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.

It does. Because "customer is king" mentality is very strong in the US and not so much in Europe.