DHL failure in usability
A couple of weeks ago I ordered the latest third-generation of the DAS Keyboard – my second generation packed away back in Guernsey and the Alps-switched one from DSI incapable of reliably registering more than 2 keys on USB.
Being that I’m fixed on the European keyboard layout (our enter key is double height with the backslash moved down next to Z) I had to order from Germany, specifically the guys over at getDigital.de
When the keyboard hadn’t arrived a couple of weeks later I headed off to the tracking link at DHL Germany.
As a customer all I’m interested in is:
- Where is the package now?
- When will I have it?
A good developer would understand and deliver this. Instead DHL present:
| Piece-number | 9507xxxxxxx7 |
| Addressee: | Item destined for abroad |
| Status: | Arrival at inward Office of Exchange in the Country of Destination |
| Status from: | 19.08.08 17:07 |
| Process: | Arrival at inward Office of Exchange in the Country of Destination |
Everything here screams bad systems, poor understanding and disregard for the customer. They aren’t giving the customer what they want, they’re giving the customer a little of what they have and are not even reinterpreting the data from the customers perspective.
This isn’t untypical but neither of my questions have been answered and the item is over the delivery times so I need to go further. Hitting the contact button next to the “piece-number” takes us to:
|
For further information, please call us on 0 18 05-345 22 55 * (14 cent per minute within German fixed network) Business hours: Monday – Saturday between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Sundays and public holidays between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. * only within Germany or per contact form (except for investigation inquiries) If your shipment has not arrived at the recipient within 6 days, you have the opportunity to fill out an investigation inquiry directly via your PC. |
Wow, so the primary point of contact for an international delivery is a number that can only be called from Germany. Useless.
So we can now choose a per-contact form or an investigation form. Okay, let’s go to the investigation form. Let’s try that.
The web page you would like to access cannot be viewed at this time.We apologize for any inconvenience. Perhaps it is due to a connection problem, perhaps the link is no longer valid or you have directly selected a page that no longer exists in the specified directory |
Wow, DHL Germany really don’t have things under control here. Let’s flip over to DHL’s main site and take it from there.
First of all we need to chose our country, currently Canada… Now let’s enter the reference number we’ve been using on DHL Germany’s web site and “Shipment/Waybill not found”.
Okay, I’m a persistent fellow, let’s give DHL Canada a call and find out what’s going on… I give the reference number to the woman at the other end and “that’s too long”. Hmm, tell her it works on DHL Germany web site, she goes to the web site and tries it out and confirms it does but that it doesn’t work on their system. She tries a few searches on my name, from Germany to Vancouver, nothing, nada, zip and suggests I try contacting DHL Germany or the sender to get a “proper” reference number.
The real icing on the cake of course is the “About DHL” page states:
DHL Express offers seamless service worldwide.
I can see a very big seam here between Germany and Canada.
Expertise around the globe.
Not much use when the people with that expertise are sat behind a number you can’t call from outside their country.
One world. One express and logistics company.
But not one system or tracking mechanism.
[)amien
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