I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms about the service I received recently from your offices in Dubai and Cyprus.

On December 13th my wife, son and I went on holiday to Cyprus via Dubai. When we got to Cyprus we realised that we had left in our hotel room in Dubai a soft toy we call Peter Rabbit that my son takes with him to bed and has had with him since he was two months old.

Thus, on the 18th December, we asked the DHL office in Limassol to arrange a pick up by your Dubai office at the hotel in Dubai, the York International and to send it to your limassol office for our pick up. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? The girl in the Limassol office, Panny or Penny - the one bright spot in this tale of total ineptitude – was very understanding. She said she had had a similar loss when she was a child and understood my son’s distress.

We waited expectantly for the speedy return of the rabbit that we were told would be in the Limassol office by 24th December. It wasn’t. In fact, when I called the office to check its status, I was told that your Dubai office had refused to pick up Peter because an invoice form had not been filled in at Limassol. Furthermore, if I did not get to the office in Limassol by 6pm that day, the order would be rescinded!

It was 4.30pm and I had driven through a thunder-storm from Paphos to our friend’s villa in Pissouri. Nevertheless, my wife and I set off in the pouring rain to try and ensure the safe return of our son’s prized possession. We duly filled in the required form and the redoubtable Penny/Panny told us that Peter would be waiting for us at the Limassol office when we returned on our way back to Larnaca airport on the 29th December. He wasn’t.

Penny/Panny told us that he had not yet arrived at Limassol but would be at Larnaca Airport when we got there. I was told to contact someone called Katerina when I arrived at the airport and she would hand over the rabbit. I did as I was told but when I called Katerina she said there was no such parcel waiting for me. You can imagine how I felt. 11 days and still no rabbit; a flight pending and desperate measures were called for.

On my way – in the rain I might add - to find the DHL courier service office at Larnaca airport, I called Penny/Panny back at Limassol and informed her of the situation. She said she would see what she could do. She rang back and told me to contact Katerina again. This time a man answered. He said another man would be coming to the airport departure area with the rabbit but there would be a charge to be paid for delivery. This was the last straw. All of this hassle and a charge to boot!! I refused to pay it and eventually somebody showed up with a parcel he said contained the soft toy.

Insult was added to injury when my wife, son and I entered the departure bar/coffee shop to be greeted by a huge red and yellow DHL poster boasting as follows: ‘CUSTOMER we know what this word means!!!’ I am amazed that I managed to restrain myself from throwing my beer at it!

Come on, DHL, this is appalling service! Absolutely shocking! You can apparently move Formula 1 cars to Singapore yet it took you 11 days to return a little boy’s soft toy. To misquote one of your other advertising slogans: this was clearly too much of ‘job for DHL.’!!