After getting incredibley fed up with Aramex and their regular month long delays of shipments, I decided to open up a DHL Borderlinx/Express Easy Shop account and try out their service.

Registration was really easy. You just go to their website, register an account, and bam, you get your US address right away. I thought that was really convenient and easy. 

I’ve been needing new acoustic guitar strings, so I decided to place an order of 6 packs.

I ordered the strings on Saturday, April 10th. The strings were shipped the next day, and took 3 days to get to the DHL box, so the package arrived on Wednesday, April 13th.
As soon as the package got to DHL, I received an email from them saying that I got a package and I should go ahead and pay.
I thought that was a little weird. I have to pay before they ship my package? Usually with services like these, when you receive your package in your hands, that’s when you pay, as to make sure everything is in order and correct. I didn’t like that aspect of this shipping method. 

So, I logged on to my account to see how much it would cost, and to my astonishment, it was $30 (~8kd). I thought something was wrong, because once before with Aramex I bought 4 spark pluggs for a car, and those spark pluggs weighed way more than these 6 packs of strings, and it only cost 5kd. 

I decided to use the live chat to ask about why it cost so much. The person I chatted to told me that DHL Easy Shop works on volumetric weight instead of actual weight. The actual weight of the package was 0.25kg, which sounds right, but the volumetric weight came out to me 0.85kg, and that’s why I was being charged 8kd. 

I went ahead and payed it, as this is a test and I wanted to see how quick they could get my package to me. One thing I like is the payment options. You can pay by visa card, mastercard, and even by paypal, in which paypal is most convinient for me.
Within hours of paying, I received an email that my package was shipped out, and they supplied me with a tracking number. I really liked that they gave me the tracking number so that I can track my package and know if it’s coming sooner or later. 

On Sunday morning, April 17th, I got both an email, and a message to my mobile phone, from DHL saying my package was in Kuwait at the DHL center that I chose during registration.
Wow, I was actually impressed! It took only 4 days for DHL to get my package from the US to Kuwait. That is pretty amazing.

I didn’t have any time on Sunday, but the next day (today) I went and got my package at DHL. I just showed up, gave them my ID, signed, and took my package. Quick and easy. 

Here’s a picture of the package that came, and the contents, Ernie Ball Earthwood medium-light acoustic strings:

Verdict:

I am impressed by their notifications, tracking system, and how quickly they got my package to me. I mean, with Aramex it’s completely normal if it takes 2-3 weeks for you to get whatever you ordered! Four days with DHL is just unheard of!

But, I’m not impressed by the price. These were pretty light strings, but the size of the packaging is what was factored in more the actual weight of the product when they priced it. I think 8kd was too much for this shipment. 
Another thing is that they won’t ship your package without you paying for it first, and I don’t like that. You could be late in checking your email, or maybe you don’t have $$$ in your bank account and your package could’ve been in Kuwait by the time you put $$$ into your account! 

I pretty much don’t want to ever use Aramex again, but it’s much cheaper to order stuff through them. DHL is the clear winner in terms of speed, by a long shot! But Aramex is much cheaper. I think I’ll be ordering important things, or things I need to get to Kuwait quickly with DHL, and I’ll use Aramex for stuff that isn’t as important. It’s kind of scary how much something could cost based on the size of the box, and I feel a sense of risk when ordering through DHL because you could just get an item that was boxed in something huge and end up paying a small fortune. I mean come on, 8kd for 6 packs of these almost feather weighing strings?!
Of course if money is no object to you then by all means switch to DHL right now! 

4/5

P.S. I’ll post more about DHL if I order more stuff from them and mention how much it cost! Stay tuned!