I had a terrible experience with DHL, we used them for US domestic small parcel shipments before the business unit was shut down for losing money, around 2008 I think. Towards the end they started systematic over charging. They would rate an 8oz package as 20lbs. The bills were 5-10x what they should have been. The service was never very good, they just had a good sales team. I hesitate to generalize from specifics though, it doesn't represent how all German companies do business. Maybe we should care less about national identity and more about the company's reputation.