Back when I worked for Harvard, we only used DHL if we had to send something to a place that no other courier would go to (Haiti, the parts of Colombia that were controlled by guerrillas, etc). And the packages would take forever, and there would be all sorts of problems, but they were our only choice. And that's imprinted on me ever since. The only time I'd consider using DHL would be if I were shipping something into a war zone.