10 replies to this topic

[MaLing]

Hope someone who is familiar with Germany could answer.

Someone in Germany promised to send me a parcel by DHL, and I expected that it would arrive around one week later. It recently came, but had taken over three months.

I discovered that the parcel had been sent by post office instead of DHL. I asked the sender, and the sender said that DHL and post office were the same in Germany. Is that true?

Furthermore, what are the meanings of 'paket' and 'päckchen' in German? Are they to do with insurance? It is because the sender told me that if I had chosen insured delivery, it would have come a lot faster.

Thanks.


PS There are three stamps on the parcel, a big blue flower is on each stamp; on the top, it is written 'Rittersporn'; and at the bottom, it is written '430' and then 'Deutschland'. Does the '430' mean the amount of the stamp? Is it Euro 4.30?

Edited by MaLing, 20 March 2007 - 07:29 AM.

[sifa]

Hi MaLing,

the post office always sent the parcel with DHL.

You can sent the parcel with a sticker "Paket" oder "Päckchen" on it.

Päckchen
max 2 Kg
min 15x11x1 cm
max 60x30x15 cm
not insured

Paket
max 20 Kg
min 15x11x1 cm
max 120x60x60 cm
insured max 25000 Euro worldwide

I don´t know the meaning of "430" but it is not 4.30 Euro because a small "Päckchen" is about 12,90 Euro to Hong Kong, China ????

Gruß
sifa

[ptolomeus3]

Hi MaLing,

the post office always sent the parcel with DHL.

You can sent the parcel with a sticker "Paket" oder "Päckchen" on it.

Päckchen
max 2 Kg
min 15x11x1 cm
max 60x30x15 cm
not insured

Paket
max 20 Kg
min 15x11x1 cm
max 120x60x60 cm
insured max 25000 Euro worldwide

I don´t know the meaning of "430" but it is not 4.30 Euro because a small "Päckchen" is about 12,90 Euro to Hong Kong, China ????

Gruß
sifa

Sifa, this hurts ´cause 3 x 4,30 = 12,90

@MaLing. DHL is a parcel company such as UPS. The owner of this company is the Deutsche Post as stated by sifa (german post, which is a company traded on the major stock exchanges in the world). 3 months is too much, probably caused by it being send as "Päckchen" and the customs.

[Phoenix]

I frequently send large parcels to Taiwan using German post DHLPAKET, the last one i sent cost 58.00 Euro and was posted on the 12th and arrived on the 19th

[sifa]

Sifa, this hurts ´cause 3 x 4,30 = 12,90




I have to learn english to understand, and math ...

[MaLing]

Hi Sifa.

Thanks Sifa, Ptolomeus and Phoneix.

Sifa: You gave me a lot of details, thanks. Well here DHL and post office are competitors, and post office is owned by the Government; so I thought that post office was a department of the German Government too.

Ptolomeus: So the sender is very honest, just I was too unlucky due to the custom procedures. I thought that my parcel had lost somewhere in the delivery, and it had not been insured, so I had to buy another one. Well, now the parcel becomes useless. Despite all these, there are nothing to do with the sender; the sender had charged me only Euro 11.70 and thus made a loss.

Phoneix: The delivery time to Taiwan and Hong Kong should be close, perhaps sending by packet and Päckchen make the difference.

[ptolomeus3]

MaLing,

Deutsche Post (DP) was state owned, just as the Deutsche Telekom (DT), Lufthansa (airways) or Deutsche Bahn (Train, Railway) just as in most countries, but the state made PLC´s (public limited companies) out of them and sold most the shares/stock. Before going on the stock exchange, they throw out many staff / employee

There is a difference between Packet and Päckchen, in speed, insurance and price!

[MaLing]

Ptolomeus, thanks again.

It seems that I should have chosen päckchen, that way I should not have spent the money twice to buy the same thing. I just thought that the difference between them was only insurance, not speed. Well... We learn new things everyday, don't we?

PS Phoenix, sorry, I spelt your name wrong. Phone-ix is some kind of thing?

Edited by MaLing, 22 March 2007 - 10:16 PM.

[Charalambos]

Phoenix( pronounced finix) is the mythical bird that resourects from its own ashes. That was his first avatar, it was really spectacular!

[Phoenix]

I have had a few Avatars, did you mean this one

[Charalambos]

Exactly.