Funny story with dhl

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
Hello

A funny story happened with me today. Last week I wanted to buy a basketball shoes fro my brother from UK. The first problem was what is his size?? in EU 48 in US 14 but in UK? I wanted to order for 13 but he insisted on 14, so I requested it on his responsibility. The order arrived three days ago but the dhl officer did not find my apartment, two time he came and couldn't find it so I had to call them to repeat the same information , at last the box arrived, but the shoes are bigger than his size so I have to exchange them. I went to the dhl and after looking for their office, fill the application and put the shoes in another box. I wanted to pay the bill, it was 135 fr it is incredible, 135 fr to exchange shoes costs 44 fr . So, I collect my courage and told the officer to cancel all things and run away it is cheaper to buy another pair. the end

2
I'm not entirely sure I understand your story, but extra costs will be customs duty for importing from the EU into Switzerland. The Swiss customs and DHL have your address so will come for their money I'm sure.

3
Well you and your brother need to realise that measuring a shoe is not easy. It is all explained here, and at the bottom is a conversion chart,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_size

So if you buy an Asian shoe in the US is it a true US size? They may have sent UK shoes to the US simply to fill an order!

.

4
So let us get this straight - you mess up and then you dump everything on DHL and expect them to clear up your mess for you?

This is Switzerland and they ( as in DHL and the Tax authorities ) have your details. You can refuse to pay, but they will continue to send you bills - with other charges - and they will keep mounting up.

I think there might be a way out of this, if it is a similar set up to Norway. I had the same happen to me when I was there, and I didn't have a problem with the taxes, I just felt that I should be taxed on the actual cost of the goods that I ordered, not their original non-sale cost and postage! So I complained to the tax office and did not take receipt of the goods . This is important as it meant that I did not accept the charges. The option I was given was for the goods to be sent back to the supplier at the cost of the Norwegian Tax Office, which is what happened. I then had the goods sent to my home in the UK and picked them up when I went there.

Oh, and somehow I forgot to mention it to the tax office when I brought them over to Norway...

Mea culpa.

5
A) What is included in those CHF 135.-- ?

B) What is included in those CHF 44.-- ?

C) Did you ask for the lowest speed class of DHL service ?

6
Oh, I was so sleepy when I wrote this thread, so it is not clear

44 fr is the price of the shoes, DHL delivered it to my apartment and they did not ask me to pay anything

but I wanted to change it because of the size, so I took it to the DHL

I made the application for sending it back to UK, but when I wanted to pay the cost of shipping, it was 135 fr. So, I canceled the process and decided to buy another shoes.

7
So you ordered in the UK, had the shoes sent to Switzerland, even though the final recipient of the shoes is in the UK?

And now you complain because you spend a lot on postal charges and tariffs?

8
No, I only paid 30 fr for shipping from UK to Switzerland. But when I want to return the shoes to UK, I should pay 135 fr. Because returning is on my responsibility.

9
Not totally unexpected. Large online-businesses have special rates with DHL/UPS etc - they get deep discounts.

I suggest, next time you send a voucher to your brother.

Avoid physical shipments.

10
Absolutely. The courier firms have the most wonderful sense of humour when it comes to pricing individual deliveries. Well over a hundred francs to send a sheet of A4 to further reaches of the world. As a corporate client/hard-nosed frequent consumer things become much much cheaper. As an infrequent consumer one is better of with the post office - although they are hardly cheap for parcels. If you do it yourself BA are remarkably friendly offering an extra 23kg suitcase to the UK for less than 50 francs!

11
A) The UK sender most likely has a favourable "company-tariff"

B) They most likely send it by the low-priority low-speed variant

C) DHL here tried to sell you the fast-express service

For your private needs, you better use the normal postal service and send it "Economy-Registered". If the package is less than 2 kgs and the combined measurements are less than 90cms, you can send it "Economy-Maxibrief-Registered" for CHF 38.-- .... the next step up however is already CHF 53.--

.... and so, you should have given him a voucher, because is something you have to try in person, as the size does not mean much in reality