Letters and packages: Number of post-complaints increases to maximum

It is about lost letters, damaged packages or delayed programs: The Federal Network Agency has never received as many post-complaints as last year. As the Bonn authority announced on the DPA request, they reached 44,406 entries for defects in postal supply and thus 2817 more than 2023, i.e. an increase of almost seven percent. The previous maximum value of 43,125 critical speech in 2022 was almost exceeded.

Compared to 2021, the complaint level almost tripled (15,118). At that time, the postal problems of the post office were created, which is why the delivery of many programs was delayed and the anger of consumers grew up. Since then, the complaint level has remained high. The possibility of criticism refers to the entire postal and package industry, but last year 89 percent of the symptoms were directed against the market leader DHL and his letter division Deutsche Post.

Most of the time, it is about defects in delivery, but also other topics such as branches, in which consumers also stood in front of closed doors within their actual opening times, or to unlakfully emphasis that are emptied less than before. Also supposedly failed delivery attempts, although the recipient waited at home and the bell worked well – the question arises as to whether the package messenger really tried.

It’s about a tiny percentage plus x

The Post Group DHL reports that the number of complaints related to it in relation to the 12.2 billion letters and 1.8 billion packages that were delivered last year is low. However, a company spokesman emphasizes that every complaint is one too much. “We are working on improving our quality every day and creating as few occasions as possible for symptoms.”

According to statistics, only 0.0003 percent of the programs lead to a complaint to the Federal Network Agency. However, you can also complain directly to DHL. The group does not reveal how many critical speeches have reached the company directly. In addition, there is a number of delivery defects that led to frustration with the recipient but did not move it to a complaint. Ultimately, the Federal Network Agency’s number of complaints is only an indicator that could be something in the argen in the industry, which has a high time and cost pressure.

Post justifies problems with personnel bottlenecks

When critical speeches are piling up in a region, the Federal Network Agency introduces so -called occasional exams due to failed or poor letter delivery. Last year that was 27 and therefore eight fewer than 2023. According to the Bonn authority, there was a relatively much resentment in Bochum around October 2024, where Post justified its delivery problems with personnel bottlenecks and organizational bottlenecks. The post reacted there with new hires and representative forces. In January 2025, the delivery situation had stabilized, as the Federal Network Agency writes.

In the meantime, there were similar delivery deficits in Stuhr (Lower Saxony), Erlensee (Hesse), Hamburg, Freudenstadt (Baden-Württemberg), Planegg (Bavaria) and Neuenhagen (Brandenburg) last year. Not only personnel have played a role, but sometimes also bad weather and unusually high shipping quantities.

The event tests are only a kind of warning index finger of the Federal Network Agency. With the post-law reform, which was entered into force in early 2025, the previously dull sword of the supervisory authority has become somewhat sharper, in the future the authority can impose fines. Even if such payments are still pure theory and therefore not foreseeable: the pressure on the logistics group has increased so that it does not deliver too bad work.

Does personnel reduction deteriorate to the delivery quality?

Post recently announced two messages within a few days. First of all, a collective bargaining with Verdi was reported, which gradually earns the 170,000 tariff employees five percent more wages. A little later, bad news followed: due to high costs, the post office is reducing 8,000 jobs by the end of the year, which is just more than four percent of the last 187,000 jobs in the German letter and package business. It also played a role that the postage increase that had existed at the beginning of the year was not high enough and the company does not get as much money into the till as hoped.

And what does politics say about the high complaint? The SPD member of the Bundestag, Sebastian Roloff, is right at the point that the number of symptoms in relation to the billions of shipments is actually low. Nevertheless, the anger of tens of thousands of consumers should not be taken lightly, the social democrat warns. “The mail is required to ensure the universal service in high quality and continue to take the symptoms seriously.” The universal service means that the post must deliver letters all over Germany and have to have mailboxes and branches across the board.

With a view to the postal reduction in Post, Roloff notes that it should not lead to a loss of quality in delivery. “The regional occasions already show that the staff is scarce in some places,” says the SPDler, who has negotiated the postal law reform. “To strap the belt even closer, the delivery situation could deteriorate and let the resentment of the citizens grow.”