June 14, 2023: Receiving Samples in Japan, DHL （日本でサンプルを受け取る、DHL）

As I wrote earlier, I had no problem sending samples from Japan to my foreign customers. But I had a terrible time receiving samples in Japan. That was my worst experience. It happened when I had a factory in China send samples to my home by DHL, a courier service. I was going to use the samples for a meeting with my Indian customer that was to take place a week later. As the Chinese factory had sent out the samples on time, I expected them to reach me in a few days. But I had had no contact from DHL at all for the next few days. As I was worried about what happened to the samples, I tracked the shipment on DHL’s website. Then I found that the samples were already in DHL Japan’ warehouse. So I called DHL at once to see why they were still in their warehouse. Then, I was told that they were kept in the warehouse since the address on the shipment waybill was illegible. According to them, the waybill got wet on the way to Japan, and the address became illegible. So I gave my address to them and asked them to reach the samples by the next day. But I was told that this was not possible and that it would take at least a few more days. As I could not wait for the samples for such a long time, I asked DHL to arrange for me to be able to pick up the samples at a DHL’s service center nearest to my home. But DHL refused to do so since the service centre was in a prefecture other than where I lived. In the end, I had to pick up the samples in a service centre which was in the same prefecture as where I live.
This was completely DHL's fault, and I did nothing wrong. But I had to waste about three hours travelling between my home and the centre. This experience taught me that DHL did not respect the samples as much as they do for business customers. As the samples were addressed to my home, DHL must have understood that they were for personal use. I still wonder what they were going to do with the samples unless I contacted them forever. They might have thrown them away.

　前日の記事に書いたように、日本から海外のお客さんにサンプルを送るのは何の問題もありませんでした。でも、日本でサンプルを受け取るにひどい目に遭ったことがあります。これは最悪でした。中国の工場に国際宅配サービスのDHLで送ってもらいました。サンプルは、1週間後のインドのお客さんとの打ち合わせ用でした。工場は予定通り発送してくれたので、数日以内に届くと思っていたら、一向に届きませんでした。心配になってネットで送付状況を確認したところ、日本のＤＨＬの倉庫にはとっくに到着していました。それを知って、同社に電話をしたら、サンプルに貼られていた送り状の住所が読めなかったため、倉庫に保管しているとこことでした。サンプルの輸送中に濡れてしまい、住所が読めなくなったのです。そこで、住所を伝え、翌日には届けるよう依頼したのですが、翌日配送は無理で、数日はかかると言われました。そんなに待てないので、ボクの家から最寄りの同社サービスセンターでピックアップできるよう依頼しました。そしたら、これも断られました。理由は、最寄りのサービスセンターはボクの家とは県が異なるため、配送できない仕組みになっているためでした。結局、ボクが住んでいる県にある同社のサービスセンターでピックアップする羽目になりました。
　今回の件は、ＤＨＬの完全なチョンボで、ボクには非がありませんでした。にもかかわらず、サンプルの引き取りに3時も費やす羽目なりました。この時に、個人宛のものは法人宛てほど大切にされていないことがよくわかりました。サンプルの宛先が個人だったので、個人利用と解釈したのでしょう。こちらから、電話しなかったらどうするつもりだったのかといまだに思います。