[NHCOLL-L:4866] RE: Don't use DHL to ship

[Schneider, Gregory]

I've never had a problem with DHL, especially their customer service.  (Actually, my experience has shown DHL customer service to be outstanding.)  But I've had difficulties with U.S. Customs regarding clearing wildlife shipments, and especially regarding customer service.  I think we all know there are at least two sides to the story.  You may have a choice of international shippers, but they all must clear U.S. Customs.  Some ports are better than others.

Greg Schneider
Division of Reptiles and Amphibians
Museum of Zoology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1079
734 647 1927     734 763 4080 (FAX)
ges at umich.edu<mailto:ges at umich.edu>

From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Trock, Debra
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 12:58 PM
To: NHCOLL-L at LISTS.YALE.EDU
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:4861] Don't use DHL to ship

Dear Colleagues,

We have recently had a horrible problem with DHL that I want to relate to all of you.  We had a visitor coming from Madagascar.  He left 4 large boxes of plants with DHL in Madagascar on July 1, along with the required phytosanitary certificates, export papers and an extremely thorough list of the species enclosed.  The boxes arrived at the Cincinnati DHL hub on July 3rd.  The customs inspector "did not like the look" of the phytosanitary certificate and held up the shipment on July 4th.  On July 7th our departmental Admin. Assistant contacted DHL and they told us the package was on its way to San Francisco.

When it had still not arrived on Monday, July 12 we called DHL again and were told that the shipment was going to be put on a plane back to Madagascar that night.  All the while our visitor, whose sole purpose for coming all this way was to work on those specimens, was here waiting for them.  I spent all day on Monday calling our contacts at USDA, people at DHL,  customs at the Cincinnati airport, and finally, at 10:00 p.m. ET was able to talk to the Ag Specialist customs guy who held the shipment.  When he put a hold on the shipment, DHL was supposed to contact us to let us know, and they never did.  DHL was also supposed to supply the shipping list, which they said they didn't have, but had been given to them with the phytosanitary certificate.

I sent a species list to the customs agent and he immediately cleared the shipment and told me that he would try to get DHL to put the shipment on the plane Monday night to get it to us.  Once again, DHL did not get it done.  In fact, we called on Tuesday and they assured us that they had received the clearance from customs and that the boxes would be on the plane on Tuesday night.....it was not.  Now they have assured us that it will be on the plane tonight, Wednesday.

This customs agent told me in no uncertain terms and repeated in a later e-mail that DHL is notorious for not contacting shippers and consignees when there is a problem with paperwork......they just don't do it!!  He further urged me to keep track of these problems and complain.....here is the text of what he said.

"If you have trouble shipping material through DHL, be sure to have everyone involved with the shipment write a complaint letter (paper, not email) to the company.
Emails just get deleted. Paper letters are more likely to get read, especially if they are sent certified mail."

>From my verbal conversation with him he indicated that this is a systemic and growing problem with DHL.  I know that some of you prefer to use DHL rather than USPS, but this particular customs agent seemed very emphatic about their shortcomings.

I hope this prevents some of you from having the same problems we've had.

Sincerely,
Deb

Dr. Debra Trock
Senior Collections Manager
Botany Department
California Academy of Sciences
55 Music Concourse Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
PH:  415-379-5363
FAX:  415-379-5737
dtrock at calacademy.org


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