worst British delivery companies

If I know a parcel is out for delivery, I find it very difficult to relax. I stand at the window, look out and listen for van doors. That probably tells you why I had so many opinions when I ranked British delivery companies in 2021. A useful notification could make me very happy; a parcel at the wrong house could send me running across the street.

These were my experiences, rather than a claim that everybody would get the same service. Royal Mail and DPD were my favourites, while two recent Hermes deliveries had left me particularly frustrated. One order disappeared, and collecting the other made me feel as though I needed to prove to the entire street that I wasn’t stealing it.

DPD understood my parcel-waiting problem

The DPD app was probably my favourite delivery app at the time. I found it simple and easy to use. When a delivery was coming, I’d get a notification that it was out that day, usually with a time, then another when it was around 30 minutes away and another when I was next. That detail mattered to somebody who otherwise spent the day listening for a van.

I loved knowing when the parcel was about to arrive, and the drivers had always been very friendly to me. DPD went into my top category, which I called “god tier”. It wasn’t an attempt at a scientific league table. I liked the app and liked the service I’d received.

Royal Mail joined DPD at the top. I hadn’t had any major problems with them, and they always seemed friendly. I wasn’t calling them perfect, but my experience had been good enough that they belonged among my favourites. I told them to stay humble while also calling them fabulous. Both seemed fair.

Good, with a few qualifications

Amazon deliveries had generally been pretty good for me. Getting something delivered the same day still boggled my mind. I also knew the drivers were working hard, although my own parcels hadn’t always been placed particularly gently or discreetly.

I’d had Amazon things thrown over gates or fences, and something placed beneath a welcome mat where it was still very obvious what was underneath. Those were the qualifications to my positive verdict. On the whole, I still put Amazon in the good category.

DHL was also good in my ranking. In my experience, it tended to be used for international things, and I had had problems with them finding my address before. I accepted that this could happen sometimes. They weren’t in the top category, but I thought they were better than merely “meh”.

Parcelforce got that “meh” verdict. I’d had quite a few missed parcels, so I couldn’t call them fabulous, but I didn’t think they were the worst either. Yodel was different: I recognised the name and had seen the vans, but I couldn’t say whether I’d ever received a delivery from them. I didn’t have a proper personal verdict to offer there.

The parcel that disappeared

The first recent Hermes story started with an email saying my order was out for delivery. I worked from home and was there waiting. By the end of the day, I thought it was odd that it hadn’t arrived, so I checked the tracking link. It said the parcel had been delivered.

The location shown was beside a road several blocks away, and the delivery photo looked like a cardboard box without helping me work out where it was. I went to that street and asked in a convenience store whether an order had been left there for me to collect. It hadn’t. I walked up and down looking, couldn’t find the parcel and had to go through the lengthy process of reporting that it had disappeared.

I did think the Hermes app was fairly decent. It let me add information about my address, including a photo and delivery instructions, and I’d added details to try to avoid problems. That didn’t stop another delivery going wrong as well.

Collecting my own order looked suspicious

This time, I was waiting at home for a fairly expensive order when the delivered notification arrived. I didn’t have the parcel. The location and photo showed it on a doorstep across the street, so I ran over to collect it. When I checked the label, it had my name and correct address on it.

It was a beautiful day and people were out walking. I worried they would think I was stealing somebody else’s parcel. Two women nearby asked whether I was all right, and I tried to explain that it was my order at the wrong house, showing them my name. Then I pretended to make a phone call, as though I was telling someone I’d found the misdelivered parcel, before running back home.

Saying that out loud was embarrassing. After those two experiences, Hermes ended up at the bottom of my ranking. I wasn’t blaming every person who worked there, but getting my orders had been a struggle. I wanted to hear other people’s delivery horror stories, if only to know it wasn’t just me.

Watch my original delivery-company ranking and parcel stories.