Boycott DHL: Update

I've talked about the Customs putting duty taxes on books contrary to an international agreement that the Philippines was a signatory to years ago to meet their revenue targets, and DHL automatically paying such duty taxes without consultation or chance for review by us recipients and therefore we are supposed to pay for any artificially inflated duties.  Anyways, we've complained, diplomatically, to DHL about the inflated shipping charge on which the duty was based on, and guess what.  The fun never ends.

So I mentioned yesterday that the shipping costs for our shipment was only 29 USD but on DHL's statement it says 55 USD and so duty taxes being levied on us were artificially inflated.  We complained about this and essentially, a certain Ms. Rose from DHL essentially told us (not verbatim), "That's the standard shipping rate used in these computations, and it's the one for shipments from the US.  You should be thankful to us because they did not use the standard shipping rate for shipments from Japan which would have been higher."

YES FOLKS, DHL CLAIMS WE SHOULD EVEN BE GRATEFUL TO THEM IN THIS SITUATION. Personally, I would be more grateful if DHL closes shop in the Philippines.  Heck, wherever else they are a pain in the lower back of the people there.

So next, calmly we asked them for documentation as to where such "standard shipping rates" are listed.  Ms. Rose confirmed that there is such a thing of course and that they can produce the document, but she asked us to look for it instead ourselves on the (Philippine) Bureau of Customs and the IATA websites.

This is what I call WASHING THE HANDS.  It is also called BEING IRRESPONSIBLE.  Sadly, on DHL's website you can see they would like to be RESPONSIBLE... to the environment and to little school kids (awwww).  But apparently NOT TO THEIR CUSTOMERS.  In our case, they probably don't consider us as customers.  So what do they consider us (recipients of parcels)?  Nuisance?  That's how I feel in all this mess.  They don't think that we could be potential customers in the future.  I guess they don't want that to happen.  And I can tell you with this incident, that will never happen.  Unless, like the liars that they are, they change their name (from DHL) and no one knows about it.

Anyways, this is also what I consider "diversionary tactics."  This is what LIARS and SCAMMERS do when they have lied to you and are scamming you.  For example, a liar/scammer would approach a young, innocent child and ask him to "donate" 100 pesos to a certain charity, and he gets to receive a special gift right away (worth much less than 100 pesos), and that his name and other donors' names would be announced tonight "at 8:00pm on radio station XXX."  So what happens is the scammer runs away with the poor child's money, and there really is no such announcements on any radio show.

This is exactly what DHL is doing by diverting us to go visit the Customs and IATA websites when IT SHOULD BE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO PROVE TO US THAT THEY ARE NOT STEALING MONEY FROM US.

I mean come on, if you are really willing to help, you don't have to "divert" us.  Just do it.  Or you can just say "I'll get back to you."  No need for diversions!  BUT NO, WE WON'T EVER BE GRATEFUL FOR SERVICE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO GIVE US ANYWAY, BECAUSE IT HAS ALREADY BEEN PAID FOR.  If you are unhappy with your job, or unhappy with certain customers, then change careers!

Anyway, this is very, very unprofessional of DHL, in my opinion!  Yes, DHL Management.  If you didn't know yet, your staff reflect what kind of people you are.  If you think you need to remove some people from your staff... and I think you will think of doing just that...  I think an overhaul is necessary if you ever want to gain trust from us every again.  For now, no, never DHL again.  There are just other better options out there.

Boycott DHL!

By the way, I am not affiliated with any other shipping/courier companies.

Anyways, for more interesting reading, visit these forums:
http://www.gamingnewslink.com/2008/07/30/bureau-of-customs-taxes-on-play-asia-orders-to-the-philippines/
http://bmpm.abs-cbnnews.com/blogs/ems-post-office.html
http://forums.ebay.ph/thread.jspa?threadID=600000275&start=0

As I mentioned, the Bureau of Customs' crime against the Filipino people, and their getting away with it has led to companies such as DHL apparently taking advantage of these situations, further adding insult to injury.

From the experiences of other people, another entity to avoid is this certain Post Office in Pasay, where usually most parcels sent by EMS are dropped off.  Customs officials there are said to have this "You're wrong, I'm right, if you really want your parcel, pay me whatever I tell you to pay me" attitude.  I am so over this attitude; I hear it a lot from cops in the Philippines.  But hey, I'm not saying it's only in the Philippines.  I experienced such an attitude from a cop in India as well.  I think you could expect something similar also in developed nations like Japan.  Even if the whole world was doing it, that doesn't make it right.