A third of shoppers, or 13 million people, experienced a problem with a parcel they had delivered in the last month.
The most common problems were parcels being left in insecure locations or arriving late.
Of the major parcel delivery companies, Evri and Yodel came in joint last place in the latest league table by Citizens Advice, although the results for all firms were poor.
Both companies received an overall score of two out of a possible five. Evri received 1.80 for delivery problems, 1.60 for accessibility, 2.40 for customer service, and 2.75 for trust. While Yodel received 1.80 for delivery problems, 2 for accessibility, 2.30 for customer service, and 2.20 for trust.
The best-performing companies, in joint first, were Amazon Logistics and Royal Mail, which both scored 2.75 out of five.
Amazon Logistics scored 2.60 for delivery problems, 2 for accessibility, 3.60 for customer service, and 4 for trust. Royal Mail’s scores were 2.40 for delivery problems, 2.80 for accessibility, 3 for customer service, and 4 for trust.
DPD was also included in the rankings and it came in third place with an overall score of 2.25 out of five.
Delivery problems and poor customer service processes
All five firms showed substandard performance in the rankings but the charity also found that 40% of Yodel customers experienced delivery problems, followed by 37% with DPD and 34% with Evri.
Of the customers who said they had experienced a problem with a delivery, 43% said they had a further issue when trying to resolve the problem. This included not being able to find the company’s contact details, or not receiving a response. Over half, 53%, said they found it difficult to resolve a delivery problem, rising to 60% for people with a disability.
For disabled customers, the only company to score above 2 was Royal Mail, with 2.80. The charity said there are around 7.2 million people with an accessibility need they’d like to share with a delivery company but 45% said they were unable to do so.
‘Disappointed’
Chris Ashworth, chief customer officer for Evri, said: “We are disappointed with where Citizens Advice has placed us in its parcels league table – after a year of significant investment and listening to our customers to improve our service. Our ambition is that every customer’s experience with Evri is a positive one, and we work hard to understand each instance when this is not the case.
“Our rising parcel volumes are proof that customers and retail clients are voting with their feet and trust us with their deliveries. We have invested more than £130 million to improve our UK operations in the last two years with 99% of the 730 million parcels we handle annually delivered on time.”
A Yodel spokesperson said: “We welcome feedback and invest heavily to continuously improve our service. However, this report is not reflective of our own parcel data, which indicates that 98.7% of the 200 million parcels we handled over the last 12 months were delivered correctly on the first attempt.”
Ofcom must do more
Citizens Advice is now calling on Ofcom and parcel delivery firms to review their complaints procedures and accessibility processes.
It said parcel delivery firms should use the results from its league table to identify where they have issues and Ofcom should conduct a review by April 2024 into complaints procedures and accessibility guidance.
The regulator’s monitoring process should also be expanded “to fully capture the type and rate of delivery problems across the board”, the charity said.
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “For the third year running our league table reveals online shoppers are being let down by a substandard delivery service. This is an issue we feel has been neglected for far too long.
“We continue to hear from consumers that are chasing up lost, late or damaged parcel deliveries, it’s become an unfair and at times, costly burden to bear.
“With a seasonal surge of deliveries on the horizon, parcel companies must take action to protect shoppers and get to the root cause of these persistent failings.”
