A little background: we did a lot of business with DHL, shipping stuff hither and yon around the country until just last Friday switching to UPS.

Here is the story:

As a heavy DHL user, I got an e-mail from DHL yesterday afternoon entitled  “Come and find out what’s really going on.” It directed me to the website http://dhlcustomer.com/launchecard. Going there gets you to a nicely done site that talks about all the improvements DHL is making, including improving their services. Obviously an attempt to counteract negative press from their 18% cutback a while back and the John McCain debacle about the DHL airport in Ohio.

Here is a quote from the website:

The restructuring of the DHL operation in the U.S. will enable us to provide a greater range of valuable international services within the country. These are improvements that will come online immediately or within the 1st quarter of 2009.

• We will now be able to promise the earliest delivery and latest pick up times of any international courier to and from the 16 key metros in the States.
• With the launch of Economy Select International we will introduce our first deferred international product for global customers.
• New Time Definite international products are to be unveiled including 9 am and 12 pm overnight services to the U.S.

As we look to the future in the U.S. our goal is to deliver, in time, an enhanced international portfolio of products.

Sounds good, right? You think they may have forgotten one little detail, that is buried in the back of the website?

Here is the headline in this morning’s Business section of the Arizona Republic, less than 24 hours later:

November 11, 2008