Parcel customers less happy for the first time in three years, Ofcom finds
Satisfaction with delivery firms fell to 75% as a record 4.6 billion parcels were sent and received, and seven in ten people had a problem with a delivery in the past six months.
Seven in ten people who had a parcel delivered in the last six months ran into some kind of problem with it, according to Ofcom research published this morning, and the regulator has told delivery companies that their customer service has to get much better.
Average satisfaction with parcel firms fell to 75%, down from the 78% recorded in each of the previous three years. Scores for individual companies ranged from 64% to 84%.
That was in a year when people in the UK sent and received a record 4.6 billion parcels, 8.6% more than the 4.2 billion counted last time.
The most common complaints
The share of people reporting a delivery problem rose to 71%, from 68% a year ago. The four issues that came up most were:
- a parcel arriving late, reported by 32%
- a parcel being left somewhere unsuitable, 28%
- the driver not knocking loudly enough, 25%
- not being given enough time to get to the door, 20%
Disabled people and those with a condition that limits their daily lives were more likely to have trouble, with 76% reporting an issue compared with 68% of other customers.
When something went wrong, contacting the company often did not help. Satisfaction with how firms dealt with people who got in touch fell from 47% to 43%. Amazon and FedEx scored best for handling contact and complaints, each with an average of 56%.
Ofcom brought in stronger rules on complaint handling and on protections for disabled customers in 2023. It said on Tuesday that it is now considering whether further action is needed, including tougher regulation, and that it will give an update in its annual monitoring report on the postal market in December. It did not set firms a deadline, but warned that companies which fail to put customers first could face further measures.
The figures come from an online survey of 4,179 people aged 16 and over, carried out by Yonder Consulting in January and July this year.
The findings land a month before Black Friday on 27 November, with the Christmas rush for couriers following straight after.
