Over 13million people had an issue with the last parcel they received, according to new research, as a league table of the worst offending firms has also been revealed.

A third of shoppers experienced a problem with a parcel in the last month, either because of late delivery or parcels being left in insecure locations, according to Citizens Advice.

The consumer charity has also published its annual parcel delivery rankings, which shows major parcel firms have delivered a dire service for the third year running.

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Evri and Yodel came bottom of the parcel table, with an overall score of just 2 stars out of a possible 5, followed closely by DPD with a meagre 2.25 stars.

Royal Mail and Amazon jointly came top, but with just 2.75 stars out of 5.

The top five firms have been measured on their performance on delivery problems - of which Yodel, DPD and Evri are the worst performers - as well as customer service, accessibility and trust.

Royal Mail and Amazon scored 2.6 out of 5 on delivery, followed by DPD with 2 out of 5 and Yodel and Evri both scoring 1.8 out of 5.

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When it came to customer service, nearly half of consumers said they faced further issues when they tried to resolve a problem with their delivery - for example not getting a response to their complaint.

Amazon’s customer service was miles ahead of competitors, scoring 3.6 out of 5, while Royal Mail scored 3. Yodel came bottom with 2.3 out of 5 and also scored the lowest on trust.

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Four of the five major firms scored 2 stars or below when it came to meeting the needs of disabled customers or individuals who required adjustments to deliveries.

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Royal Mail came out top with 2.8 out of 5 stars, while Amazon, DPD and Yodel scored 2 out of 5.

Evri scored just 1.6 out of 5 when it came to helping customers with accessibility needs.

  • @talEnglish
    2•7 months ago

    A third of shoppers experienced a problem with a parcel in the last month, either because of late delivery or parcels being left in insecure locations, according to Citizens Advice.

    A third in the last month?

    Either package delivery is way, way worse in the UK than in the US, or the phrasing here is designed to get a high numbers. Like, if they had a package stolen in just the last month, that seems like an incomprehensibly-high number. If the question was “did you have a package delivered to a place where someone could have stolen it”, that seems like another story.

    It looks like Amazon at least has Amazon Locker service in the UK, and I can’t imagine that people would be having things delivered to their home at all without requiring a signature at delivery if theft were that high.

    EDIT: Is this a third of shoppers that complained to Citizens Advice? Because this sounds like it’s not that they’re polling a sample of the general population, but that they take in reports from people who have had a problem of some sort:

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/06/porch-piracy-wave-of-doorstep-parcel-thefts-sweeping-uk

    Got any numbers? Citizens Advice reports 22,787 visits to its lost and stolen parcels webpage last month, 48% up on the previous year.

    If so, that’d make a lot more sense, but also make the number much less meaningful.

    EDIT2: At least last year, for the entire year, they apparently gathered a number that had about a third of the general population have a package be left in an area where it might be stolen:

    https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/about-us1/media/press-releases/citizens-advice-sounds-the-alarm-on-parcel-delivery-market-as-ten-people-have-parcels-lost-or-stolen-per-minute/

    In addition, over 20 million people (38% of all UK adults) have received a ‘Sorry you were out’ card despite being home, resulting in some parcels being left in insecure places like doorsteps and bins.

    That I could believe, but that’s just leaving the thing at the door where it might be stolen rather than it being stolen, and it’s over the course of a year, not a month.

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝OPEnglish
      2•7 months ago

      A third in the last month?

      Either package delivery is way, way worse in the UK than in the US, or the phrasing here is designed to get a high numbers.

      It gives the criteria in the article:

      A third of shoppers experienced a problem with a parcel in the last month, either because of late delivery or parcels being left in insecure locations

      So, yes, it’s very broad.

      Given the fact that large parcel volumes mean the delivery drivers have little time to do anything fancy, it’s a surprise more people haven’t said they had an issue. Amazon, especially, are notorious for not giving their drivers enough time and I often see their parcels just left on the doorstep, which most people wouldn’t think us very secure.

      I was having a discussion on lateness in the pub at the weekend (the fun we have!) and I am pretty sure companies goose the numbers by setting the date a day over when they can get it to you, so they leave themselves some wiggle room if anything goes wrong. It also, handily, pushes people to use the express delivery option where available.

      EDIT: Is this a third of shoppers that complained to Citizens Advice? Because this sounds like it’s not that they’re polling a sample of the general population,

      I believe this is a survey done on behalf of Citizens Advice.