Help with delivery – Shipment not delivered

If your parcel shipment has not yet been delivered, we recommend that you first check the status of your parcel online at DHL Shipment Tracking.

In some cases, the status of your parcel may not change for several days. Usually, the parcel has been taken out of the fully automated process at the parcel centre. This can happen for a number of reasons. Here are some reasons that the delivery of your parcel might be delayed:

• The address on the shipment is faulty or incomplete (e.g. a transposed postal code or a missing house number).
• The shipping label was completed in illegible handwriting.
• The shipping label has fallen off the shipment.
• The packaging around the shipment has opened during transport or has been slightly damaged externally and needs to be repackaged.

If the shipment status has not changed for more than 5 workdays, you can request an investigation. If you are the recipient of the shipment, we recommend that you first consult with the sender of the shipment. This generally results in a quick fix for you.

Parcel or small package enquiry

Would you like to enquire about another product?

Express national or international enquiry

(Registered) letter, value or postcard enquiry

Note on international letter or postcard enquiry: Due to the provisions of the Universal Postal Convention, international enquiries about letters and consignments of books and goods are unfortunately not possible.

Unfortunately, in some cases, the usual delivery time of 1–2 business days may be delayed.

Less than 5 business days
Please monitor DHL tracking to see the current status of your shipment.

More than 5 business days
If the shipment status has not changed for more than 5 working days, you can request an investigation. If you are the recipient of the shipment, we recommend that you first consult with the sender of the shipment. This generally results in a quick fix for you.

Please understand that direct contact with the parcel center or speeding up the delivery through customer service is not possible.

Expecting an order from an online shop?
In this case, please contact the sender, as they can usually resolve the issue faster.

Why is there a delay?
Don’t worry, your parcel will arrive! If you’re wondering why delays happen, here you can find the common causes of shipment delays.

The delivery time shown in the parcel notification and in the shipment tracking is an estimated delivery time. This means that, based on numerous forecasts and our experience, we assume that your shipment will probably arrive at your location at the indicated time.

Reasons for such delays can be:

• During the delivery unexpected problems occurred, such as bad weather conditions, traffic jams, accidents, illness, etc.

• During sorting, a required information could not be read or assigned and the shipment has to be reworked manually.

• Due to deficiencies in the outer packaging (e.g. cracks in the box) your parcel had to be repacked for a safe onward transport.

Please understand that it is not possible to contact our delivery agent directly or to accelerate the shipment through customer service.

Within Germany, a parcel is usually delivered to the recipient within 1-2 working days after dispatch. In a few cases, however, it may take longer – e.g. in the pre-Christmas period.

For international deliveries, the transport time depends on the destination country. For more information please go to the relevant country selection for private customers.

In the DHL shipment tracking, you received the message "The entered shipment number is invalid"? Then it is best to first check the shipment number you entered.

You will find the shipment number on the receipt of deposit - when ordering, the sender usually provides you with the shipment number. Please check whether you have entered the correct number and whether transposed digits has appeared.

If you do not know your shipment number even after checking your data, you do not need to worry. Usually this has one of the following reasons:

• It can take up to 24 hours before your shipment is displayed in the DHL tracking system - please be patient and check the tracking system again the next day.
• Your shipment is a DHL Päckchen. Päckchen do not have shipment tracking.
• Your shipment is a parcel from abroad - here you can find the tracking for parcels from America or Asia
• Your shipment is a DHL Express shipment or a letter shipment - please also check the tracking for letter shipments (registered mail, cash on delivery, value, express) and the tracking for Express shipments (domestic and international)
• Your shipment was not sent with DHL - If you are not sure which parcel service your shipment was sent with, please check the shipment tracking of other parcel delivery services.

Sometimes it happens that we cannot deliver your parcel. In this case we are unfortunately forced to send the parcel back to the sender.

Why this happens can have very different reasons, for example:

• The shipment was delivered to a postal outlet or Packstation and not picked up within the storage period. A shipment is stored for 7 working days in a postal outlet and in a Packstation
• The shipment may not be delivered because the recipient or the recipient's address is not clearly identifiable:
  • The recipient address (e.g.) house number is wrong or not specified
  • The recipient's name is not on the door bell label
  • The post number does not match the recipient's name (e.g. number of a friend or married)
• The shipment is not or not sufficiently franked
• The recipient has refused acceptance of the parcel
• There is an advance disposition of the sender:
• The sender can use an advance disposition to define what should happen to the shipment if it cannot be delivered to the recipient, e.g. prevent delivery to a neighbor for sensitive shipments.

Unfortunately, a return shipment cannot be stopped because the majority of shipments are sorted and processed automatically in our parcel centers. 

Please understand that neither our customer service nor the employees in the parcel center can influence this process.

What can you do?

The best thing you can do is to contact the sender, discuss whether to resend the item and, if necessary, check the recipient's address.

The return of your shipment may be due to the following reasons:

1. postal traffic with the country of destination has been interrupted
2. Not all the necessary customs data could be obtained on the basis of the information provided
3. Your shipment has incomplete, missing or invalid franking (e.g. shipment dimensions exceed the maximum dimensions of the selected franking)

You will be charged an Nachentgelt (additional fee) for a return shipment that is subject to a surcharge. A Nachentgelt is usually charged if a parcel has not been franked or has not been franked sufficiently.

If you feel that you have been erroneously charged a surcharge (Nachentgelt) or that an unauthorised return has been made, we will be happy to check your refund request for you. Please contact our customer service for this.