Consumers' assoc. flooded with complaints over PostNL package delivery

PostNL's package delivery is not up to standard, according to consumers' association Consumentenbond. Consumers have been complaining about PostNL for years. "No other company causes as many complaints as PostNL and that has to change", the association said on Tuesday, ANP reports.

In 2018 PostNL received 4,600 complaints on the association's online complaint forum Klachtenkompas. According to the association, PostNL is always at the top of that list. Consumers are mainly dissatisfied because their package got lost or wasn't delivered, 18 percent of complaints are about that. In second place with 16 percent of the complaints, customers say that the delivery person incorrectly claimed that no one was home. 

The way in which PostNL handles complaints also leads to annoyance, according to Consumentenbond. The Dutch postal service only allows senders to submit a complaint, the association said. "PostNL often brushes it off too easily. The company is legally obliged to have a good complaints procedure for recipients as well. You can't just dismiss that by referring it to the sender", Consumentenbond director Olof King said to the news wire.

PostNL said in a reaction that every complaint is one too many for the company, but added that the high number of complaints mainly has to do with the large number of packages the company delivers. "In 2018 PostNL delivered 251 million packages and with absolute measurements you quickly unjustly lead the rankings. Unjust, we only receive a complaint on 0.06 percent of the thousand packages", the company said, according to ANP.

PostNL also said it is working on better information provision and on improving its services.