Emirates Post service ‘not delivering’

Many criticise the Emirates Post service, which has coped with a 24 per cent rise in the amount of mail it has handled in the past year. Pawan Singh / The National

Survey says public do not trust the mail

Perception the main problem as just 8 per cent of those polled say they have never lost mail but are still making use of private couriers

DUBAI // A perception of poor service and of mail being lost may be contributing to a crisis of confidence among customers of the country’s postal service, with many people opting to use private courier firms instead.

Almost two thirds of respondents to a survey carried out by The National said they had concerns over the reliability of Emirates Post, with many citing lost packages or delays as the reason for switching to companies such as FedEx or UPS.

However, only a small fraction – 8 per cent – said they personally had lost items in the post. The remainder said they had either experienced delivery delays or had heard stories from friends, during a face-to-face straw poll of 50 people in public areas of Dubai, such as shopping malls or Metro stations.

Josh Mortimer, 27, from the UK, said he had not used Emirates Post since a set of DVDs he ordered from eBay did not arrived.

“It’s normally a bit late, so I waited about three months before contacting the sender to ask if it had been returned,” said Mr Mortimer.

“When he said he had not heard anything since sending it, I got worried and called Emirates Post. They told me they couldn’t track it because it didn’t have a tracking number.”

He said the package was a fairly niche interest – karate instructional DVDs – and did not believe it had been stolen.

“It’s probably just sitting in a lost and found somewhere.”

Pam King, 44, from Australia, said she had switched to UPS after several issues of a magazine she subscribed to did not arrive.

“It was fine at first but when two monthly issues went missing in a row, we decided to make the change,” she said.

Sanjeet Patel, from India, said he rarely used courier firms because of cost, or Emirates Post because of reliability concerns.

“Companies like DHL and UPS are pretty expensive,” he said. “I think people who can afford it use these companies rather than Emirates Post.”

However, both independent experts and Emirates Post say the survey does not reflect broader public values, or the quality of the service, with people’s concerns.

“The 66 per cent is likely not a true reflection of the service’s reliability,” said Torsten Jacobsen, a postal service expert at PA Consulting, an international firm with an office in Dubai.

“It’s only a reputation problem. If you rate all the postal organisations according to the reputation, then the national postal organisation will always be close to the bottom. It’s the same in every country.

“In terms of actual performance, it’s very close to the package operators.”

Jeremy Skyrme, executive director of sales for Emirates Post Group, said: “In terms of our exports I can say without question that the service is excellent.

“This year we have seen a 24 per cent growth compared with last year and that is because people trust us and are happy with the service we provide.”

Rumours of problems meant William Sykes, from the UK, has never used Emirates Post.

“One of my friends ordered something a while ago and used Emirates Post but never received the parcel,” he said. “That sort of put me off using them.

“It’s probably unfair because I’ve never used them, but I just don’t want to risk it.”

However, 34 per cent of respondents to the survey said they either trusted, or trusted somewhat, the service provided by Emirates Post. Included in that, 12 per cent of all respondents said they had “complete faith” in Emirates Post.

Abhay Mohan, from the US, said he regularly used Emirates Post when ordering items from Amazon and never had a problem.

“Maybe I’m lucky, but I’ve never had any trouble,” he said. “Everything I’ve ordered has always arrived on time. I’ve never heard this sort of complaint before.”