Shoppers bracing for delivery chaos over Christmas

Shoppers will spend two and a half hours sorting out a delivery problem this Christmas period, according to new research from Citizens Advice.

The national charity’s latest consumer advice trend reports reveals that consumers experienced 4.8 million delivery problems in 2015/16, which cost on average 30 pounds per failed delivery due to due to damaged/loss of goods, hours wasted and time away from work.

Consumers were left more than 148 million pounds out of pocket last year and Citizens Advice have stated to shoppers that it is the responsibility of retailers to sort out the delivery problems and is calling on businesses to uphold people’s rights.

With as many as 390 million parcels expected to be delivered over the festive period by parcel companies and Royal Mail, Citizens Advice is preparing for a rise in people seeking help for problems with deliveries.

This time last year there was a 32 percent increase calls about this issue, between October and December 2015, with a 60 percent spike in people getting online help on December 18 - as they try to track gifts down before Christmas.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Shopping online should make people’s lives easier - but not if their items turn up damaged or don’t arrive at all. We’re expecting more people to seek our help over the festive season as consumers try to track down gifts or look to get compensation for items that are broken or never arrive.

“It’s really important people know that if an item they’ve ordered doesn’t turn up - or if there is a problem with it - it is for the retailer to sort out. Businesses also need to make sure they are upholding people’s rights by looking into delivery problems themselves instead of passing customers onto the parcel companies.”