Master Replicas switching to DHL shipping

[rad1701]

So, in MR's latest cost cutting move they have switched over the DHL for shipping. I think this is a bad move for a number of reasons. I'm curious if existing orders will have their shipping costs reduced now? I'm doubtful of this. I'm also curious if they will still require a signature at delivery. In any case here's a quoted passage from MR's recent email about this (the email with updates on the Enterprise and the Falcon, etc.):

Welcome the bright yellow truck. Master Replicas has just switched over to DHL for shipping. Orders currently in our system will be delivered to you by the friendly folks of DHL. Like any change, please bear with us as we work out any kinks along the way. So get to know your favorite delivery person in yellow. He'll be bringing you your collectibles from Master Replicas.

 

[SithLord]

I have always trusted and NEVER had problems with DHL regardless of what country I was shipping to or from.

I have had a couple of instances of parcel damage by Fed Ex....just my own experience. I like Fed Ex and trust them but those couple of instances made me think gee I might as well have gone with UPS and have the same damage for less shipping cost. :unsure

 

[animek]

WhatÂ’s the issue with DHL? As of today, I've used all existing transporter except DHL, are they worst than UPS? Then again bad services is usually localize to the peoples driving those truck. IÂ’ve seen the goods and the bads.

 

[MGC]

Maybe MR should sort out their current kinks before introducing more into the system.

 

[KarlBud420]

I work for the gov't as a contractor and they gave the shipping contract to DHL at the beginning of FY06 (maybe it was '05, time moves so fast). Prior to that we were using FedEx. Much of our work is time-sensitive and also needs to have a clear chain of custody for stuff like badges, etc.

After the switch, our packages were not arriving in a timely manner, the tracking information was not updated as quickly as FedEx, and some packages even went missing, never to be found (to my knowledge).

After about a month and a half of using DHL, a waiver was granted for us to go back to using FedEx and the problems stopped being problems.

I know FedEx is ridiculously expensive at times, especially when it comes to "Earliest Possible Next Day" deliveries, but sometimes it's worth it.

Bruce

 

[tripoli]

I work shipping items around the US and the world. I have found the following with shippers:

USPS: Cheap to ship, no tracking despite having a tracking system and you can get it fast or snail slow depending on the local. If lost, it takes 6 months to file a claim and 6 more months to get the refund on a claim. Shipping out of the country is easy, but once it leaves the shores, it depends on the destination country for getting it there reliably.

UPS: The most reliable, a little more costly to work with but worth it. You have to pack it well; they take beating, but always reliable on time schedules and getting it to the door. Don't ship out of the country with them; they are difficult and expensive to work with out of the US.

FedEx: Competitive on cost, average on getting it on schedule, the drivers don't know jack about getting it from the distribution hub to the actual street address. Dang difficult to deal with if they lose the shipment. Great tracking system. Wonderful to work with for out of country shipping, the least hassles to deal with.

DHL: Works between FedEx and the postal system. Works decently on the shipping and takes the strength of the postal system delivery away from FedEx which is weak. Absolutely useless on tracking as they hand off to the postal system screws tracking up. Fairly reliable. If it lost, good luck getting any answer on it.

 

[Gojira61]

<div class='quotetop'>(tripoli @ Aug 14 2006, 03:02 PM) [snapback]1300284[/snapback]</div>

DHL: Works between FedEx and the postal system. Works decently on the shipping and takes the strength of the postal system delivery away from FedEx which is weak. Absolutely useless on tracking as they hand off to the postal system screws tracking up. Fairly reliable. If it lost, good luck getting any answer on it.
[/b]

Joy......... :cry

Jim

 

[rad1701]

I pretty much agree with Trip's shipping assessment. One problem I personally have with DHL (except for damaging an MR saber from a dealer) is they don't deliver in outer areas consistently. I live out in a suburb that they don't go to everyday. When I called them once about a package being delayed, they said they were holding it on purpose until it was worth it to come to my area (this took almost an extra week). Now keep in mind, I don't live out in a cave in the desert somewhere. Just out in a NW burb from the Detroit area. Plenty of houses and businesses around me. And I have had issues with UPS too. About the only one I've had good luck with is FedEx - and they dump them. Ugh.

 

[KnightAsylum]

I would not see this as a negative thing.
I worked for 6 years for a comic book company and shipped everything from comic books and statues to original art on almost a daily bases within the U.S. and to many other countries.
In general they (shipping companies) all have good and bad points.
Based on my experiance - in general terms -
DHL - Best when shipping from within the US to another country - more expensive then the others.
Fed-ex - Easy to use, good tracking system, good discounts for companies - problems if package gets lost.
UPS - damages, damages, damages, and late - packages away seem to make it regardless.
USPS - Bad tracking - easy in the US, easy to send to another contry, but out of these hands when it leaves the US.

So I think it will be fine with DHL , no more reason to worry then any other shipping service.

 

[docholl]

<div class='quotetop'>(comicasylum @ Aug 14 2006, 12:24 PM) [snapback]1300307[/snapback]</div>

DHL - Best when shipping from within the US to another country - more expensive then the others.
Fed-ex - Easy to use, good tracking system, good discounts for companies - problems if package gets lost.
UPS - damages, damages, damages, and late - packages away seem to make it regardless.
USPS - Bad tracking - easy in the US, easy to send to another contry, but out of these hands when it leaves the US.

[/b]

That's pretty much been my experience as well.

 

[RKW]

Never had a problem with DHL yet.

The Germans have always been good at sending packages abroad.

 

[jcoffman99]

<div class='quotetop'>(rad1701 @ Aug 14 2006, 02:18 PM) [snapback]1300249[/snapback]</div>

So, in MR's latest cost cutting move they have switched over the DHL for shipping. I think this is a bad move for a number of reasons. I'm curious if existing orders will have their shipping costs reduced now? I'm doubtful of this. I'm also curious if they will still require a signature at delivery. In any case here's a quoted passage from MR's recent email about this (the email with updates on the Enterprise and the Falcon, etc.):

Welcome the bright yellow truck. Master Replicas has just switched over to DHL for shipping. Orders currently in our system will be delivered to you by the friendly folks of DHL. Like any change, please bear with us as we work out any kinks along the way. So get to know your favorite delivery person in yellow. He'll be bringing you your collectibles from Master Replicas.
[/b]

This isn't as much a cost cutting move as it is a customer request. If you look over on the rebelscum forums you'll see all kinds of horror stories about FedEX. The MR customer service reps frequent those boards often. If you ever have aMR problem go there and send a pm to Amy. She has yet to not fix a problem. One guys girlfriend destoryed one of his sabers in a fit of rage and she repaired it for him. This is more of a case of listening to customers than cost cutting IMO.

 

[tripoli]

DHL is not that much of a change from FedEx. I don't know that there is a measured strength of one over the other given the pluses and minuses. It will be interesting to see if this works out for them.

We work mainly with UPS given the best ease of working with a claim and the superior tracking. You pay for it, but we found it worth it in the end. We ship glass bottled products. Working at UPS during college gave me the insight needed to pack our shipments without worrying about the rough handling the package might receive. It happens with most all shippers given the amount of packages that have to be moved in such a short period of time, but UPS is just hard on them period. Luckily we see a damaged shipment maybe once to twice a year now with certain procedures now followed.

DHL is fairly new inthe field of such large mass shipping and has the leadership and finacial backing of Fedex to guide them along to not make so many mis-steps. We thought about going to them at one time , but they are too unproven to make such a large step to. I am interested to see how it works out with MR with their shipping.

 

[darthgoat]

They need to get this guy.

 

[rad1701]

I like darthgoats idea. Yes, all shipping places have their issues from time to time. But I'm still betting this is mainly to save MR some money.

 

[jedidave76]

the way i see it, FedEx really sucked for them....

...and frankly, i don't see DHL doing much better.

how about UPS?

 

[nwjedidave]

<div class='quotetop'>(comicasylum @ Aug 14 2006, 07:24 PM) [snapback]1300307[/snapback]</div>

I would not see this as a negative thing.
I worked for 6 years for a comic book company and shipped everything from comic books and statues to original art on almost a daily bases within the U.S. and to many other countries.
[/b]

scott -- who'd ya used to work for? It was Chaos. Comics in Scottsdale Az. for me... but only a short time.

 

[KnightAsylum]

***sorry for the off-topic post****
Hey nwjedidave - I worked as an Editor for Top Cow for 5 1/2 years - just left that job 4 months ago. Now I just work as a "freelance" Marketing Consultant for them - which in plain English just means they send me around the contry to all the big comic conventions to manage their convention presence.
Scott

 

[Mandalorian Gunslingerr]

i'm a supervisor for a DHL contractor here in TN, and hopefully I can offer some info for y'all...For starters, most of DHL's domestic operations are contractor based, they just took over Airborne Express's system a couple of years ago, so while we answer to the company, we're technically not DHL employees....the service areas and reliability of package tracking are pretty much subject to the size of a contractor's coverage area, just speaking for my station, we have 3 contractors responsible for covering a huge chunk of TN, VA, and WV, so we have quite a few extended service areas that only get delivery or pickup twice a week due to how much it would cost to run a driver out there versus how much revenue we would make from the stop(i hate to say it, but the DHL guys are being notoriously stingy with fuel bill allowances), plus getting tracking info from drivers in those areas is difficult due to communication limits.....as for damaged packages, i don't want to sound cavalier about it, but unfortunately, it does happen, and also, from experience there are just some drivers that are deadbeatsm you'd be surprised at some of the people we've had employed there and the problems they've caused(then again if i had FedEx or UPS's checkbook, i'd be in heaven)...Our domestic rates are cheaper, but we also try to have the "Anti-FedEx mentality meaning that the only way we can grow is by keeping the customers happy....i preach it constantly unfortunately, sometimes it dosen't take, but more often than not it does...i worked at FedEx for 6 years and no offense, but their customer service was awful, they didn't care about whether you got your package or not, and if you didn't, they just paid for it and said "oh well"....since our budget is considerably smaller, we don't have that option, we either get the job done and done right, or we're out of business, so i hope this switch works out and i have limited clout and resources, but if anyone has a question or problem, i'd be happy to help (and yes, i promise not to mis-appropriate any MR shipments that come thru my station :angel )

Sorry about the run on sentences,

Sam

 

[Darth Fetty]

<div class='quotetop'>(Mandalorian Gunslingerr @ Aug 15 2006, 06:43 PM) [snapback]1301175[/snapback]</div>

i worked at FedEx for 6 years and no offense, but their customer service was awful, they didn't care about whether you got your package or not, and if you didn't, they just paid for it and said "oh well". [/b]

That dead-on explains all my experiences with FedEx....
Every package I've had that has come in from FedEx has been late. Almost every time the tracking actually says "on the truck for delivery" and then the next day when I still didn't get it, "no attempt was made at delivery".
Once, I had a package three days late, and I called them up and asked about it. They said that I could drive over and pick it up from them.(40 minute drive) I did that, and when I got there, they said they couldn't find it. :angry

I am VERY happy at this change that MR made. I have no experience with DHL, but they can't possibly be as bad as the FedEx Ground service I have gotten through the years. It may just be my area, but they have been absolutely horrible...

Thank you very much MR..