Although we have handed over the goods to DHL, "The shipment was announced electronically." displayed. This is usually normal as the goods are first scanned at a distribution center and then the status changes. However, we have recently found that the status does not change, even after the first scan by DHL, or that the status is reassigned. Usually between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Here the impression is rightly given that we have not yet handed over the goods to DHL. DHL itself writes:
"In most cases, this status is the first to be displayed in the shipment tracking. It means that the sender has provided the shipment with a shipping label and a tracking number and has transmitted the shipment data electronically to DHL."
However, we always send the e-mail with the subject "Order is being shipped" on the day of collection. Of course, customers keep coming back and rightly asking why the status hasn't changed.
In order to get a little more clarity here, we handed in some packages to a DHL branch. In contrast to a pick-up, the packages are scanned directly here. The shipment history of one of these shipments shows that we delivered the goods at 11:43 a.m. At 7:12 p.m., the status changes to "The shipment has been announced electronically.":
The example shows that a shipment that has already been sent can change to the status "The shipment was announced electronically....".
Online research shows that other shop operators feel the same way (see the following link):
Unfortunately, we do not know why this status is assigned again at DHL after the handover. Maybe it's a bug in the system or a way to make delivery times look statistically better. We can only speculate about that. However, we are upset because it seems that we will not ship the goods even though we announced this.