I never thought I would be interrupting my normal blog schedule to bang on and on about my absolute hatred for the postal service in Germany, but here I am – venting my anger for all the world to see. In fact, you know who I hope sees it? DHL and DPD becuase you, YES YOU are doing my nut in.


I don’t often get angry. But when I do...


Dear all postal services in Germany, this letter is for you (esp. if your name is DHL or DPD. GLS, you chill.),

To me it is a huge problem when you actually question making those amazon prime online purchases meant to make your life easier (which normally should be a godsend for a freelancer working from a home office half the time) or having people mail things to you for fear that it will: a) arrive too late, b) you will have to chase your package down yourself, or c) it will just never arrive at all. All three scenarios have happened to me multiple times since living in Germany.

Now sit down boys and girls of the German postal service and grab a cuppa, because do I have a story for you. It’s the tale of the little package that couldn’t and took 12 days (and counting) to get delivered since being dispatched from the UK.

The proof. Just in case you thought I was lying.

The story goes like this. Once upon a time there was a girl named Rae who was expecting a very important package for a very important blog collaboration with a very important company. Said package was meant to arrive in a timely fashion, a few days before items in said package were meant to be used for a Friendsgiving party.

But this is Germany and the german postal service we are talking about, where nobody gives a shit and put slips in your box informing you your package has been delivered to a neighbour since you were not home despite you sitting patiently at home all day for the damned doorbell to ring (Spoiler Alert: It never rings, they never come.) Which, to be fair, is still better than the other popular variety where no package or slip is ever delivered and you have to play the “who the hell in Berlin has my package?” game all on your own. But I digress.

On this particular occasion, a letter was not dropped into a letterbox because the address was incorrect. The package was simply not delivered at all. And so, after cancelling a photoshoot and sitting at home waiting for a package that never came due to DPD’s very precise text message informing her of the delivery of her package between 10:52-11:52 Rae picked up her phone and braved the annoying and DEFINITELY NOT FREE DPD customer service hotline. Her first call was unsuccessful, as the woman on the other end told her she needed to look into it and would call back. (She didn’t.)

Rae’s second phone call was a particularly noteworthy one. She explained the entire situation to the woman on the other end of the phone who just kept interrupting with the repeating words “Sendungsnummer bitte?” (Order number please?) Clearly this woman was not interested in hearing the specifics of the situation.

“I am trying to explain to you the situation. Is it so difficult to just apologise for the inconvenience?” Asked Rae incredulously.

“Well I need to have the order number to know if there is something I need to be sorry about.” Snapped the woman on the other end, un-phased.

Taken aback at the complete lack of sympathy or human emotion, Rae gave in and gave the woman the order number. The woman informed Rae of an incorrect address and emphatically stated that this was certainly not her fault personally and certainly not DPD’s fault, and clearly the fault of the original company who wrote down the incorrect address. (Rae checked in with the original company who sent out the package – they had the correct address.) She then told Rae if she was looking for an apology, maybe the original senders would give it. Rae effectively lost her fucking shit, and hung up on the insert-derogaty-word-here.

Determined to get her package, Rae called the hotline again, corrected the address once again, and was told her package would be sent out the next day. This particular pattern continued for several days into the following week, with the same result – Rae sitting at home cancelling appointments to be there when her package arrived for fear of encountering the “slip in the letter box” problem to no avail. 9 calls to the hotline, 5,40€ (yup, you have to PAY DPD when they fuck up) 4 promises of delivery, 1 promise of a call from a supervisor that never came, 0 apologies, and about an hour after the last promise of delivery later, with still no package in sight, Rae checked the DPD website to learn her package was given to a third party.

And so Rae did what any normal person in this modern nihilistic ego-driven world without any actual personal agency would do – she took to facebook and twitter angry-status-updated/tweeted about the whole goddamned situation.

The end.

Well, hell, I never said this would be a happy story with any kind of positive outcome.

The point is this. Why? Why have people stopped being able to do their job properly? I don’t want to say it, but, ONE JOB, man. ONE FREAKING JOB. And why is it apparently impossible to apologise? Is that not the first thing one learns during customer service training? If no one is willing to apologise and no one is willing to admit fault, then why don’t I still have my mother-fucking package? Why did I have to cancel very expensive photoshoots and meetings, and waste time sitting on my arse in my flat for something that never even ever came?

Is it a question of under-staffed companies full of underpaid and over-worked employees? If it is, then sort it out. Hire more people, pay the ones you have better wages and take some kind of goddamned responsibility. You are a fucking company for fuckssake. My job, as do countless other people’s jobs, relies on receiving post in the mail.

I understand that in the grand scheme of things, this is a relatively first-world problem. But it ceases to be trivial when I have to miss work and end up loosing money and time as a small business owner because something that should have been done right has not been done at all. Hell, I should be getting paid by the DPD cos I’ve done 90% of the work concerning getting my package and I still haven’t got it in my possession yet.

And please, for the love of all things that are holy and sacred, teach your customer service workers the value of a heartfelt “I’m sorry we fucked up” or just an “I’m sorry that sucks.” People seem so hellbent on making sure it’s known that they are personally not to blame when it’s not about them. It’s about a service not being done properly, and a small acknowledgement of how fucking inconvenient the situation is goes a long fucking way.

To be honest, I think there are some cultural differences that come into play here, as well as the shortcomings of putting profit over function/productivity but the main takeaways are these:

We are at your mercy. I can’t run over to the edge of the European Continent, swim to the UK jog over to a warehouse, pick up my package, and jog/swim/run all the way home. (Although I’m thinking that had I done that, I’de have long since had my package already.) I don’t like angry tweeting in all caps, trust me. No one does. But we live in a global community ruled by capitalism where I have little other options left than to be angry on social media. And so this open letter is my olive branch – albiet full of salt and swear words – to you, DPD (and you DHL, don’t worry I have not forgotten about you either) as well as all the other postal services who don’t seem to give a shit about the inconveniences their lack of caring and proper delivery causes.

You are only as good as your worst delivered package. And mine ain’t even been delivered yet. Sort your shit out. And then maybe we can talk. And I want my 5,40€ back! (To be read in the voice of Damien from Mean Girls.)

Sincerely, Rae

p.s. Stay tuned for the next story about the time it took me over a month to get my sofa.


The first ever LFB Q&A. Ask me anything.


Thank you to my November sponsor, Dee Shoots!

Stay conscious, Rae

Rae Tilly

Rae the EIC of LFB and YEOJA Magazine. She is also a photographer and social media influencer.

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  • Oyyy that is one heck of a story!! I really dislike DHL as well. I’ve had a terrible experience in the past with packages. Somehow they delivered my package to the other side of the country. Even though I gave the correct address. But, when I checked online with the tracking info, apparently it was delivered and accepted at the completely wrong place that was NOT the address I had put down. Luckily, the lady on the phone turned out to be really nice and apologized and fixed the issue right away. But it’s still crazy how they mix things up like that! The point of an address is to deliver it to that place, not to guess where it goes and randomly choose a location.
    So sorry to hear about your experience!! And I can’t believe you had to pay that much too! that’s insane!!

    ~Andrea Tiffany~
    aglimpseofglam.blogspot.com

    • rae

      Wow I am so sorry :( That is so annoying and you are lucky the woman was so nice because oftentimes I think if the people who accept the packages aren’t nice then they basically just get free shit!

  • Argh stuff like that is so frustrating especially when the customer service staff are only reading off a script and are unable or incapable of using their brain for one second.

    Nat // Dignifiable

    • rae

      Oh I agree entirely! I wish people on the other ends of customer service lines had some kind of emotion and responded like the humans they are meant to be, but nope!

  • This is so frustrating and I deifnitely feel you on that because I myself have struggled too many times with DHL and DPD that I can imagine how furious you must be! They do have ONE job and I seriously cannot think of any reasons why they would lack in their work place this way. I don’t understand how they can be so lazy and not even come to the door to ring. It’s a button on a door to press. Like, it’s not that hard. They don’t even have to walk all the way upstairs.
    Anyway, sorry to hear about this experience and I really hope that soon, somehow, they’ll improve their services and stop employing lazy asshats.

    Hugs,
    Hannie from Missing Wanderer

    • rae

      Oh I know it is so annoying! You do not live in Berlin, so it seems like the post is just shit all around in Germany!

  • Ugggh that’s super frustrating and unhelpful. Hope it ends up working out but gosh that’s way too much work on your end.

    • rae

      Thanks for the kind words, and at least I finally got it!

  • I know exactly how you feel. While studying abroad in Paris I had a very important package sent to me and I had missed the day the package arrived because I was with my class in another city. I returned and went to my local post office (I spoke barely any french and they spoke zero english) Somehow I was sent to a post office on the other side of Paris which took two metro lines to get to. There they told me my package was most certainly at my local post office. I told them that was not true that I was sent here to pick up my package. It was like talking to a wall. I headed back to my local post office and told them it had to be here, that the other post office did not have it. Impossible they said, it is not at this post office. I never got my package, it was sent back to the sender. I also have many stories with the postal services in Czech, and a dozen from Chicago which I have to say by far has the worst postal service system in the entire world. Hope you got the package and best of luck with the postal service. Can’t wait to hear your story about the sofa =o)

    https://dreamofadventures.blogspot.com

    • rae

      Wow your experience in Paris sounds like an absolute nightmare – and judging from what you say about the Czech Republic and Chicago, it just sounds like the post everywhere sucks! Haha and the sofa story – it’s a zinger.

  • That’s very terrible! Never thought Germany would have this problem. I thought they are efficient and timely.

    Hope you get it sorted out.

    • rae

      Sadly not in Berlin! Cannot answer for the rest of Germany but I have heard from other people that it is pretty shit all over Germany.

  • Nothing new in Slovakia as well. I had a few of those “incidents” at the Post Office as well. Once or twice I even got the yellow paper with a number or a parcel. They hadn´t delivered it to me because it was big. I thought: ,,Okay, that´s logical.” But when I went to the Post Office it was like .. whaat? You don´t have any parcel here .. I was seriously fucket up because it wasn´t the first time they “LOST” my package .. Eventually, some miracle must had happened, because they found the parcel. I don´t know, it had been probably somewhere flying in their office and uuh, suddently it fell on the ground or something -_-

    And with DHL .. Yep. I have an experience with this service as well. I was offered to do a sponsored post with a handbag. It was from our neighbours, Czechs, so I was quite suspicious, why was it taking such a long time to deliver it. But okay, I was thinking that they may forget to send it or something or they are just going to send it. But when a month flew, I contacted the certain e-shop. They sent me the order, with my bag, and the document, that I already received the parcel … And I was like wtf? Again? I had to properly explain what actually happened but even now I have still a feeling that the e-shop is thinking that I actually got the bag and simply don´t wanna make the post :(

    * Le blog de la Licorne *

    • rae

      Oh man that is so frustrating! Just last month I got a phone call from DHL cos they were cleaning out one of their box holding places and said they had a box for me – IT WAS IN THERE FOR A MONTH! And I never even knew it was missing because it was from a company and I had no tracking number, was not expecting anything, and never received a slip in my box. It was just chance that I ended up getting it. Another time an item from a company was just lost for good. I am so sorry to hear that experience with the DHOL and your sponsored handbag :( This is just the word for bloggers and social media influencers!

  • OMG this sounds so so annoying!! UGH

    Ash | Liakada

    • rae

      It really is!!!!

  • UGHHHHH. Private delivery companies in general! SO annoying! When Royal Mail try to deliver a package and you aren’t in they take it to the sorting office which is never more than 10 mins from home so you can collect it before/after work which is great. Private companies always seem to say ‘oh you weren’t in, so we’ll try again tomorrow when you won’t be in’. I find Amazon is the worst but I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced DPD as well. Ugh.

    • rae

      I know I cannot agree with you more. Sounds like the Royal Mail is absolutely awesome actually. And yes, it does seem like the general trend is that the more things become private the more shit they become!

  • ugh this is why i never ordered anything internationally. except for one but that’s another story to tell because other than that, i have never ordered anything internationally. it’s the shipping bullshit that always scares me ugh i can’t even. sorry to hear this happened to you. this was so unprofessionally done :(

    Milkboxed

    • rae

      Where are you from? Shipping within EU work out fine when the post decides to work, but I never order anything from back home in the US because the customs tax is just ridiculous and usually costs more than the item and shipping of the original item combined!

      • i live in indonesia, where some employees here can work like shit regardless of the industry they are in. sorry for my french but it’s the truth. as much as i don’t wanna sound racist or anything (because even though i reside here, i’m only indonesian by certificate, if that makes sense), i’ve dealt with and see locals here work like garbage according to their mood.

  • Oh gosh how annoying ): I like shopping in person because instant gratification, but we don’t always have the luxury of having these stores nearby. I don’t shop very much, and I shop online even less, because sometimes I’m skeptical about the reliability or shipping. It’s not too bad where I am in the States. Sorry to hear about the situation in Germany T_T I hope you get it soon!!! -Audrey | Brunch at Audrey’s

    • rae

      This is the thing – although I like the personal intimate feeling of interacting with real people, oftentimes things are too far away, only online, or we are extremely limited time-wise. Which is why one would hope the post could get their shit together enough to deliver things for those of us who definitely do not have the time to go hunting packages down, but oh well! I feel like I never had these kinds of problems in the US to be honest!

  • Romina

    I´m going through something like that. I´ve been waiting for a package coming from the US to Berlin. After checking every 10 minutes it says that it was “delivered”… but I was home. And no neighbor seems to have it either. Now I don´t get any response because they say that the package was “delivered” and the subject is closed. I´m really frustrates and disappointed.

  • Zubair Momand

    Hell No, this fucking shit has happened to me too. I mean, if these people cannot work with responsibility, why the hell are they even running this shit service.