A rise in online shopping has seen a rise in complaints about deliveries. ITV News Northern Reporter Sangita Lal speaks to a woman who believes her parcel was stolen from her doostep.
Hermes has been ranked the worst large delivery company in the UK in the first-ever league table of its kind showing the British public has a generally negative view of all of the biggest firms.
No company in the survey scored above three out of five stars with the highest, Amazon Logistics, earning 2.75 stars overall.
The survey was carried out by Citizens Advice who warned “urgent action” was needed to improve the sector.
More and more scrutiny is being put on delivery companies as demand for their services soared during lockdown and accelerated the move online.
Citizens Advice said online sales have increased 56% from pre-pandemic levels but this has been matched with a rise in parcel problems.
Demand for drivers has also led companies like Amazon to offer lucrative recruitment bonuses in order to stave off any problems during the busy Christmas period.
The UK’s largest delivery companies were each given a star rating for quality of service, accessibility, customer service and trust before being given an overall score.
The rankings were:
Citizens advice found Hermes and Yodel performed the worst, scoring 1.5 and 1.75 stars respectively.
DPD scored lowest when customers were asked if they’d had a problem with their last delivery, with 41% saying they had problems.
Almost half of the people who took part in the survey said they were unable to get any delivery issues they’d had solved.
There was a large gap between the top performers and bottom performers in the trust category, with Amazon earning 4.25 stars and Royal Mail earning 4 compared to Yodel and Hermes 2.
Citizens Advice said their online advice ‘If something you ordered hasn’t arrived‘ webpage has been viewed almost 160,000 times so far this year, a 69% increase on the same period before the pandemic in 2019.
The charity said it had come across one man after he was told his pair of headphones had been delivered to an address in Australia despite living in Hertfordshire.
They called on the government to introduce tighter controls on delivery firms and for improved complaint processes.
Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice said even the top-performing delivery companies had room for improvement.
She said: “While this should be a wake-up call for firms to strive to deliver a five-star service for consumers, we have serious reservations about how far companies will improve if left to their own devices.”
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