Postal Complaints

Postal or courier service is considered to be one of the cheapest modes of communication. Postal services in India have rapidly grown over the last few decades. India is a country with the largest network of post offices with its number being more than 1.55 lacs as recorded in May 2008.

Well, India has many local and international courier companies providing postal service, but still, consumers file courier complaints at some point in time. Things can always go lousy such as late deliveries or items in the package get damaged, and the list can go on.

If you have encountered any such postal complaint with your courier company, you must have brought it to their notice, but many complaints against the courier company remain unresolved. According to stats in 2020, 1449 grievances are pending unresolved in the Indian Post Office and stats could be different for other courier companies.

There are more than 20 types of postal services with the most common being registered or speed post. Even though it is considered one of the safest means of communication, lapses have been seen over the past few years with various posts getting lost somewhere and not reaching its destination.

In this article, we have mentioned India's famous postal companies, and the types of courier complaints the customers face with them.

Famous Postal or Courier Companies in India

1. Indian Post Office: Indian Postal Service serves as a backbone to the society with a network of almost 1,56,600 post offices in India, with nearly 90% operational in the rural part while the rest 10% in the urban area. Since 1854 Indian post offices have served the country. In the 1850’s they used to deliver happiness to people in 10 paisa postcards and yellow envelopes, and still, they are delivering happiness to people all around the globe. Today, there is no such village or town in our country, which is not covered by the Indian Postal Office. Also, it is a public or government courier service, so the charges of sending a parcel across the globe would be comparatively cheaper when compared to the other private courier companies.

2. Ecom Express: Ecom Express private limited is one of the leading logistic providers. It has more than 36,000+ employees currently working with them and is all geared up to create more employment opportunities in the future. Now, Ecom Express covers more than 27,000 pin codes and is delivering the packages to more than 2650+ cities. Their prime motto is to deliver the parcels with the utmost speed, safety, and reliability nationwide to all industries. They provide various services like Express Services, Digital Services, and Fulfillment services but many times they get complaints for courier service.

3. Delhivery: Founded in the year 2011, and headquartered in Gurugram, Harayana, Delhivery Pvt Ltd is one of the most trusted and leading brands, when it comes to sending parcels around the globe. Delhivery has a nationwide network, covering almost every country, state, district, the town as well as villages. They cover 17,500+ pin codes and 2300+ cities only in India. Delhivery is one of the most reliable courier companies for shipments. Even during the pandemic situation of COVID-19, when people were afraid of stepping out of their home, Delhivery courier company kept on working, so that they could fulfill the needs of society. But like any other player they too receive many complaints against them.

4. FedEx: Formed in the year 1973, FedEx, or rather Federal Express, is an American multinational delivery service company. The company is known for its overnight shipping services, along with providing real-time updates of the location of the parcel to the clients. Though this has become a common feature in today’s era, this system of tracking the location of packages or tracking AWB numbers was introduced by the FedEx courier company. FedEx courier company provides shipment facilities all around the globe. Currently, FedEx has 16 clearance facilities in India but sometimes they are unable to locate the whereabouts of their shipment.

5. DTDC Courier: Desk to Desk Courier and Cargo or DTDC Express Limited or DTDC is the same. It is an Indian courier company and handles more than twelve million shipments every month. The headquarters of DTDC is in Bangalore (now known as Bengaluru), Karnataka, India. Currently, DTDC has its presence in more than 500 district headquarters through its globally expanded network, covering more than 10,500 franchises and providing the customers with comprehensive and reliable services to 10,500 plus pin codes. DTDC serves in more than 240 international locations, including Canada, USA, UK, Hong Kong, and China. However, customers have filed complaints for missing parcels and no compensation for lost packages.

Types of Postal Complaints or Courier Complaints

With a commendable market share in courier, express and parcel market valuation at almost $4.29 billion, India’s courier and parcel delivery services have managed to make a mark in the entire world of being connected via postal services. But with this rate of growing numbers also comes certain discrepancies, which many times go unnoticed but some even become a topic of discussion.

Like every other service being offered, postal services have also had some minor and major mishaps making people angry over the services like items missing in the package, late deliveries, sometimes no deliveries at all and many more to count. Below is a little comprehensive list as to under what category your grievance might lie if you are to file complaints regarding inadequate or unsatisfactory service by the courier companies in your area.

1. Items missing
With local, national and international deliveries beyond and across the country, people have experienced items missing from their packages raising concerns regarding security and safety of deliverables. Dealing with such a grievance becomes a task in itself because sometimes you as a customer do not get precisely what is missing or might be missing in the package and end up complaining late.

2. Package stuck in customs
Handling of packages at customs has always been a concern with several mishaps coming in the news like un-traceable shipment, mishandling, rude behaviour of people at customs, issues of delivering sensitive packages across the border and many more. But parcels stuck at customs is something which is entirely not under one’s control and managing a track of the same is again a tedious job. Even big courier companies like FedEx and BlueDart have got such complaints registered in the past.

3. Late deliveries
This is a persistent issue, especially with Indian postal services - not getting deliveries on time. Late delivery is like a cherry on the cake of receiving the wrong post. When sending one package from one place to the other, you expect to get it delivered and thus might be taking a buffer for the same. But what if you get to know that you sent it on time, but it got delayed midway? If this has happened to you, then you are not alone as it has been and is a persistent issue with many.

4. Non-cooperative customer support
This is the most common grievance of customers that the customer support is rude and non-cooperative. People in the past have also complained about the lack of availability of the support staff or information regarding shipment. Not getting enough cooperation on post-delivery issues often keeps issues hanging midway and thus delays the resolving process.

5. Wrong products delivered
Wrong delivery is again a most common courier complaint that has been raised in the past by customers. This persistent mistake has refrained many people from using Indian postal services and might not even gain people’s trust if it persists in future as well.

6. No delivery
Not getting your package at all can be frustrating, and such frustrating customers often knock doors of their regional post offices in hopes of getting issues resolved. But to the absolute dismay, either not getting a satisfactory response or often, rude behaviour of support staff increases the pain of the consumers. They end up filing complaints against this issue but usually get delayed justice.

7. Damaged products delivered
Most people complain of mishandling of their packages despite instructions of “handle with caution” being communicated explicitly. No compensation for the same is another issue people face pretty commonly under this category. It is always very frustrating to first receive a damaged parcel and then getting no compensation for the loss from the courier companies.

How to file a complaint against the post office or the postman?

Public grievance portal is an initiative started by the Central Government for addressing the grievances of the general public. If you have any complaint regarding the behavior of the employees of the post office, you should contact the Postmaster in charge. You can even call the superintendent under whose jurisdiction the Post Office falls and express your dissatisfaction regarding the services of the Post Office.

1. Register a complaint at the customer care number of the Indian Post Office i.e. 18002666868.
2. Go to pgportal.gov.in (Public grievance portal) and get yourself registered.
3. Select lodge public grievance and then enter all your details and select the department.
4. If the complaint is not resolved, approach the Chief Postmaster General here : https://www.indiapost.gov.in/VAS/Pages/CustomerSupport/Guidelines-on-Complaints.aspx

How to resolve courier complaints or postal complaints?

So if you also have had a bad experience in the past with postal services, pretty much above listed possible grievances could be one which you might have faced or might face in future.

To resolve these complaints, you can always call or send an email to them on customer care. If the case goes worse, you can always take them to the consumer forum and file a complaint against them.

1. File support ticket/send an email:
You can always contact courier companies through their official website by going to their contact us section and by sending them an email. The websites and customer service emails of some leading courier companies are:

Delhivery - www.delhivery.com customer.support@delhivery.com
FedEx - www.fedex.com india@fedex.com
DTDC - www.dtdc.in customersupport@dtdc.com
Trackon Courier - www.trackoncourier.com
India Post - www.indiapost.gov.in
XpressBees Logistics - www.xpressbees.com customercare@xpressbees.com

2. Call Customer support:
One of the perfect ways to directly come in contact with the postal company is by contacting it through a phone call for customer support. All these well-known courier companies have a 24*7 working customer care number which helps in resolving complaints as they value customer feedback. The customer care number of some of the leading postal companies in India are :

Ecom Express Customer Care Number - +91-8376888888
FedEx India Customer Care Number - 1800 419 4343
DTDC Customer Care NUmber - +918025361410, +913340329819, +912233004444
Trackon Courier Customer Care Number - +918023417774, +914446617710, +918334043012, +911145593500, +912228510056
XpressBees Logistics Customer Care Number - 020-49116100

3. Send Legal Notice:
A consumer can send legal notice to Courier company in case it is unable to resolve his complaint. It is one of the efficient ways to handle the issue legally. Check below to know how to send a legal notice to a Courier company?

Step 1: Firstly, get a legal notice drafted by a lawyer.

Step 2: Check it properly and make sure it is signed by a lawyer.

Step 3: Keep a copy of it for future purposes.

Step 4: Send the legal notice to Courier company by registered post.

Step 5: Keep the slip or delivery report for evidence.

4. File consumer forum case:
Consumer forum deals with consumer complaints and you should approach the consumer forum if you feel that your rights as a consumer have been violated.

If the courier company is not responding to your complaints even after sending legal notice by a lawyer then you should file a case against it in a consumer court.

Here is how you can file a case in the consumer court?

Step 1: Intimate the aggrieved party via legal notice.
Step 2: Draft the consumer complaint.
Step 3: Attach all the relevant documents and proofs to support your complaint.
Step 4: Select the appropriate court or consumer forum for filing the complaint.
Step 5: Pay the prescribed court fee that is required to be paid along with the complaint.
Step 6: Submit the case along with the affidavit & fees in the court.

If you are looking for quick help then File a Complaint at Voxya to resolve postal complaints or courier complaints. We take legal action by sending legal notice to the courier company addressing the issue. If the issue remains unresolved after sending Legal Notice then we help you in approaching the consumer forum. We generally receive about hundreds of postal complaints every month.

Most Common Issue Reported for Postal Complaints

Complaints

• Resolved Complaints
• Open Complaints