Amazon Logistics tops MSE’s parcel delivery poll for first time while CitySprint comes bottom - here are your need-to-knows on delivery rights
Amazon Logistics has been ranked as the top parcel delivery firm for the first time in an annual poll of MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) users. It comes after another challenging year for firms providing essential services amid the continuing pandemic. But you should still complain to retailers to get them to apply pressure on delivery firms when they fail to deliver.
Below we detail the poll results in full and explain how to challenge poor service from a delivery company. For full details on your rights, you can also see our Parcel Delivery Rights guide.
Amazon Logistics tops our parcel delivery poll for the first time
We asked users to rate their experience with each parcel delivery firm they had used over the past 12 months. They had the option to rate each courier with either ‘great’, ‘OK’ or ‘poor’. The poll received more than 9,000 responses from MoneySavers.
Amazon Logistics was voted as the best of the bunch for its work in 2021, knocking DPD Local off the top spot and pushing it down to third place. Meanwhile, its sister company DPD – which held a seven-year winning streak until 2020 – has stayed firm in second place for two years in a row. Overall, five out of 17 firms are rated better by MoneySavers in this year’s poll compared to last year’s.
CitySprint and Hermes - also known as MyHermes - received the poorest ratings. Despite boosting last year’s ‘great’ score by 1 percentage point, CitySprint sits at the bottom once again, with just 12% rating it so. HermesMyHermes, meanwhile, dropped down two places to 16th place, and Yodel remains in the bottom three for the seventh year running.
See the table below for the full list of results.
2022 ranking and delivery firm (2021 ranking) | 'Great' (2021 result) | 'OK' (2021 result) | 'Poor' (2021 result) |
|---|---|---|---|
1) Amazon Logistics (3) (i) | 60% (61%) | 34% (34%) | 7% (6%) |
2)DPD (2) | 61% (68%) | 28% (24%) | 11% (8%) |
3) DPD Local (1) | 60% (71%) | 25% (20%) | 14% (10%) |
4)Royal Mail (4) | 55% (49%) | 34% (36%) | 11% (15%) |
5)DHL (5) | 40% (43%) | 48% (46%) | 12% (11%) |
6)CollectPlus (6) (ii) | 41% (41%) | 46% (46%) | 13% (13%) |
7)Parcelforce Worldwide (9) | 42% (41%) | 43% (42%) | 15% (17%) |
8) UPS (8) | 38% (42%) | 41% (39%) | 21% (18%) |
9) FedEx UK (7) | 36% (40%) | 44% (44%) | 20% (16%) |
10) APC Overnight (10) | 32% (33%) | 47% (46%) | 21% (20%) |
11) DHL Parcel UK (11) | 30% (31%) | 48% (45%) | 23% (23%) |
12) UK Mail (12) | 26% (27%) | 52% (50%) | 22% (22%) |
13) DX (15) | 24% (25%) | 46% (43%) | 29% (32%) |
14) TNT (13) | 18% (23%) | 54% (52%) | 28% (25%) |
15) Yodel (16) | 26% (23%) | 33% (36%) | 41% (41%) |
16) Hermes/MyHermes (14) | 28% (35%) | 24% (26%) | 48% (39%) |
17)CitySprint (17) | 12% (11%) | 54% (58%) | 34% (31%) |
The poll ran in early January 2022 and asked users to rate their experiences over the previous year. Order calculated by 0 points per percentage point for 'poor', 1 for 'OK' and 2 for 'great' – firms ranked from best to worst. 9,169 people voted – they could vote for more than one firm. Figures may not add up to 100% due to rounding. (i) Not always used by Amazon. (ii) CollectPlus stopped making its own deliveries in October 2020; it now only provides drop-off and collection services for other parcel delivery firms.
'Sadly, we continue to hear of missing, late, damaged and dumped parcels'
Chris Newlands, news and investigations editor at MSE, said: "There’s no doubt that this past year has once again proven to be very tough for parcel delivery firms, especially with some staff forced to self-isolate.
"But sadly, we continue to hear of missing, late, damaged and dumped parcels – so it’s important for consumers to use their rights and vote with their feet when firms don’t deliver the goods.
"If it’s something you’ve ordered, chances are you won’t get much choice on which firm shows up at your door. But if you’re unhappy with the delivery, or it simply doesn’t arrive, complain to the retailer – that’s who your contract’s with – and make sure they know.
"It’s their responsibility to put things right, and if others are complaining too, they will have no option but to apply pressure on their couriers to raise their performance, or ultimately they’ll use another service."
Our top three need-to-knows on delivery rights
Know your delivery rights:
Your contract is with the retailer, not the delivery company. Unless you paid directly for the delivery with a parcel firm, then it's the store that owes you a duty of care. If the item doesn’t turn up or is damaged, your rights under the Consumer Rights Act kick in and you should be due a full refund or replacement.
If that doesn't work, try escalating a complaint to the retailer. If that doesn’t work, and you've paid for even a proportion of the cost by credit card, then you could try to claim via Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act (for items worth between £100 and £30,000). If you've used a debit card or paid for an item worth less than £100 on a credit card, you might be able to apply the Chargeback rule.
If your parcel is late, you can likely send it back. If you ordered something online and it turns up late, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations you’ve got 14 days after you receive a package to notify the seller that you have changed your mind, regardless of whether it's faulty or not. You then have a further 14 days to send back the item. This means if your parcel doesn’t arrive in time for what you need, you can send it back and get a refund. (Some items, such as personalised or perishable items, aren't covered by these rules.)
You have fewer rights if you buy something in store and request it for delivery, but you can boost your delivery rights when buying in store with the ‘time is of the essence’ trick.
If you had to wait in for a delivery that was delayed, you may be able to get compensation. If you had to take extra time off work for a redelivery, you may be due compensation for ‘consequential loss’, such as loss of earnings or holiday taken. Importantly, you can’t claim for the original no-show day, this is about EXTRA time taken off.
For full details on your rights, see MSE’s Parcel Delivery Rights guide.
What the parcel delivery firms say
We asked the top ranked and three bottom ranking parcel delivery firms for comment.
Kerry-Anne Lawlor, country director of Amazon Logistics, said: "We are delighted that this survey recognises the hard work of the incredible Amazon employees and independent delivery partners who come together to provide fast, reliable and safe delivery for our customers every day."
CitySprint declined to comment, while DPD/DPD Local and Hermes/MyHermes did not respond to our request.
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