I would assume that many -- if not most -- DPD deliveries work out as planned. Other deliveries do not; they turn into nightmares. In general, the strength of a delivery mechanism is tested when things go wrong. Recently one of my parcels was held at DPD's Edinburgh depot for more than three weeks, for no apparent reason other than incompetence, lack of human decency, and systemic failure. I've made call after call and got nowhere -- one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. DPD customer care people promise you the world, while in reality they do nothing, absolutely NOTHING. Are they instructed to *act*? Probably not. There is no system in place for taking care of a customer or a delayed or missing parcel. But it's not only DPD that shows these traits of utter incompetence and disrespect. Other parcel service companies are just as bad, or worse. One wonders, why are delivery companies so bad right now? The main reason is the rapid increase in online ordering and its massive effect on the outdated mechanisms and infrastructure of the delivery companies themselves. Everyone in the delivery system is stressed out and underpaid. Pushed to their limits, drivers, handlers, supervisors, managers, and IT can't cope. They cannot keep up. They are drowning in an avalanche of work and failure. This makes them cynical, angry, and depressed. Instead of hiring more and better staff, DPD UK resorts to lies, cheating and cutting corners. Maybe an effective strategy in the short term; in the long run, DPD is digging its own grave. Just isolate a few hundred of DPD's 5-star reviews and do an n-gram on them. Linguistic forensics demonstrates that over 90 percent of these so-called reviews are almost certainly penned by the same person. With the highest probability, the majority of good reviews is fabricated. Taking this dishonest route is a bad managerial decision. Encouraging customer care staff to lie, and counteracting negative reviews by fabricating good ones, is not a good idea. It undermines people's trust. Delivery mechanisms depend on honesty and trust. Once the trust is gone, postal systems go down. Can DPD UK still be saved? I think it can, but it would require immense restructuring, from top to bottom, and the creation of an entirely new ethos, an ethos of honesty and responsibility.