About DHL express shipping
I recently ordered the RZE endeavour ross ice. I'm incredibly excited for it as I love Antarctica and love the idea of having a durable watch that I can wear anywhere without having to worry too much about it. And the dial is simply gorgeous!
My question lies in DHL express shipping, specifically to Canada. I have no experience with this and have heard some bad things about it. Is there anyone on here who has experience with this service?
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Isaac
Thank god I have friends to remind me how little I need another watch...
Nova Scotia
Member since
Last active: 7 months ago
6.00” / 15.24 cm
I'm in the states and my experiences with DHL have all been positive.
DHL to the USA has been fine for me.
DHL is possibly the most chaotic shipping service. Often enough, everything works smoothly. Sometimes they strictly observe a signature requirement, meaning if you aren't there (or you are but they don't knock/ring), they don't deliver. More often, they ignore those requirements, leaving your valuable watch for any taker. Sometimes they contact you with a surprise fee (customs related, etc.) which you have to pay before they'll bring your package. Sometimes they'll mark the package as delivered before it is, causing a panic attack when it appears to be missing. Sometimes they will have actually delivered it to a different address, but refuse to confirm which one, leaving you blind as you try to find your watch.
For me, worst aspect of DHL is that opaque state when trying to resolve problems. It's so frustrating to get caught in worthless chat loops or phone menus, while your important item is floating off in a void. It *is* possible to get a person on the phone, and then they do tend to fix things up quickly, but it isn't easy.
I'm making them sound horrible, which is slightly unfair to the other shipping companies, who are also horrible. But they can be a real rollercoaster ride. One way to lessen issues is to use their app, which doesn't do much to resolve problems, but does at least give you a heads up when the driver is getting close so you or an agent can be by the door, or else make alternate delivery/pick-up arrangements.
Sorry I wasn't terribly reassuring, but it will *probably* be fine. I'm writing this from a US perspective; maybe things run better in Canada. And enjoy your RZE, they're great!
DHL is possibly the most chaotic shipping service. Often enough, everything works smoothly. Sometimes they strictly observe a signature requirement, meaning if you aren't there (or you are but they don't knock/ring), they don't deliver. More often, they ignore those requirements, leaving your valuable watch for any taker. Sometimes they contact you with a surprise fee (customs related, etc.) which you have to pay before they'll bring your package. Sometimes they'll mark the package as delivered before it is, causing a panic attack when it appears to be missing. Sometimes they will have actually delivered it to a different address, but refuse to confirm which one, leaving you blind as you try to find your watch.
For me, worst aspect of DHL is that opaque state when trying to resolve problems. It's so frustrating to get caught in worthless chat loops or phone menus, while your important item is floating off in a void. It *is* possible to get a person on the phone, and then they do tend to fix things up quickly, but it isn't easy.
I'm making them sound horrible, which is slightly unfair to the other shipping companies, who are also horrible. But they can be a real rollercoaster ride. One way to lessen issues is to use their app, which doesn't do much to resolve problems, but does at least give you a heads up when the driver is getting close so you or an agent can be by the door, or else make alternate delivery/pick-up arrangements.
Sorry I wasn't terribly reassuring, but it will *probably* be fine. I'm writing this from a US perspective; maybe things run better in Canada. And enjoy your RZE, they're great!
Thank you for the detailed response! I'll keep this stuff in mind!
I'm in Canada as well, and have had several items delivered through DHL with no problems. I much prefer seeing something being shipped via DHL than through UPS - I don't think I've ever had a UPS delivery that hasn't been f**ked up in some manner.
Should be no problem with DHL. Don't be surprised if you get a shipping/ customs bill for about 25 bucks. It seems FedEx Purolator UPS and DHL all charge $... Brokerage fee🤔
BTW, beautiful watch. You're a lucky bast... 🎉☘️
I live in a deeply rural area and DHL usually takes about 10-15 days to get to my door. I find it's consistently about a week faster than regular postal delivery, and it would be even faster except I'm pretty sure the DHL truck only comes to my town on Wednesdays.
However, both of my experiences with importing used watches with DHL have involved being shaken down for unpaid GST/PST, so watch out for that.
BTW, beautiful watch. You're a lucky bast... 🎉☘️
Thank you! I'm very excited 😊
I work for DHL Express, so was really interested to hear the feedback (the good AND more importantly, the not so good!).
Delivery approaches vary depending on how the SHIPPER wants us to deliver. They can request a signature, or they can choose to let us deliver to a secure location, a drop-box etc. So the variance is often dependent on the level of service your shipper has contracted with us. This can also include the shipper covering customs charges on your behalf (they often collect those charges at the point of sale - wound up in the retail price).
We generally do offer receivers some delivery choice too, so make sure your phone number and email address provided is correct.
Customs charges are tough. Because we do everything above board, we do need to properly declare your shipments to customs authorities (Canada is particularly strict and has very low thresholds for tax/duty free allowance). The US is also very strict, especially for watches, but they give you a little more tax-free value threshold to play with (look-up de minimis import thresholds for more info there). The US have a seriously old-school customs system for high value goods. Here in Europe everything is highly automated with machine learning and digital declarations - in the US, CBP are still reading hard copy paperwork and wet stamping stuff! Very 1980s..
I find most of the complaints customers have, are often related to uncontrollable customs legislation. Your governments have created the chaos, and we try to simplify it the best way we can. We definitely don’t want to make it more complex, our goal is deliver as quickly as we possibly can - safely.
Postal services are way less regulated, but also much more of a gamble. It’s unfair to compare express carriers with the regular post.
When it comes to solving problems, we are heavily focussed on delivering a great service for our customers. Yes, our front end CS tools are a little clunky (whose isn’t!?) but if you really need help, get someone on the phone, we’re here for you.
One of the most important aspects of our customer experience is the delivery courier. They’re really the only contact most customers have with us. We spend a lot of time making sure our employees are happy, motivated, and have everything they need. But sometimes, it’s really down to the individual to figure out the best “safe place”. We have guidelines, but it comes down to common sense in the end. It’s actually one of the trickiest challenges for last mile logistics - we can fly something from London to New York overnight, only to find the receiver isn’t in to take the package in the morning!
In some locations, we are forced to use third party delivery partners, this is often where the quality can drop a bit, but we are forced to do it to keep the prices down..
I think I covered most points, but do let me know if you’ve got more specific questions and I’ll try to help where I can.
I work for DHL Express, so was really interested to hear the feedback (the good AND more importantly, the not so good!).
Delivery approaches vary depending on how the SHIPPER wants us to deliver. They can request a signature, or they can choose to let us deliver to a secure location, a drop-box etc. So the variance is often dependent on the level of service your shipper has contracted with us. This can also include the shipper covering customs charges on your behalf (they often collect those charges at the point of sale - wound up in the retail price).
We generally do offer receivers some delivery choice too, so make sure your phone number and email address provided is correct.
Customs charges are tough. Because we do everything above board, we do need to properly declare your shipments to customs authorities (Canada is particularly strict and has very low thresholds for tax/duty free allowance). The US is also very strict, especially for watches, but they give you a little more tax-free value threshold to play with (look-up de minimis import thresholds for more info there). The US have a seriously old-school customs system for high value goods. Here in Europe everything is highly automated with machine learning and digital declarations - in the US, CBP are still reading hard copy paperwork and wet stamping stuff! Very 1980s..
I find most of the complaints customers have, are often related to uncontrollable customs legislation. Your governments have created the chaos, and we try to simplify it the best way we can. We definitely don’t want to make it more complex, our goal is deliver as quickly as we possibly can - safely.
Postal services are way less regulated, but also much more of a gamble. It’s unfair to compare express carriers with the regular post.
When it comes to solving problems, we are heavily focussed on delivering a great service for our customers. Yes, our front end CS tools are a little clunky (whose isn’t!?) but if you really need help, get someone on the phone, we’re here for you.
One of the most important aspects of our customer experience is the delivery courier. They’re really the only contact most customers have with us. We spend a lot of time making sure our employees are happy, motivated, and have everything they need. But sometimes, it’s really down to the individual to figure out the best “safe place”. We have guidelines, but it comes down to common sense in the end. It’s actually one of the trickiest challenges for last mile logistics - we can fly something from London to New York overnight, only to find the receiver isn’t in to take the package in the morning!
In some locations, we are forced to use third party delivery partners, this is often where the quality can drop a bit, but we are forced to do it to keep the prices down..
I think I covered most points, but do let me know if you’ve got more specific questions and I’ll try to help where I can.
Thank you so much for the detailed response! I don't think I have any more specific questions.
USA here… every DHL delivery I have received has been flawless. Congrats on a great watch!
I have a watch being delivered from France via DHL. Started getting notifications immediately. Ordered on Saturday and is scheduled to Deliver on Friday (Michigan). No issues with customs as the price was sub-$800. So far, so good...
I live in a deeply rural area and DHL usually takes about 10-15 days to get to my door. I find it's consistently about a week faster than regular postal delivery, and it would be even faster except I'm pretty sure the DHL truck only comes to my town on Wednesdays.
However, both of my experiences with importing used watches with DHL have involved being shaken down for unpaid GST/PST, so watch out for that.
GST is a funny thing. You have no choice when you're buying a watch from a local shop - they build it into the final payment at checkpout. But when you are buying from a foreign platform, you're obviously sending money to a foreign entity with no fiscal representative in the US. There isn't an infrastructure to collect tax from you and then pay that tax to the us government. So it's left to be collected in a separate transaction during the import declaration process. Being asked to pay more money at a later stage when you think the payments are all done is surprising, annoying, and a little painful to accept.
Europe have just launched a new initiative where the foreign sales platforms eg. Amazon US can register with the EU. When they sell from the US to an EU residet, they can collect tax at the point of sale, then they pay EU taxes on a monthly basis. A lot of large vendors like doing it this way because exactly as you described, people feel cheated if they pay once at the point of sale, but then are asked for more money at a later stage. So these larger platforms are volunteering to register in Europe to help ease the customer experience when importing/delivering the goods.
GST is a funny thing. You have no choice when you're buying a watch from a local shop - they build it into the final payment at checkpout. But when you are buying from a foreign platform, you're obviously sending money to a foreign entity with no fiscal representative in the US. There isn't an infrastructure to collect tax from you and then pay that tax to the us government. So it's left to be collected in a separate transaction during the import declaration process. Being asked to pay more money at a later stage when you think the payments are all done is surprising, annoying, and a little painful to accept.
Europe have just launched a new initiative where the foreign sales platforms eg. Amazon US can register with the EU. When they sell from the US to an EU residet, they can collect tax at the point of sale, then they pay EU taxes on a monthly basis. A lot of large vendors like doing it this way because exactly as you described, people feel cheated if they pay once at the point of sale, but then are asked for more money at a later stage. So these larger platforms are volunteering to register in Europe to help ease the customer experience when importing/delivering the goods.
Compliance is a bitch... I maintain a digital storefront myself and just keeping track of the different small-business sales tax exemptions in 10 provinces is maddening enough. I do not envy anyone who does e-commerce above the sole proprietorship level!!!