We talk about lists and gave them names to differentiate them, but the forwarder only communicated back the flights, and (earlier) the number of pieces in each batch / list. So I understand that you feel it’s vague, I feel the same, and can’t quite put it down to intended vagueness by them or just a combination of not being thorough and clear enough, and lost in translation. I for one try to always be as clear as I can be to the point of annoying people sometimes, but what I reported here is almost verbatim to what I got from them (minus a few spelling and grammatical corrections). I just choose to be positive and hope that when they say “the shipments” or “the goods” that they mean All the goods we sent them in those batches / lists, divided by region.
I think when DHL gets to scan it and know when they’ll be able to deliver it to you. Right now DHL doesn’t even know of these packages in Germany because they haven’t traveled with DHL yet; yes they have a DHL ticket, but they were on a different plane to get to the DHL service.
Compare it somewhat to you booking a ticket with KLM that also allows you to travel by train to the airport. Until you check in at the airport, your technically not on KLM’s flight yet, but you’ve already been issued the ticket.
No, you’ve got this wrong.
The shipments took a flight to Europe sometime before the 10th of June. After landing there they had to go through customs, they were expected to be released today to the logistic partner of the forwarder in Germany. They will arrange for DHL DE to pickup the batches, and DHL DE will then scan all the individual boxes in one by one. At this point the tracking actually starts to work and you can follow it.
10 days to reach, no. 10 days since they said they would start working on it, in which time they had to ship them from their Chinese warehouse (where we sent them to) to Hong Kong, and the customs there had to inspect the whole lot first. Once cleared and released to the warehouse of the forwarder in Hong Kong, they will arrange for DHL HK to pickup the batches, and DHL HK will then scan all the individual boxes in one by one. At this point the tracking actually starts to work and you can follow it.
Some comments were made earlier about us “blaming” DHL, and about their services for years.
Nowhere in my communication above do I blame DHL for anything. In fact, like I explained (again just now), DHL doesn’t even know about these packages until they scan them.
It’s like when you buy a stamp and put it on an envelope and put it in the mailbox on Friday night. If you tell me you put it on the mail and I check with the postal office they’ll say “we don’t know nothing about that letter”. Which is entirely correct, as in the weekends the mailman doesn’t empty the mailboxes until Sunday afternoon at 6. So until he does and they scan the letter back at the post office, they won’t know my letter even exists. If based on what they tell you you call me a liar, then that would not be fair really, for I did put the letter in the mailbox when I said I did.
Just like there’s a wait period in the weekend, so is there a wait period in our shipping. Only difference is that the wait period isn’t exactly clear nor constant, and instead of giving some leeway in these difficult times for cargo shippers and shipments (including DHL by the way, despite their years of good service they’re not immune to for example the decrease in cargo capacity on planes and increased prioritization of medical supplies for instance), some backers immediately jump on their phones and laptops and start to ask nicely/complain/heckle the fact that it took longer than 2/10/14 days, most of which is understandable and forgivable I guess.
So those who inquired with DHL (via phone or by using their tracking websites) days after getting a tracking label and were told that no such package was known to them, were not lied to by DHL or us. Nor are we blaming DHL for the delay in tracking to become active.