To improve customer service, we’ve stopped using DPD
DPD Estonia’s unexplained delays and damages are unacceptable.
We deliver sauna stoves from Estonia to help more people around the world build their saunas with quality design and technology.
In June of this year though, some deliveries by our courier DPD went a bit wrong. Some arrived damaged and some scheduled collections from the warehouse never took place until we made repeat requests.
We thought we should explain what happened, as best as we can.
The good news is that every customer affected is now happy and has what they ordered. That included us replacing stoves at our own cost. Also, there have been no more problems since then — although that’s because we stopped using DPD.
We initially only suspended our service with them temporarily while we expected the issue to be resolved. It was, afterall, only a sudden deteriation in service and we explained that we wanted to keep good relations with them regardless.
Three months later, DPD has still failed to respond to our complaints or make any apology.
Fortunately though, our alternative couriers are offering great service for roughly the same cost, enabling us to continuing delivering without changing our prices.
DPD initially requested that we complete a lengthy complaint form detailing and documenting each problem. We don’t like unnecessary bureaucracy and we wanted to preserve our working relationship so we said we would do this for the most problematic delivery, which damaged two stoves. It is clear that considerably heavy weights had been placed inappropriately and unevenly on top of the stoves due to the way both the boxes and the steel stoves inside had been damaged. In addition, there was clear evidence of water damage on the boxes where they had presumably been left in the rain.
We explained that if that one case was fully compensated and we weren’t charged for replacement deliveries then we would consider all the issues settled.
For the next couple of months, we received no further communication on this matter. After further prompting, Annika Oruaas, HR and CSR Manager at DPD Eesti AS, finally sent their conclusion that they took no responsibility for any of the damage and would still charge us for replacement deliveries too. They provided no response to any other problems raised. In their final response, DPD said they beleive all other matters have been settled with us, which is untrue as there have never been any response to most of the issues as we repeatedly explained to them.
If Annika Oruaas believes any of these facts are wrong, we would gladly publish a statement from her here in this article.
Good customer service is really important to us. When people invest their hard earned money in a sauna stove, they need to know they are getting exactly what they ordered, to the high quality they expect, that it arrives on time, and that they can continue asking us questions even after the stove arrives.
In fact, that’s the main reason we take part in so many media appearances. It doesn’t actually bring much new business, but it does help customers who do find us then understand that we are real people with a family business that can be trusted to deliver. It’s not always easy to find that online. But if you order from us and something goes wrong, we’ll always make it right.
We expect our couriers to share those values and standards.
