A little odyssey (and I’m not Dirk G at all)
I take the two packages out of the packing station’s locker, which is now routine: tap “Collect” on the display at the packing station, then call up the barcode in the DHL app on your smartphone and hold it in front of the scanner at the packing station. The locker pops open, I take out the packages.
When I get home, I open the first package and I’m surprised: Roald Dahl’s “On The First Day Of Christmas” may be a nice book, but I didn’t order it. Unlike Mia, I only look at the address label on the parcel after opening it at home and realise: I’m not Dirk G. at all!
I’m a bit embarrassed now that I opened this without looking at the name on the sticker. And I feel sorry for Dirk G: He definitely wants to give the booklet away for Christmas! His name is also on the other packet. How do I get it to him quickly now? While my parcels… well, maybe Dirk is holding them in his hands now?
In the tracking function of the DHL app, the two packages that I am expecting are shown as delivered. What is irritating is that both of them say that they were supposedly ready for collection on Tuesday (I hadn’t received a notification about this) and that they were also said to have been collected on Tuesday:
Screenshot: Tracking on Wednesday, after the first pickup
My order is also displayed as delivered in the shipment tracking of the mail order company where I placed my order. That doesn’t worry me much because the big American mail-order company has always been very accommodating to me when I have problems.
I am calling DHL to ask what to do. The hotline employee suggests that I go to the nearest post office and hand in the packages there. No, I really don’t feel like doing that, that’s why I had it delivered to the Packstation: so I wouldn’t have to queue at a crowded post office in the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle! “Oh, if you prefer to use packing stations, you can simply put the parcel back in the packing station. You can simply scan the code on the parcel at the Packstation and put it back in. Normally, in the evening, the packages that are still in the packing station are viewed by an employee and re-inserted. Then the correct addressee will receive a new message, and your packages will surely turn up again.”
Well, will that work before Christmas? I’m excited, drive back to the packing station and put the parcel back in.
And now a little odyssey begins:
While one of the two shipments for the (probably correct) recipient is already ready for collection the next day and will also be collected, the other is first reloaded for onward transport according to shipment tracking. A little later, however, this will also be ready for collection. And shortly thereafter, my app says that this has also been picked up. Just in time before Christmas:
And the package that should reach me? Reach me in time before Christmas too. According to the tracking, I even picked it up twice from the packing station.
Maybe Dirk G. had that in hand in between?
(Molinarius)