Monday, June 11, 2007

Yay!

I have my quilts back. They don't appear to have been opened at any stage so all is well. The driver denies ticking the permanent export box, although he says that pretty much all packages are permanent so he does tick the box for people when they forget. Hmmm. I suggested he might want to check with the customer before doing that but he says it isn't worth it. Well that's nice to know.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay!
Glad to hear they are back after all the trouble.
Damn DHL may they get their comeuppance one day.
xxx

Beverly said...

Whoo hoo, I'm happy for you, although sad that folks in the USA won't get to see your wonderful work in person. Here's hoping the Houston jury loves Decadence!

rdemunck said...

Hello Ferret,

I just thought I would give you a little bit of insight. I have scanned the saga of your quilt and DHL.

This may or may not help you, but here goes:

I work for FedEx, and have a little bit of experience with International packages. Obviously, my experiences with FedEx might not be exactly the same as DHL works -- but I'm pretty sure that all shipping companies work about the same way.

1.) The confusion that you see with the times changing on the scans, and the fact that the package seemed to be moving back and forth between the US and the UK -- I know that sometimes with FedEx -- even though a package is scanned sequentially, sometimes the scans do not upload into the computer instantaneously. This will sometimes mean that the scans will be time-stamped out of order.
(For example, I've seen packages in the US that show being in Tenessee -- then show being in California -- then show being in Tennessee -- then, only an hour later, getting delivered in California.

2.) If a shipment got split up, it usually will get held up in Customs until the packages are reunited. If it is shipped as one shipment as two packages, the packages usually can't clear until they are reunited.

3.) Your packages "multiplying" -- you shipped two, but somehow suddenly showed as three. I've seen this happen with FedEx as well. Sometimes one package will somehow get scanned into the system again as if it were a new package. Various things might cause this -- most commonly, something awry with the label. It can also happen if it gets delivered somewhere it wasn't supposed to go, and then has to be picked up again. I don't know if either of these things happened to your package(s) -- but it's a possibility.

3a.) At least with FedEx, if a package had to be repacked. (Opened up for whatever reason and repacked into two separate packages, usually this is going to lead to the generation of a whole new tracking number.)

All that being said, I'm happy that they have come back to you in good condition. :)

Rachelle DeMunck