Address False - How can I persuade a courier that I exist?

Move to Spain.

best Wishes

Mick.

Enormously funny

for you.

Not my fault you still haven't developed a sense of humour - except when you are doing the jokes...

I buy a fair amount of stuff from Amazon UK (well Amazon EU  really ) and it gets shipped from either the UK or Germany. Sometimes they choose to use DHL and I always have problems with them (the latest was last week).

Is the DHL depot close enough that you can get them to hold it there or get them to deliver to the nearest post office maybe?

I'm not gonna be that helpful Alan,  but maybe something in the following might have an idea that could work for you.  

In my old (pre-retirement) job I had 2x field reps in France

One lived in the Centre region, in the boon-docks a few km outside a small town. He had huge DHL problems; if we shipped an urgent part from the factory (Ireland) were we had only a DHL parcel shipping contract, it either got lost or seriously delayed.  My customers only accepted overnight service - with a complaint anyhow because of downtime. 

My guy went to DHL HQ in Paris & the "local" (far away) depot to try & sort it,  no luck despite promises from senior mngt.  If fact after his meetings it got worse. He (or his wife) even resorted to hanging out signs "DHL ici"  

We gave up & I aprvd my factory team to take it by hand & pay cash to UPS who were excellent. But it caused bean counter dept problems with me signing off on UPS.

Eventually we tried again with DHL & addressed it to the village "Town Hall" were my guy was M.le Maire every few years or so, and that worked.  The (only) person in the office would phone his home & he, his wife or kids would collect.  

My other guy lived in Marseilles were he had superb DHL service & it was a constant joke & banter between them.

My point is I think I would get it addressed to a town central &/or more well know address like  Post Office (as bananahead suggests) or even a friendly local shop.  

Adam,

From reading your own contributions for years, I feel sure that if you saw the question posted: "How can I tell my courier that I exist", you would reply something like "send him a book of cartesian philosophy"

Cheers

Don, downtown York

Not sure if this might be relevant but years ago we noticed that some of our mail wasn't being delivered. Our house was built behind another house which was number 90 and we became number 92. Except someone in Auspost ( we were in Brisbane ) decided that we should be 90a or b can't remember the details but that doesnt matter as you will see. At that time I was doing some data cleansing including trying to correct or complete customer addresses. I eventually used software called Quick Address to do this and we built it into our UI so that it could auto complete an address from just a few key strokes. The software used as it's data source data supplied by Auspost so I asked them what happens if an address is wrong at the source. They told me that a new address database was issued every quarter and until our address was corrected by this quarterly address update we could expect mail to still go missing. Knowing this I then asked a few of the companies whose bills were going missing if they used this software and eventually they told me that yes they did. So although the software did exactly what it was supposed to do it was inflexible when the source data was bad.a

of course all of that becomes moot if it is just deliveries from DHL that are going missing But then they might have their own database or not paid for the quarterly update ... Or they are just plain incompetent.

Anyway good luck in resolving this Adam.

Scott

Steal one of their vans and park it in your drive.

We had a slight mishap

Adam,

You can empathize here :

http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=1603

Mark - this may be the only solution. One problem might be determining what addresses they do acknowledge in my area.

I also suspect the problem arises from the postcode being entered and my house not appearing in the list of properties sharing the code. I once enjoyed a month in Bath when the Post Office told me I didn't live in Hamswell Cottages but the (non-existent) Hamswell Lane in Cold Ashton.

There is a satisfyingly Kafkaesque despair in repeating "I know where I live and so did you a month ago. Please stop trying to deliver to a non-existent address and give my post back to Eddie" - our postman who would note when you were away and deliver to a neighbour.

As to getting DHL to hold a parcel - so far nothing we have done in the way of notes or annotations seems to overcome the sub-bureaucratic satisfaction their agents derive from the computer telling them that someone hasn't followed their rules.

And, it might just be me, I don't think it is up to me to do their job. I know the wise man adjusts to things as they are, rather than as he would like them but a method to help DHL reach their full, distant, potential seems the better long-term solution.

Adam

We send stuff to our office in Palma, Mallorca and she has the same problem, so our address labels state (in big bold letters and highlighted, so that's not necessarily something you can insist on your senders do):

"For collection by recipient from DHL office, call: )

(In Spanish as well obviously)

This works, although she does have to drive to the airport to collect. Probably worth the hassle for something as important as a passport.

A second alternative might be to see if you can get your postcode changed/reallocated. I managed this. My flat is technically in the next village, some 7km away, because it is the 'wrong' side of a river. We continue to pay local taxes to that village, but they have obviously struck a deal with 'my' village whose vehicles come to collect the rubbish and so on. I visited the post office where I live and explained the situation. They agreed that we could use the village's postcode, rather than the 'correct' but misleading one, and everything is now delivered fine, even the tax demands from my actual village (who also changed which code they use). Things sent to our address but with the old/correct postcode will get to us eventually (well at least some things have) although they go to the wrong sorting office first.

Lastly, you could ask the UKPA to deliver to, and hold your new passport at, your nearest consulate. I'm sure they would agree to do this, although it might be a substantial trip for you of course, and doesn't help the ongoing DHL problem.

Bon chance

Rod

Another 'problem' seems to be that I use a Skype Number for my telephone calls - the house line is for internet access, the use of PGs during the summer and torrents of incoming publicity.

When asked why they had not called me they said "The number provided is not a telephone number". Wrong format and yet, if you dial it, it works.

Last time I provided landline, Skype and mobile - it makes no odds.

A brief memory of a delivery that did get through.

I was visiting Noel Cloney's basement shop in Dublin when we heard a loud crash, followed by a second and a third. We both went to the front door and looked up to the railings on the street.

The delivery driver was just balancing a fourth loudspeaker carton prior to tipping it over.

Noel requested that he take the debris and leave.

+ 2

Supex cartridges used to be packed with a tiny vial of stylus cleaner - main active ingredient alcohol. Customs.

Rega would send over the odd free sweatshirt with a consignment. The customs office was oddly green after we'd persuaded them to "throw away" the problem item.

Wow - I have twice in years past had classical guitars shipped to me from Paraguay, and they used DHL.  After reading all this, I feel very fortunate to have gotten my parcels at all!

We used to use DHL.....short for Dont Hurry Luv when i had the business. 2 things stick in my memory

1/  I watched them unload a 40 tonner once at their Croydon depot,loaded to the hilt, If your small parcel was at the bottom and not well packed it had no chance of survival.

2/  I sent a parcel to a Motorcycle dealer in Lower Stone St,Maidstone. Parcel came back with a note saying street number required. OK i hold my hands up i left the number off the address,but this dealership was so big a blind man could not miss it.

Mista h