DHL Express India — Failure of DHL to conduct work on time - asking receiver to pay

Address:

Plot No. 66 Anand Engineering MIDC Road number 13, Andheri East, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400093.

A gift was being sent to me by a company as an act of gratitude. I do not work for this company and share no consumer relationship with them. It was a gift stemming from a meaningful moment in a conversation.

Despite my details being correctly provided by the company, DHL Express India did not reach out to me. They do not contact me on my given phone number nor did they write to me on my given email address.

I called after the shipment was long overdue, and they said my KYC was due. I completed my KYC. After that they said there is a problem with the bill since the invoice has a value of zero. Of course the invoice will have a value of zero, this is a gift. The company machine invoice generator put in a meaningull moment discount code which shows that I had to pay nothing for it.

I started a 3 way chat on email with the clearance agent, the sender (company) and myself. I provided the screenshot of the invoice, the company provided the screenshot of the invoice. The clearance agent did not help. He sent an excel sheet asking for us to put in details we already had provided him with (this is his job to plug in the details). I called DHL to complain and they said that the clearance agent cannot do it because the excel sheet has to be printed and signed on. This was a complete lie because I did not print or sign on the excel sheet, nor did the company. I had to manually do this plugging in myself, and then the clearance agent processed it.

After all these delays from DHL's end, they are saying by customs law I have to pay for customs duty, IGST, warehouse charges, surcharge, disbursement fee, CGST and SGST totally amounting to INR 5348.02. This is completely unacceptable. The delays, faults and charges are all due to DHL India. These taxes and charges incurred are more than the total amount of the product also.

The cost should be borne by DHL India for this. The delay is their fault, the confusion is their fault, they were not proactive, and no one reached out to me. If I had not called and inquired about the shipment, no one would even call to tell me a KYC is required.

The number of my courier is :AWB [protected].

I have email proof of the conversations taken place, proving that DHL is at fault, neither the sender nor the receiver.

I am a student and do not even have INR 5000. This is a gift which was sent via courier. I do not know why an invoice was necessary, we all send gifts to our relatives across the world, there is never a price tag attached.

This has been harassment, this has been a sad experience, and this is an exploitation. I am sorry and let down by both, the Customs charges on a student receiving a gift, and DHL's unprofessional conduct.

You can write to me at [protected]@gmail.com