Online trading - Parcel doesn't arrive? This website of the consumer advice centers helps with problems with DHL and Co.
Even if the city centers are festively decorated: The trend towards online shopping has long since established itself for Christmas shopping too. The burden on parcel services is correspondingly high. But even if occasional mistakes are understandable: For consumers, late, incorrectly delivered or even lost parcels just before Christmas are an extreme annoyance. A new consumer protection tool is now intended to alleviate some of the suffering - and promises help if something goes wrong.
The so-called "Post-Ärger-Tool" can be found directly on the main page of the Association of Consumer Organizations, which you can access via this link. The principle is very simple: as a consumer, you enter the specific problems you are experiencing with a letter or parcel in the tool - and then receive advice straight away. "After selecting the problem that applies to you and providing a few details, you will receive an initial legal assessment and sample letters to enforce your rights and complain," explains the website.
How the tool works
Most typical consumer issues are covered. In other words, long waiting times, incorrect delivery locations, missing delivery notes and so on. If a parcel has not been delivered despite confirmation of delivery, for example, the tool initially advises patience. If several days have already passed, it offers a sample letter to ask the responsible parcel service to search for it.
An important point here is the question of who to contact. Responsibilities are not always clear. If a parcel has been lost by an online retailer, for example, customers should not contact the parcel service, but the retailer, advises the consumer protection agency. And also offers a sample letter here. In the case of parcels sent privately, the website also provides tips on how to claim compensation.
If the problems cannot be resolved, you can also use the tool to contact the Federal Network Agency's arbitration board directly.
Legal situation not always on the customer's side
However, the offer of help does not mean that consumers will always like the answers provided by the tool. "This is permissible unless you have objected to such a substitute delivery," is the response to a complaint when parcels have been left with a neighbor. If you don't want this, you have to object to the substitute deliveries, the consumer advocates advise.
The consumer advocates also temper expectations when parcels are delivered to a distant branch. "The respective parcel service may decide for itself where and how consignments that could not be delivered in person are made available for collection," they say in response to complaints. "There are no legal requirements in this regard, for example regarding distances or reasonableness." In plain language, this means that you have to swallow the toad - and pick up the parcel where it has landed.
Incidentally, the consumer advice centers report here on what you should generally look out for when receiving parcels.
Increasing problems
The decision to create the tool was made due to the increasing number of complaints from consumers, Julia Gerhards, consumer rights and data protection officer at the Rhineland-Palatinate consumer advice center, told AFP. "We have been receiving a lot of complaints about the service provided by postal and parcel services for many years. Over time, there have been more and more," she explains. "We hope to be able to help the delivery service providers improve their service in the future."
Source:Consumer advice center tool
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Source: www.stern.de
