It could turn out to be a ‘gift-less’ Christmas for some online shoppers this year, as a major courier service is experiencing delivery problems.

“I bought Christmas presents from a popular online shopping site two-and-a-half weeks ago, and they haven’t arrived. I started to get worried, so I enquired and found that they were stuck in transit and I might not get them for Christmas,” Times of Malta reader Chris Agius said yesterday.

His gifts were meant to be delivered by international courier service DHL, however he is unsure what happened to them.

“When I call I just get told that the lines are all busy. I eventually got through to them and they said my parcels would be delivered shortly – who knows when,” Mr Agius said.

The Times of Malta also called the local DHL hotline, but failed to get through to a representative, and questions sent to both the local DHL office and the one in Germany had not been replied to by the time of writing.

A number of posts have popped up on social media in recent days, with many venting their frustration that they will not be able to receive their Christmas purchases in time for the big day on Monday.

Many complained that their packages had arrived in Malta around the first week of December but they still didn’t have them in hand, as DHL was up against a backlog.

“Hundreds of packages arriving in Malta on or before December 1 will most likely not be delivered until after Christmas ‘because we are too busy’,” one irate Facebook user wrote.

Times of Malta reader Wesley Ellul told this newspaper that he used DHL throughout the year, and not just for gift shopping, receiving some 60 parcels annually through the courier service.

He said he had made orders back on November 26 for 24 packages, some gifts, and other costumes for his upcoming edition of The Comedy Knights. With opening night on Boxing Day, Mr Ellul said he was still waiting on 13 packages – the rest having all arrived through different courier services.

“I’m just stuck now. This isn’t just about Christmas gifts, which would have been bad enough, but it’s also affecting my work,” Mr Ellul said.

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