The wonders of shopping online.

Now you can wait for delayed packages, try to track down lost packages and receive damaged packages all from the comfort of your own home.

While this is not in fact the case, and shipping by courier, the majority of times is a smooth, automatic process there are times when trying to receive something from a great distance can create a great deal of grief.

When that happens you want to get the phone numbers of the people in charge, you want them to fix the problem and you don't want to loose any more sleep, hair, &nbspor money in the process.

This is an article about how to do that.

Finding The Phone Number

While finding the phone number for your local DHL should be as easy as looking in the local white/yellow pages things aren't easy these days. Especially in the age of the cell phone when not everybody gets a phone book to begin with.

The answer to this question, like much of everything these days is to go online.

Google is an excellent place to start and just typing one of the following phrases into the search bar should bring up the results you're looking for.

• "DHL contact number"

• "local DHL number"

• "DHL phone number"

• "DHL phone number for (put in the name of your town)"

Not only will you get to the DHL website you will probably find the page with the DHL contact details specific to your local region as well.

There are also kind people like those who put together support.chinavasion.com who have compiled lists for you to remove much of the hard work.

The next thing you've got to do is to navigate your way through the automated phone system.

Dealing With The Automated Phone System

What follows is an easy-to-follow guide to navigating phone systems.

1. Listen for an option that sounds related to the problem you want solved, if there's one dial it.

2. If there's not an option try one option at random and see if it will take you to the option that you want.

3. If steps 1 and/or 2 don't work (and you've just started going through the system) go back one step and try another option at random.

4. If steps 1 and/or 2 don't work and you've been going through the system for five minutes or more give up and choose the option that lets you talk to a person.

Dealing With Customer Representatives

While dealing with people usually requires a lot less effort than the labyrinth-like automated phone system it usually requires a little bit of preparation on your part.

Have the following things on-hand:

• Your tracking number

• The contents of the package

• The address it was being shipped to

• The address it was being shipped from

• The timeline of events as you remember them.

Another step that you might want to follow is to ensure that you 'check back' with the customer service representative the thing that they're asking you.

And that's it, by following those four steps you'll have the situation resolved in no time.