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Complaints against Germany's postal sector soar in first half of 2020

The Local Germany
The Local Germany - [email protected]
Complaints against Germany's postal sector soar in first half of 2020
Archive picture shows a DHL employee sorting packets. Photo: DPA

The number of complaints against the postal service in Germany soared above 10,000 in the first half of the year, new figures show.

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Whether it's letters arriving late or a parcel going missing, it can be frustrating when the postal service doesn't work properly.

And new figures show that in the first half of 2020 many more customers have been complaining about Deutsche Post, Germany's primary postal delivery service, and its competitors in the mail sector.

By the end of June, the Federal Network Agency had received more than 10,000 written complaints, the agency reported on request to FAZ newspaper. In 2019, there were around 8,700 complaints in the same period.

Around half of the reports related to parcels, with delivery problems being the most frequent topic. It comes even though according to parcel service providers, delivery to private households worked better during the height of the coronavirus crisis compared to other periods, because people spent much more time at home.

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A total of 35 percent of the complaints were related to letters. In contrast to the parcel sector, the vast majority of complaints here are likely to relate only to the service provided by Deutsche Post, which has a market share in letter delivery of more than 80 percent.

READ ALSO: Why parcel delivery price hikes in Germany are set to be reversed

The rest of the complaints concerned various other problems, such as issues with post offices or letterboxes.

Anyone in Germany who has issues receiving letters or parcels can report it to the Federal Network Agency, which is the regulatory authority responsible for the postal and parcel sector.

However, it remains to be seen whether the increase in the number of complaints will lead to a change in the quality of service.

As The Local reported last year, the country's Economics Ministry "announced a comprehensive revision of the postal law framework" in a bid to improve the service.

The Ministry said that the speed and effectiveness of delivery would be optimized, with possible penalties to the Deutsche Post when these conditions aren't met.

According to its own figures, Deutsche Post delivers about 57 million letters in Germany every working day.


 

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