Under the Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”) all postal service providers must have a code of practice with ‘procedures for resolving disputes’.
There are two steps to complete a postal service provider’s code of practice procedures:
Step 1. Contact your postal service provider’s Customer Services section to resolve your complaint. Give them the required time [See Complaint Resolution] to resolve your complaint;
Step 2. If you remain dissatisfied after Step 1, then escalate your case to your service provider’s Advocate for independent review.
Dispute resolution procedures within a postal service provider’s code of practice should include a postal service user advocate mechanism (“the Advocate”), either internal or external to the postal service provider, whose role is to independently assess the previous actions and decisions taken by the postal service provider regarding the complaint.
Postal service providers should nominate an Advocate who is independent of its customer service and operations sections, they should enable postal service users easily lodge a complaint for independent review and they should provide a timely response to the complainant. See “Complaints and Redress Procedures: Guidelines for Postal Service Providers” ComReg Document 14/06 for more information.
An Post’s complaints procedures are available on its website: Feedback & Complaints
An Post’s complaints procedures are available in a pdf of the An Post Code of Practice ‘Getting it sorted – Resolving your complaints’.
Step 1: Customer Services Contact Details:
All complaints should be formally lodged through any of the following methods:
An Post should acknowledge receipt of a complaint within 3 working days.
You should be provided with a unique reference number (for example this might start with CS or WB) however if you are not provided with this ask the Customer Services Agent to confirm it.
An Post should resolve a complaint within the following time frames:
Redress is available to postal service users who have made a complaint if the response times and /or maximum handling times are not met – for example if An Post do not resolve the complaint within these time frames, the consumer may be entitled to a payment of €15.
On completion of the An Post Customer Services review and its subsequent decision on the complaint the customer will receive a final response letter from the Customer Services Department of An Post which will clearly explain An Posts reasons for its decision.
This letter should advise that this is the final decision of Customer Services with regard to the complaint and that this completes Step 1 of the complaint process.
The letter should also advise postal service users who may remain dissatisfied with this decision that they can escalate a complaint to An Post’s Customer Advocate (Step 2) who will independently assess the procedures applied and the original decision of An Post Customer Services.
Postal service users whose feel their complaint remains unresolved, following completion of Step 1, have the option to send their complaint to An Post’s Customer Advocate (Step 2) to seek independent assessment of the complaint.
Postal Service Users should submit their request to the Customer Advocate within 30 calendar days from the date of final decision communicated by An Post Customer Service (Step 1), unless exceptional circumstances can be proven.
An Post require postal service users who wish to request the Customer Advocate to assess their complaint, to submit it through either of the following methods:
The Customer Advocate must issue it’s final response within 30 calendar days following your first contact
Click here to be see the Contact Details for all other Authorised postal service providers.