Which? highlights festive delivery nightmares

Many Christmas deliveries have not been arriving as expected, with damaged packages and poor communication reported over the past month, according to new Which? research.

Earlier in December, it asked more than 2,000 Brits about their experience of receiving online purchases within the past month, and found that only a third got all of their items as expected. More than half reported that a delivery didn’t come when expected, including a quarter of people receiving one early. One in five said that at least one did not arrive at all and around the same amount that at least one was late. One person was outraged that a parcel was left under their car, another had a parcel left with a neighbour without permission, who opened it and showed it to others in the village, and a third found a fragile delivery after it had been ‘tossed over the gate’. 

In a separate survey, Which? found there is still confusion about who is responsible when something goes wrong. Only half of shoppers know to contact the retailer if posted goods go missing after being left on the doorstep or in the garden without permission. Just over a third incorrectly thought that they should contact the delivery company and one in seven said that did not know who to get in touch with.