DHL screw up

[Wing Commander]

Hi

Bit of a ramble here, and just looking for advice on how to solve or speed this up.

Royal Mail are doing some Door to Door leaflet drops for us, approximately 15k leaflets. Have paid for this service and they basically require the leaflets to turn up to their "bundling centre" in a time window, with all the correct labels etc on the boxes.

Boxed everything up, attached labels provided by RM which give all the details of the Door to Door drop etc.

Booked through MyParcelDelivery for collection for the 8 boxes, from my home, to be delivered to the address given by Royal Mail.

DHL is the courier, and they collected, checked all the boxes in with the handheld scanner etc.

First I knew of a problem was yesterday when Royal Mail contacted me and said that they had not received the boxes. DHL say they have delivered them, and the "electronic Proof of Delivery" says "Jake" signed for them (printed name, no actual signature).

Royal Mail say that no one by the name of Jake works at that location, and the parcels are not there.

I have asked for any GPS tracking of the scanner used when signature taken, but apparently that isn't done with them. Anyone know any different??

So, I am currently left in a situation where I have a collosal late cancellation charge with Royal Mail, have to rebook completely with them which has a big delay, and DHL are saying they have delivered the boxes, but they cannot prove it. To add insult, they have also said now that they can only provide updates through MyParcelDelivery, who will then pass the info on to me.

Is there anything I can do to press the situation home? I just need to be able to track these boxes to their last confirmed location. But the best DHL have said they can do is "ask the driver". I am not holding out much hope for the driver being even able to remember the drop 6 days ago, let alone owning up to any potential issue.

Thanks in advance

[Captain Answer]

DHL Handhelds use to ping back a datetime and GPS stamp on the software when I worked supporting it, that was a couple years ago but I can't see them having dropped that

It's one of the key tools that logistics companies use to look for fraud & theft

[Wing Commander]

Captain Answer said:

DHL Handhelds use to ping back a datetime and GPS stamp on the software when I worked supporting it, that was a couple years ago but I can't see them having dropped that

It's one of the key tools that logistics companies use to look for fraud & theft

That's exactly what I thought would be the case. I get the distinct impression I am being given the run around.

Thanks for the reply

[Spidersleg]

You can track your parcel here https://track.dhlparcel.co.uk/ and there is a link on the to "show event my on map"

[TonyRPH]

For what it's worth - I notice that every time Royal Mail do a leaflet drop at our flats (9 in the block) they tend to leave about 30+ leaflets.

It used to be the same in our house too - it strikes me as poor value for money if they don't deliver on a 1 house 1 leaflet basis. (or even 2 leaflets per home).

[Wing Commander]

Spidersleg said:

You can track your parcel here https://track.dhlparcel.co.uk/ and there is a link on the to "show event my on map"

Thanks - much appreciated! Unfortunately, it appears that our boxes went with DHL Express, and there is no cross over with the DHL PARCEL tracking system.

I have got all the tracking info as an electronic proof of delivery etc, but it does not show anything with regards to a map at all. All it has, location wise, is the DHL depot that it left on its final leg.

MyParcelDelivery being massively unhelpful, and have just said "oh, well you will need to raise a claim then" and that was that. I would rather try and find these 8 big boxes, and save weeks of aggro. ARGH

[Wing Commander]

TonyRPH said:

For what it's worth - I notice that every time Royal Mail do a leaflet drop at our flats (9 in the block) they tend to leave about 30+ leaflets.

It used to be the same in our house too - it strikes me as poor value for money if they don't deliver on a 1 house 1 leaflet basis. (or even 2 leaflets per home).

It's good to know. I did use them about 6 years ago, and it went well, but it's useful to get a broader picture. The good thing is that I know of many homes in the delivery areas, so can get a reasonable idea if they are doing a fast one

Cheers for the heads up!

[Wing Commander]

Update

Put pressure on MyParcelDelivery to investigate, as they opening gambit was for me to just put in a claim.

Long story short, they got a screenshot which showed all the details on one image, which allowed me to chase up Royal Mail. Suddenly their system showed it had been checked in yesterday (thanks for the call to tell me...) and that all is back on track again.

Useless fking Royal Mail, but at least it is all sorted. DHL, who I thought were the culprits, are actually in the clear.

All's well that ends well

Cheers for everyone's input!

[cheekymeerkat]

Have you used Royal mail door 2 door before? How do you find it?

We did one just as covid hit. Spent £8k incl print and half my friends in the area said they didn't get our leaflet and Royal Mail just shrugged their shoulders.

Did another this year with much better success but as someone else has noted, I'm not keen how they nest other leaflets with yours. I often get Asda booklets, and inside with be 3 or 4 others for pizza hut etc. I can imagine many will see the first leaflet and bin the lot without looking inside. Furthermore, do they bother posting the leaflets to houses who don't have any regular mail on the day?

We paid 13p per house incl print for a 12 page A4 flyer brochure.