Your severely delayed package has finally arrived but now the local post office is only open at obscure hours so you still can’t collect it? Germany’s consumer centre has just launched a new website where you can direct your complaints.
If you find yourself waiting by the doorbell for your package only to receive it banged up and missing the socks you ordered, the German consumer centre (Verbraucherzentral) has now launched a website where you can easily find out what your rights are as a postal service customer in Germany.
The new “Post-Ärger-Tool” (Post Annoyance Tool) will answer questions such as “Am I entitled to compensation for damages?” or “How do I proceed in applying my rights?”.
Using the new tool, customers can submit a complaint or question about sending letters and packages or specific post office branches via the internet. These could include that the post office is often too busy, that staff are unfriendly or that too few people are working.
Customers can also submit complaints about access to post office services, such as there being too few post boxes in your neighbourhood or that the post office is open at irregular or inconvenient times. Via the website, you can also request that the Verbraucherzentral give you more personalised advice about your situation.
The adoption of the new Post-Ärger-Tool means that customer complaints can be more easily forwarded to the companies in question, such as Deutsche Post, DHL or DPD, or to Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) which is responsible for the country’s mail service.
Speaking to Tagesschau, Bundesnetzagentur representative for Rheinland-Palatinate, Julia Gerhard added that the number of complaints about the German postal service has increased in recent years. “We hope that [the new complaints tool] will enable delivery companies to improve their services,” Gerhard explained.
Based on the four Rs: reliability, reach, relevance and resilience, Germany’s postal service was declared third-best in the world in 2022 by the Universal Postal Union (UPU). Somewhat contradictorily, it is the Bundesnetzagentur that plans to move the service further away from excelling in the four Rs next time the UPU study comes around, with the Agency announcing in June that it plans to cut delivery services down from six days to three days per week.
To submit your complaints or via the Post-Ärger-Tool visit the Verbraucherzentral website.
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