RESOLVED: Sons Bass "lost" by DHL - please keep an eye out

[MattW]

Hi All,

Please keep an eye out for this bass.   Our 13 year old son bought this on ebay having saved all his pocket money and worked hard doing jobs over lockdown to be able to get one.

 Unfortunately it has been "lost" by DHL's Basildon depot, having last been scanned there on 12th October and then vanished.  How you loose a 3ft long 5kg package is beyond me, but the staff at DHL really don't seem to give a damn about trying to track it down.   It's a Retrovibe Davie504 signature sn S108226.  I wonder if perhaps it might turn up for sale having been "found" by someone having "fallen out" of the van.

Luckily we bought on PayPal so we should get his money refunded, but it could be some time before he can find a replacement as they are like hens teeth second hand and Retrovibe our totally out of stock, even if he could afford to buy new.

Also if you do see it then please let me know so we can report it to DHL/The local constabulary, and for goodness sake avoid UK Mail/DHL if you want your items delivered by a company that actually seems to care.

Also if anyone has a Davie504 sig in purple they would be willing to sell to a grateful 13 year old please DM me 😬

Edited October 31, 2020 by MattW

[Reggaebass]

It might be worth looking on Shpock now and again, you can also set an alert up for any basses listed, I’m on most bass sites most days, I’ll keep an eye out, it’s quite a distinctive colour  👍

[TomasFlats]

Is there a Cash Converters in Basildon? Might be worth a call to them?

[Owen]

It would certainly be worth an email to DHL's CEO.

[hooky_lowdown]

Did you have insurance by DHL? If so, claim that, and you won't be out of pocket, although it's a slow process.

I've had a bass lost before, apparently lost items (once found?!?) get sent to an auction houses to be sold as blind lots, this is a process used by all delivery companies I believe. So if it does turn up somewhere I may have been purchsed at auction genuinely. Hermes lost my bass, and subsequently "lost" items get sent to Birmingham (to some auction house there).

[MattW]

29 minutes ago, owen said:

It would certainly be worth an email to DHL's CEO.

Actually I already did, and just had a very quick reply!  He's escalated it and then I had a message from the head of customer services who is getting the depot to search for it.  Fingers crossed!

The Paypal refund will be easy enough, but would rather have the bass back for him!

Edited October 20, 2020 by MattW

[BreadBin]

35 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said:

Did you have insurance by DHL? If so, claim that, and you won't be out of pocket, although it's a slow process.

I've had a bass lost before, apparently lost items (once found?!?) get sent to an auction houses to be sold as blind lots, this is a process used by all delivery companies I believe. So if it does turn up somewhere I may have been purchsed at auction genuinely. Hermes lost my bass, and subsequently "lost" items get sent to Birmingham (to some auction house there).

I believe it's the person who booked the collection who has to claim on the insurance. Usually the seller, apart from those who insist on the buyer booking it (for this exact reason)

[Bleat]

DHL are the absolute worst. As above don't bother with them!

They managed to deliver a bass to a completely wrong location in a different county... never got resolved even when the shop tried to sort it out for me and they had admitted the error.. No attempt to collect from location and get delivered, and I was refunded by the shop in the end. They also managed to damage a load of products beyond salvage for my business not long ago. I was left to chase them after no delivery , no communication. Luckily shop resent more products which finally arrived unscathed.

[hooky_lowdown]

1 hour ago, BreadBin said:

I believe it's the person who booked the collection who has to claim on the insurance. Usually the seller, apart from those who insist on the buyer booking it (for this exact reason)

In that case the OP claims from the seller, even better (meaning they'd receive a refund faster).

[xgsjx]

DHL Customer Service can't be as bad as Hermes?  If something happens, there's NO contact info for any sort of customer service with them.  The seller has to sort it all out.  When I lived in Perth, Yodel seemed to be the better of them all.  Parcefarce were pretty crap too.

Best of luck with getting the bass.

Edited October 20, 2020 by xgsjx

[Burns-bass]

4 hours ago, Bleat said:

DHL are the absolute worst. As above don't bother with them!

They managed to deliver a bass to a completely wrong location in a different county... never got resolved even when the shop tried to sort it out for me and they had admitted the error.. No attempt to collect from location and get delivered, and I was refunded by the shop in the end. They also managed to damage a load of products beyond salvage for my business not long ago. I was left to chase them after no delivery , no communication. Luckily shop resent more products which finally arrived unscathed.

This happened to me too. They sent a bass destined for Germany to Spain. Never seen again...

1995 Stingray. So sad.

[uk_lefty]

I won't bore you with my DPD story, I've done a thread on it. My local Hermes carrier thinks getting the right village is good enough and has even thrown a parcel in through my living room window while i was out. A parcel for someone on the other side of the village. No idea why they chose my house/ window and then dropped a card round to the correct address to tell them it was with "a neighbour" and my address!! 

Anyhow, glad the OP got a quick response from the chief of the cretinous delivery company. They're all under a lot of strain at the moment but sadly their internal systems often don't help the people employed to face up to customers and explain what going on. Fingers crossed it turns up late, maybe a bit tatty looking on the box, but fully intact. 

[MattW]

On 20/10/2020 at 14:23, MattW said:

Hi All,

Please keep an eye out for this bass.   Our 13 year old son bought this on ebay having saved all his pocket money and worked hard doing jobs over lockdown to be able to get one.

 Unfortunately it has been "lost" by DHL's Basildon depot, having last been scanned there on 12th October and then vanished.  How you loose a 3ft long 5kg package is beyond me, but the staff at DHL really don't seem to give a damn about trying to track it down.   It's a Retrovibe Davie504 signature sn S108226.  I wonder if perhaps it might turn up for sale having been "found" by someone having "fallen out" of the van.

Luckily we bought on PayPal so we should get his money refunded, but it could be some time before he can find a replacement as they are like hens teeth second hand and Retrovibe our totally out of stock, even if he could afford to buy new.

Also if you do see it then please let me know so we can report it to DHL/The local constabulary, and for goodness sake avoid UK Mail/DHL if you want your items delivered by a company that actually seems to care.

Also if anyone has a Davie504 sig in purple they would be willing to sell to a grateful 13 year old please DM me 😬

Hi All,

So thought I'd update you on what happened. DHL couldn't find the bass, it was last seen on CCTV in the wearhouse the day before the last scan, then it went missing.  It's possibly it was damaged and "disposed of without being properly recorded", or that it went out on with an agency driver who couldn't find our address and then it got lost in the system.  They aren't sure and it may resurface in an auction as some of you have suggested.

There was 1 new purple burst available in the UK at Anderson's, and my email to the CEO resulted in personal contact from the head of Customer Services, who agreed as a gesture of goodwill to compensate Ollie for the extra so he could get that one.  They were very helpful, even reserving the bass for us so it couldn't be sold while they investigated.

So I have a very happy 13 year old who has a brand new bass rather than a used one, and I'm actually quite envious - it's a really nice bass!!

Do I think this would have happened without directly emailing the CEO?  Probably not given that I also emailed Customer Services independently incase the CEO didn't get my email and I eventually got a reply telling me it would be redelivered the following day, a week after I already knew they had lost it 😆

I probably wouldn't have bothered the CEO if it was just for me, I'd have just taken the PayPal refund and been cross, but I'm glad I took a stand for Ollie as he'd worked so hard and waited so long to get one.  He's busy slapping some RHCP's as I write this, so was well worth it!

Aside from this I also had 2 very kind offers for free basses for him, one on here and one on FB, and that also put my faith back in humanity and the bass community!

All in all a very happy end to this tale.  Thanks for all your input and suggestions!

[TheGreek]

It's good when somebody does the "Right Thing".

[Lozz196]

Great news, I’ll bet Ollie is very happy

[Burns-bass]

9 hours ago, MattW said:

Hi All,

So thought I'd update you on what happened. DHL couldn't find the bass, it was last seen on CCTV in the wearhouse the day before the last scan, then it went missing.  It's possibly it was damaged and "disposed of without being properly recorded", or that it went out on with an agency driver who couldn't find our address and then it got lost in the system.  They aren't sure and it may resurface in an auction as some of you have suggested.

There was 1 new purple burst available in the UK at Anderson's, and my email to the CEO resulted in personal contact from the head of Customer Services, who agreed as a gesture of goodwill to compensate Ollie for the extra so he could get that one.  They were very helpful, even reserving the bass for us so it couldn't be sold while they investigated.

So I have a very happy 13 year old who has a brand new bass rather than a used one, and I'm actually quite envious - it's a really nice bass!!

Do I think this would have happened without directly emailing the CEO?  Probably not given that I also emailed Customer Services independently incase the CEO didn't get my email and I eventually got a reply telling me it would be redelivered the following day, a week after I already knew they had lost it 😆

I probably wouldn't have bothered the CEO if it was just for me, I'd have just taken the PayPal refund and been cross, but I'm glad I took a stand for Ollie as he'd worked so hard and waited so long to get one.  He's busy slapping some RHCP's as I write this, so was well worth it!

Aside from this I also had 2 very kind offers for free basses for him, one on here and one on FB, and that also put my faith back in humanity and the bass community!

All in all a very happy end to this tale.  Thanks for all your input and suggestions!

The reality is tang in a system where margins are tight, problems happen.

My form belief is that the overwhelming majority of people on this work are good people and would never want a parcel to go missing or a child to be disappointed. 

Im glad your son got a bass, and commend the CEO for doing the right thing. For 99.9% of us, online transactions work ok.