The parcel delivery companies that ranked the worst for performance have been revealed, with none of the major firms able to secure a three-star rating.
An annual survey by charity Citizens Advice examined the top five delivery companies by parcel volume and measured their performance against criteria including customer service, delivery problems and accessibility needs, such as people needing longer to answer the door.
Evri and Yodel ranked at the bottom of the league table, both managing an overall score of just two stars out of a possible five.
But there was not much between the top and bottom positions, with Royal Mail and Amazon in joint first position with 2.75 stars.
Meanwhile, 13.3 million people – 34% of consumers – said they had experienced a delivery problem in the last month.
Common complaints included parcels being left in insecure locations or arriving late, a survey for the charity found.
The worst offenders were Yodel, with 40% of customers reporting a problem, DPD at 37%, and Evri at 34%.
Of those customers, nearly half had a further issue when trying to resolve the problem. Individuals were often unable to find the right company contact details or did not receive a response.
This was especially the case when meeting the needs of disabled customers or individuals who require adjustments to how they receive parcels.
An estimated 7.2 million people had an accessibility need they wanted to share with their chosen company, but 45% were unable to do so, the survey found.
Overall, 53% of customers found it difficult to resolve their problem, which rose to 60% of people with a disability.
The charity said there had been no improvements on delivery problem scores since last year.
Dame Clare Moriarty, Citizens Advice chief executive, 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.
“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.”
What have companies said in response?
Chris Ashworth, the chief customer officer for Evri, said the company was “disappointed” with where it ranked on the league table, adding it has invested more than £130m to improve UK operations.
An Amazon spokesman said “the vast majority of deliveries make it to customers without issue”, with the company working with customers if something does go wrong.
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said they were pleased to come in joint first position but is working to improve the quality of its service.
They said it had introduced an option for households to register their accessibility needs for parcel deliveries or collections via Parcel Collect.
Yodel said the report was not reflective of its own data, which indicated 98.7% of the 200 million parcels handled over the last 12 months were delivered correctly on the first attempt.
Read more:
Parcel delivery companies ranked in annual survey ahead of ‘seasonal surge’
