The average time taken to resolve a postal complaint ranges from 23 days in the UK to over 11 months in Finland. In most countries, complaints mainly relate to the loss, theft or damage of postal items but non-compliance with quality of service is most frequently cited in Croatia, France and the UK. Cullen International’s latest research on end-user complaint handling and dispute resolution shows significant variation between postal complaint handling across Europe.

Under the Postal Services Directive (PSD), all postal service providers must provide procedures to handle complaints from end users. While all studied countries impose this obligation on licensed postal providers, national regulation differs significantly in terms of the features, scope and publication requirements of these complaint handling systems.

The PSD also requires that the availability of independent out-of-court settlement schemes should be encouraged as an alternative means for dispute resolution. Cullen International’s research found that all studied countries have installed such schemes but that their organisation varies significantly.

In 13 out of 22 studied European countries, the national regulatory authority is responsible for out-of-court dispute resolution. In the remaining covered countries, out-of-court dispute settlement is organised by other authorities, such as by the ministry in Spain, a postal ombudsman in Belgium, and general consumer protection bodies in Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Cullen International’s latest research on end-user complaint handling and dispute resolution compares regulation and statistics across 22 European countries.

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