my experience with DHL,Garmin TW and Kastam Diraja Malaysia

[pgcity]

there's at least one or two more nasty emails that need to be sent to DHL for screwing things up after i get my GPS.

[pgcity]

sorry for the caps..but I GOT MY GPS BACK

[pgcity]

will update what has gone on in the last 2 months after taking my GPS for a test drive.
still don't believe it. but I GOT MY GPS BACK.

what a way to end 2009. geez. i hope 2010 is much nicer to all of us.

[pgcity]

well..it's been 3 days since i've reaquainted with my old GPS. Whatever it is that Garmin TW did it's working great now. I can lock onto satellites in less then 20 seconds. It used to take about 3-5mins at best and 10mins at worst before it finally died. Now it's even faster then when it was new.

As for the DHL fiasco, about 3 weeks back I finally decided to give up on getting my GPS ever from customs. DHL said it would cost about RM500-600 to get the AP and pay the 3rd party freight forwarding company to get things sorted out. That was the final straw. there's no way in hell i was going to pay the amount which can get me a brand new unit instead. So i said fine...dispose the unit.DHL and customs, if you want it so bad..keep it.

A few days go by, i get a mail from Garmin TW asking why i chose not to accept my package. Wrote to them explaining that Customs is asking for a ridiculous sum of money and i rather buy new if i knew all this trouble would have happened.It has been a complete waste of time and money to repair.It was a painful lesson.

Another week passed by and out of the blue i got a call from a very nice lady who works as a supervisor in DHL Customer Service.This happened right before i thought of going to CAP and lodge a complaint.

Unlike the idiots i dealt with on their support hotline, this lady politely asked all my details and said she will intervene personally and keep me updated. I emailed her everything that has happened. Every 2 days she emailed me back with progress updates and finally early this week she said there's hope that i could get the GPS back. Now here's finally one person who knew what she was doing and did not treat me like a football.

One commendation letter was sent to the nice lady from CS for her outstanding job in helping me get my GPS back.DHL should let her train the confused support personnel on their hotline. I also got a letter of apology which got my name wrong and was condescendingly written to apologize on the wrong issue..and delivered 2 months after it happened.that just infuriated me more.

Wrote 2 or 3 nasty mails to DHL cc'ing their Customer Service Manager,Country Manager,US CEO, German CEO etc... and i got a response back which i've reproduced below with names removed.

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"Dear pgcity,
 
Thank you very much for taking my call and once again I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced with our operations team in Penang and Customer Services in KL.
 
Additionally I would like to thank you for your kind words directed to CS Lady. She certainly is an asset to the Customer Service team and I would be more than happy to share your compliment with the Customer Service team in DHL Express Malaysia.
 
I have spoken to other managers regarding your unpleasant experience.
 
As per our conversation, allow me to speak to the individuals in operations Penang and the contact centre in KL to obtain some additional details on top of the current chronology of events that we have.
 
I will revert to you by this evening today 24th Dec on the corrective measures we will put in place. In the mean time please do call me directly if I could be of any assistance.
 
Thank you very much for your feedback."

==============================================================

later the same day, i got a few more calls from this person and one last email

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"Upon investigation I acknowledge that our operations staff in Penang (where the shipment was lodged) did not identify the consignment as a repair and return as a result - incorrect customs paperwork was prepared which has caused confusion and delay with the clearance team in Penang. The staff concerned will be counselled and re trained to ensure a thorough verification of the customer invoice is conducted and correct repair/return procedures or requirements are communicated.
 
My apologies for the experience you had with our customer service and I have identified the individuals that need to be coached immediately on sufficient status updates and follow up to customers. On behalf of the customer care officer, I apologize for the incorrect spelling of your name in her letter to you. I can confirm that the apology letter was sent to you on the 28th Nov but I am concerned that it only arrived 3 days ago - I will review of our mailing logs/process.
 
Rest assured my team and I will endeavour to ensure this incident will not be repeated again.
 
I sincerely thank you for your feedback and will learn from this mistake.
 
Please do contact me directly if you have any other shipping requirements with DHL Express Malaysia or if there is anything else I could assist you with."

i did email them back and said if they want to do this right for other GPS enthusiasts they could do so very well on this forum. Garmin TW seems to exclusively use DHL currently when they ship repaired items back to us, so if anyone from the forum has any issues, we should know how to contact and get in touch with DHL to solve our problems. I don't know if they'll take up the request but if i learnt anything from this harrowing experience is stand firm and pursue all avenues before giving up in dealing with whichever .

Would i ever use DHL again? It was big of them to admit their mistakes and take corrective action but i believe it is merely academic now and they only did so after i was willing to lose my shipment(about RM600-700) worth. It didn't have to be this difficult or this long. I may have forgiven them but i won't ever forget this episode. I am posting this on this forum so that other forummers would also be cautious in their dealings with DHL or any other such companies in their dealings.

If there's a bunch of things i've learnt, in no particular order here they are:
1. IMHO if your Garmin GPS dies, in my opinion buy a new one. the difference is very small i think if you're willing to settle for something with a little less feature then your current unit.

2. Always check with your freight company on rules and regulations. The guy/gal sitting at the counter may not even have a clue.Your best bet is check with ppl on forums like this or with the respective freight companies. Malaysian Customs website isn't something easy to navigate. I suggest you ring them up to check on procedures and forms I still say it's a gamble ..cuz incidence like mine though rare..can easily happen to you too.

3. If anyone screws with you when you know you are correct, make your point and case clear, start finding out who their superiors are and get in touch with them. CEOs, PRESIDENTS etc..those should be the ones you email to.

4. If it was not for Garmin TW's pressure(they are a huge DHL customer) i doubt any big company like DHL would even bother doing their work and would have just thrown you aisde THANK YOU GARMIN.

5. CAP and others like it are there to help you. Although i did not use them, they were just one more day away from me lodging a complaint against DHL.

6. Think about option 1 again and dump your old GPS.i know i would the next time it happens.

I'm glad my GPS is back with me.on a side note, It's amazing to see how much Malfreemaps has improved in just 2 months. Boy there's so much more detail on the maps that it's outstanding compared to malsingmap.

again, i like to say that everything above is my own humble opinion. You decide what's right for you. Good luck.

[doraemon]

Malaysian Customs website isn't something easy to navigate. I suggest you ring them up to check on procedures and forms I still say it's a gamble ..cuz incidence like mine though rare..can easily happen to you too.

Then how the heck they got their "overall satisfied" KPI score commented by our PM earlier?

Either
1) The appointed minister dunno how to do set the target or scoring
2) Our PM is telling lies.

[pgcity]

thanks for fixing the post and making it more readable.on your 2 questions, i have no idea which is which but there's always room for improvement.