web site should have a more "public" number available.

            
Re: Office delivery
Message #8 Posted by cbuhmann on 8 Nov 2011, 11:42 a.m.,
in response to message #7 by Frank Boehm (Germany)

Hi all, I tried it now with a "Verlustmeldung" (=declaration the parcel is lost). Let's see if I have success.

I tried in the beginning nearly every day to call DHL, also at the hotline they could not understand.

Seems that many others from Germany ordered their machines.

Rgds Christian

Btw: Here is the tracking ;)

Quote:
Mi, 21.09.11 15:33 Uhr DE Die Sendung ist im Start-Paketzentrum eingetroffen.

Do, 22.09.11 06:36 Uhr DE Die Sendung ist im Export-Paketzentrum eingetroffen.

Do, 22.09.11 06:38 Uhr DE Die Sendung wird ins Zielland transportiert.

Mo, 26.09.11 09:57 Uhr IPZ-Ffm, DE Die Sendung ist im Zielland eingetroffen.

Mi, 28.09.11 10:19 Uhr IPZ-Ffm, DE Die Sendung aus dem Ausland ist im Import-Paketzentrum eingetroffen. Mi, 28.09.11 16:20 Uhr Saulheim, DE Die Sendung wurde im Start-Paketzentrum bearbeitet.

Do, 29.09.11 03:32 Uhr Hamburg, DE

Die Sendung wurde im Ziel-Paketzentrum bearbeitet.

Do, 29.09.11 07:42 Uhr Hamburg-Allermöhe, DE Die Sendung wurde in das Zustellfahrzeug geladen.

Do, 29.09.11 10:54 Uhr Rücksendung eingeleitet Der Empfänger hat die Annahme der Sendung verweigert.

Fr, 07.10.11 18:12 Uhr Hamburg, DE Die Sendung wurde im Paketzentrum bearbeitet.

Fr, 07.10.11 18:15 Uhr Hamburg, DE Die Auslands-Sendung wurde im Start-Paketzentrum bearbeitet.

Sa, 08.10.11 04:41 Uhr Saulheim, DE Die Auslandssendung wurde im Export-Paketzentrum bearbeitet


                  
Re: Office delivery
Message #9 Posted by Alexander Oestert on 8 Nov 2011, 12:25 p.m.,
in response to message #8 by cbuhmann

Are you sure the parcel is still in Germany? Judging from your last tracking date I would guess it is back at Samson Cables. Have you contacted them about it?

                        
Re: Office delivery
Message #10 Posted by Borja on 8 Nov 2011, 1:05 p.m.,
in response to message #9 by Alexander Oestert

Samson Cables people are very friendly, so I would contact them.

They made a mistake with my order. I had ordered two units and they sent just one.

I emailed them and within hours there was a second package on its way. Of course it's frustrating to open the package and find out thay despite having paid for two units you get only one, but they really did their best to amend the problem.

In the worst case, if the package has gotten back to them, I assume they will accept to ship it back, with you paying just the shipping cost again, which is fair solution, after all they didn't refuse the package ;)

                  
most likely back to the US already
Message #11 Posted by Frank Boehm (Germany) on 9 Nov 2011, 4:18 a.m.,
in response to message #8 by cbuhmann

DHL tracking is nice and fun, but often misleading. Usually, foreign tracking numbers are not "compatible", so once the package is handed over, a new tracking number is attached (of course there is no way to find out that number) and the package status will not change (at least not until the end of the world).
I would assume the package has long been returned.
But then there is another possibility: when doing international shipping, you have to chose between two options in case the package cannot be delivered: "return to sender using the cheapest shipping option" or "give up". The second option would be %&$&$&$

      
Re: Share my grief....
Message #12 Posted by Thomas Radtke on 9 Nov 2011, 5:29 a.m.,
in response to message #1 by cbuhmann

One thing I don't understand: How could a different person initiate a RTS? If the addressee is not available, usually a notice is left and the parcel goes back to the depot, waiting for you for a week or two.

The postman must have had a really bad day to not propose that option to the receptionist :-(.

            
Re: Share my grief....
Message #13 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 9 Nov 2011, 9:41 a.m.,
in response to message #12 by Thomas Radtke

Hello!

Quote:
One thing I don't understand: How could a different person initiate a RTS?

The postman can check one of several boxes on his mobile terminal: like "Nicht angetroffen" (adressee not present) or "Annahme verweigert" (acceptance refused). In the first case, a message will be left in the post box (or at the receptionists desk in this case) and the parcel will be stored at the nearest post office for a week. In the second case, it will go straight back to the sender. Oviously, the postman took the receptionists „I will not pay for this“ as a refusal.

As others already said: Private stuff -> private address!

But grief for a modern LCD calculator? Or even share this grief? Certainly not. Had it been a red-dot 35 in an unopened box, I might have shared some of your grief though...

Regards, max

Edited: 9 Nov 2011, 9:42 a.m.


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