Noviembre 11, 2005
damn DHL
Two days ago I finally sent in my powerbook to get repaired, because the optical drive is completely broken. It's putting a damper on a lot of things to not have my computer. But in the past Apple has always been good about pretty quickly getting repairs done fast. And it's as easy as it can be - they send a box next day air via DHL, you put it in the box, call DHL for a pickup, it gets to them next day, they usually fix it in a day, and they send it back next day. So it's like 4 days usually.
Well, for some inexplicable reason DHL is taking 3 business days instead of 1 to get it to Apple. Plus there's a weekend in between. basically it was supposed to get to Apple yesterday and it won't get there till monday now. And DHL can't explain why. They just can't. It's just sitting at their sorting facility. Fucking bullshit. Apple, maybe you should think about switching to FedEx or UPS.
Posted by steev at Noviembre 11, 2005 11:58 AM
I don't know for a fact, but from knowledge culled from my years in the shipping industry (ha ha) things like this are determined mostly by cost. DHL is the shipper probably because they offered Apple the cheapest rate. DHL bought out Airborne Express to basically become competitive in the US shipping market (so they could be number 3 to UPS and FedEx), previously they were more known for European shipping. Airborne had lots of contracts for companies like Apple because of their cheaper rates, and DHL pro'lly absorbed those contracts. Airborne wasn't known for great service, and since Airborne makes the backbone of "The New DHL", there you go. Same thing happened a few years back when FedEx bought RPS to offer ground shipping to better compete with UPS. The quality of FedEx ground is finally catching up to UPS...
Now I will quit being boring.
could it have to do with veterans day or whatever the hell yesterday was? anyway, lame.
It is a real frustrating time to be computerless, I feel for that. Hope that DHL gets it figured out. I was waiting for a package from them a week or so ago, and it said it was out for delivery one day, but I knew it was a lie because it was a holiday. Then, the next day at 7:30 the web site declared that it was on the way to my house. The status didn't change until 23:30 or so, then it said the package was delivered at 9:45. WHAT! They left it with a neighbor but left no note for me. I was home all night, but the neighbor never came by until the next morning. How frustrating. If DHL would have left a note, I would have gotten a bit more sleep.
At least Apple in the US will send a box out to you. When I got soome new RAM for my G5, it didn't work in the 2nd set of slots, but it worked just fine in the 1st, 3rd or 4th. The hardware test CD said the slot was bad. The hardware was still under warrany, so I called Apple (well, actually J called, her German is better) and they said they won't send a box, despite what the hardware test CD says, and that I have to take it to a place that is 5 km away from home and at least 2km from the nearest bus stop. No, it doesn't matter that I don't have a car, this authorized rep has to verify it. Whatever. So I took my machine to the rep, who was very nice and verified the problem in 2 minutes. Luckily, he let me keep the machine until the new motherboard arrived, unluckily, Apple kept sending him the wrong board, until eventually he made me bring the machine back in and he kept it for a long weekend. Works great now. But having a box dropped off would have been much nicer.