Post and parcel collection

A missed-delivery notice tells you where and how to collect your item. Check the carrier’s official tracking and the notice for what to bring and how long it will be held. Identification, codes, authorisation and storage periods vary by carrier and service.

Before going to collect

1. Confirm the carrier and shipment number using your order account or the carrier’s official site/app. Do not pay a new fee through an unexpected text link; see Scams and fraud.
2. Read the current tracking status and notification: pickup location, when it is ready, opening hours and last collection date. A parcel shop, post branch and automated locker are different destinations.
3. Check which identity document, notice, barcode or app code this shipment needs. Take the notice and required evidence. Ask the carrier if the name differs from your identity document or the notice is missing.
4. Collect within the stated storage period, or contact the carrier promptly about available options. There is no universal number of days for all parcels or lockers.

If another person collects

Follow that provider’s authorisation process, not a form copied from an unrelated company. As a Deutsche Post branch example, use the completed authorisation on the notification card or the provider’s Postvollmacht form. Identify the parties and scope and sign physically; showing a digital signature on a phone is not accepted for that authorisation. The collector needs their own identity evidence and the notification. Ident-Check items are excluded from proxy collection; other special services can have additional conditions.

Give only the authority you intend, such as this shipment rather than an unlimited authorisation. Check the shipment’s special rules before sending someone to the branch. A power to collect a parcel is not automatically a power to handle legal proceedings or every formal postal delivery.

DHL Packstation: two different routes

For parcels addressed directly to a DHL Packstation, use the registered/activated customer-account and Post & DHL App route; the pickup code is shown in the app. Check the current instructions for a station with a screen versus an app-controlled station.

A parcel redirected to a Packstation after a failed home delivery is different: DHL says customer-account registration is not required for these notified shipments, and you use the notification barcode rather than the direct-addressed pickup code. An app-controlled station still needs the app and the connection steps stated by DHL. Follow the actual notice; do not send account passwords or assume another carrier’s locker works the same way.

If the code, station or compartment fails, contact the carrier with the shipment and station numbers and details of the error. Keep a screenshot or note of what happened. The Bundesnetzagentur does not operate the locker.

If tracking says delivered but nothing arrived

Check the delivery details and any authorised safe place or named neighbour. Save the tracking history and notice, then contact the carrier promptly for investigation. Record what you actually received; if damaged, photograph the parcel, label, packaging and contents and retain them. Do not sign a statement saying you received something you did not receive.

For goods you bought as a consumer from a business, contact the seller in writing too. Under section 475(2), shipping risk ordinarily remains with the business until delivery. An exception applies if you commissioned a carrier independently and the seller had not previously named that carrier. A private sale or your own shipping contract can follow different rules. A tracking label alone does not settle a disputed handover or safe-place authorisation.

Ask the seller to deliver and, where needed, set a reasonable additional deadline. Withdrawal for non-performance under section 323 generally requires an unsuccessful reasonable deadline, with statutory exceptions; a delay is not always an immediate refund entitlement. Faulty goods covers defects after delivery, while Consumer complaints explains the separate consumer withdrawal route.

Complaints and formal letters

Keep order/payment evidence and carrier/seller case numbers. Complain to the carrier first about its service; an eligible unresolved liability dispute may go to the Bundesnetzagentur’s postal conciliation service. A regulatory complaint is not itself compensation, a delivery order or a way to extend seller/payment-protection deadlines.