Delivery issues top the pile: Resolver’s annual statistics

Delivery issues were the main source of complaint across UK consumers, Resolver can reveal.

In its annual data covering 2020/21, released this week, almost a quarter of the near-to 900,000 complaints made through Resolver concerned problems with deliveries. 

Online shops, including online supermarkets, took the lion’s share of delivery complaints but issues of delivery to your door were not exclusive to digital shopping. 

The 206,000 complaints about delivery problems were made in many other areas, including:

• More than 10,000 of the total complaints to takeaway services, including missing food, poor quality products and late deliveries;
• Almost 4,500 complaints to high street shops – with more than half of these about waiting times and product quality problems;
• Almost 4,500 cases about gift cards or vouchers for shops and ‘experience’ websites, including non-delivery at all or codes not working; and
• Delivery couriers were also complained to directly – with almost 70,000 complaints specifically concerning issues with the delivery itself.

Package issues

Across the complaints, issues concerned deliveries being left in inappropriate places, late deliveries (particularly where people paid to get a faster delivery service) and some deliveries missing altogether. 

There were also incidents of products being damaged on arrival, and the now all-too-familiar ‘drop and run’ deliveries – where couriers were leaving parcels outside properties without even drawing the customer’s attention by knocking the door.

Package insurance complaints on the rise

Resolver also saw more than 2,100 complaints specifically concerning package delivery insurance during 2020/21 – which we revealed at the start of the year was likely not to be worth the money – and is not held under regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

This was a rise of 22% on the previous year and highlights further the dependency we had on not just goods arriving, but ensuring those we sent were delivered on time (or at all), and in the condition in which they were sent. 

Claims being turned down or not paid in full accounted for a significant proportion of these complaints, with many detailing that they did not realise the item they were sending wasn’t covered by the insurance, despite being able to pay for it having declared what the item was.

What to do if you’ve had delivery problems

Resolver has put together a handy tool to help you navigate exactly what you can do – and your rights – should your delivery have gone wrong, from deliveries going missing, issues with damaged deliveries and whether you can return an item if it is not delivered on time.

If you do have a complaint about a package – or other – delivery as we come out of lockdown, we can help. Raise your complaint for free. For the full rundown of your package delivery rights, check out our guide.