Where is my letter and why is the package somewhere completely different than expected? Anyone who has complaints about the quality of the postal service can contact the Federal Network Agency. The numbers are growing.
In the first half of 2024, significantly more citizens complained about Deutsche Post because of delayed or lost letters and packages than before. 20,184 postal complaints were received, a quarter more than in the same period last year, the Federal Network Agency told the dpa news agency.
Roughly speaking, two thirds of the complaints were about letters and one third about parcels, 88 percent of the critical comments were directed against the market leader DHL and its letter division Deutsche Post, the rest were about competitors. If the level of complaints remains as high in the second half of the year, by the end of 2024 the Bonn-based supervisory authority would have received more postal complaints than ever before in a single year.
Fines soon possible
The Federal Network Agency can do little here so far – ultimately, it can only raise a warning finger and call on the yellow giant to improve. However, as part of the postal law reform, the agency will soon have a sharper sword in its hand; it could then impose fines and penalty payments and thus increase the pressure on the Bonn-based logistics group.
However, the reform also means that the post office will be under less time pressure when delivering letters. Up to now, 80 percent of letters posted today have to be there the next working day, but in future the first mandatory figure will only apply on the third working day after posting – then 95 percent must be there. This means that consumers will have to be a little more patient in the future than before.
Only a few complaints compared to the volume of mail
The number of complaints rose significantly in the second half of 2022, when the postal service was struggling with staff shortages in some places. The company then took measures to get the problem under control. However, if the number of complaints is taken as a measure, this was not decisively successful.
However, the proportion of complaints is negligible compared to the total volume – DHL alone will handle a total of 15 billion parcels and letters in 2023.
Another factor probably plays a role is that the possibility of making a complaint has become more widely known over the years – the higher numbers may therefore be due at least in part to the fact that some people did not contact the Federal Network Agency in the past because they did not know about the complaint channel.
Reaction from DHL
In response to the half-year figures, a DHL spokesperson said that the statistics were not representative from the company’s point of view. “Many of the complaints attributed to us have nothing to do with Deutsche Post’s performance.”
For example, many delays are due to the fact that letters from business customers that our competitors have fed into the postal network were only handed over to the post office after a considerable delay. “Nevertheless, every complaint is one too many and we regret it when customers are not satisfied with our service.”
Consumers can not only contact the network agency, but also DHL directly. The company spokesperson reports that his company received more complaints in May and June than before. At times there were unexpectedly many parcel deliveries and the volume of letters was high due to the European elections, which led to delays. In some places, quite a lot of employees were also sick, which also slowed down processes at times.
Source: Stern
