Quote:
Originally Posted by vj9999
I ordered a laptop from Dell for my wife. DHL delivered it today. I signed for the package, driver handed it to me. As I was walking back in the house, I said right away that the box feels a little light. It didn't feel like 12lbs. I turn around and by that time driver is already gone.
I look and the bottom seal of the box looks cut (not very obvious) and taped over. I weigh the box. Box weighs 5 lbs.
I get in the car to see if I can find the driver before I open the box. Of course I couldn't.
I call DHL before opening the box and have them note it and see if either driver can come back or whatever else. Lady says she noted it and if I want to go ahead and open the box and call back or call Dell as well.
I open the box and ofcourse. Everything but the laptop is in there. I called Dell and they will send a replacement in 3-5 days plus overnight it. So I'm happy on that account. I told them not to use DHL 
I called DHL back and told them they have a thief somewhere in their chain. Sombody from their customer relations will call me back I guess.
I called American Express and had them put a note next to the charge from Dell just in case something else goes wrong so I can have it disputed. On the suggestion of my wife and mom I also went to the police station and filed a report just to be on the safe side.
Anyway. Caveat. If you have anything of value deliver to you and you have to sign, check the box thoroughly before you sign. From now on I will check the box and open it before I sign. If they have a problem with that oh well. |
I'm not sure what rights we have relative to checking to see if everything is in a package before accepting delivery. I think in your case, it might have been obvious due to the weight, but often it's not that obvious. Many deliveries are so complicated that it often takes hours to tell if everything is there. I think most dealers will willingly replace things that are missing, but I'm not sure if they are legally requirred to.
Most of us aren't going to go to the trouble of telling the delivery person to wait, while you open a package, and I'm not sure that the delivery person is required to wait while you do that. I've never done it myself, however once my wife did (she amazed the heck out of me by telling the guy that since the boxes were dented that she was going to insist on making sure that there wasn't any damage, and made him wait for probably 15 minutes while she opened up 6 boxes. Luckily, this was UPS, and she's on pretty good terms with the UPS driver.
We've had pretty good luck with UPS and FEDEX, but we've had nothing but trouble with DHL. Usually the trouble is that they take our packages to another town with a similar name that is about 220 miles away, then the second problem is that they try to deliver our packages to another nearby house that is someone's summer house, and since no-one is there, they take it back and say that no-one was home to accept it, or they just get lost and can't find us and give up.
Recently though, my daughter sent me some seafood from Md, and the box was supposed to come on a Monday, and was marked "perishable be sure to deliver on Monday". I didn't get it. Finally on late Thursday, DHL pulls up, hands me the now warm box, and says "I don't know if you want this now, it's been sitting around in our office since Monday". This time I refused the package, which for me is really out of character. But my daughter contacted the dealer, and I guess they worked it out with DHL, because I finally got cold seafood a week later.
But back to the issue, yeah, DHL doesn't seem to have nearly the operation that UPS and Fedex has, and if you have the choice, you're probably best off avoiding them from what I've seen. And Fedex Ground is almost as bad... I think they were a company that merged with Fedex, and is not nearly as careful as regular Fedex.
I've never lost anything due to theft though, except something I sent via the US Mail.