Everyone may file a complaint: an individual, a company, an administration, an association, an organisation, ... in your capacity as a sender OR as an addressee.
You do not have to live in Belgium to ask for our help. Nevertheless, the dispute needs to be related to postal activities carried out by bpost or by any other postal operator active on the Belgian postal market.
Office of the Ombudsman for the Postal Sector
Boulevard du Roi Albert II 8 box 4
1000 Brussels
The Office of the Ombudsman for the Postal Sector is available by foot from the Brussels North Railway Station. We advise you to let us know when you visit us in order for our employees to welcome you in the best possible conditions. Please do bring us all documents required to file your complaint.
It is not possible to file a complaint by telephone. The law requires us to have written proof of complaints lodged within our service. You may, however, contact us by telephone to obtain additional information on our processes, complaint procedure or on the current progress of your case.
It is important to note that we do not handle anonymous complaints. An e-mail address does not constitute sufficient data for us to be able to identify you. If you do reach to us by e-mail, it is important to disclose your identity as well as your postal address.
For all complaints related to lost or damaged packages, we generally need the following information:
- the postal item tracking number (provided to you by the postal operator or by your shipper)
- package contents description (if possible with a photo enclosed)
- proof of content value (order confirmation, bill, …)
- if you are the shipper: proof of dispatch (dispatch note, deposit slip, …)
- if you are the addressee : proof that your shipper used a correct address (order confirmation, ...)
- proof of payment of shipping costs (purchase receipt, bank statement, …)
- if your package is damaged: enclose photos of the damage
- copy of all your communication exchanges with the postal operator (or the reference of your complaint filed with the postal operator).
The law specifying the working process of the ombudsman services requires us to refrain from handling anonymous complaints, complaints lodged by telephone or complaints not previously filed with the concerned postal operator according to its internal procedure.
The law also mentions that we may refuse to handle complaints of a clearly vexatious nature as well as complaints lodged with a postal operator more than a year ago.
Finally, the law also states that case handling in our service is immediately halted when the said dispute is the object of a legal action. We also may not reexamine a dispute which has already previously been the object of a legal action.
You may choose to be represented for as long as we are able to identify you as well as the third party representing you. Should your representative come to our offices, you will need to provide him with an affidavit in which you confirm that he will be representing you and that all information related to your file may be disclosed to him/her.
The handling time varies depending on the complexity of the file in question. We are legally required to handle a case within a maximum of three months. However, should the file prove too complex, we are allowed to extend that term for an additional three months. It is possible, however, that this term may also be exceeded pending exceptional circumstances.
We take the lead on informing you of your case progress and, case pending, of the reasons preventing your case from progressing (if we do not agree with the postal operator's initial reply, if the latter does not provide us with information within the allotted timeframe term, or when the investigation abroad requires more time than initially planned, …).
In 2020, the average handling time of a file was 34 workdays. In 2019, this figure amounted to 36 workdays and in 2018 amounted to 38 workdays.
No. All complaints have the same importance and are treated in the same manner. The way in which a complaint has been filed (e-mail, complaint form, fax or postal letter) does not confer to it a certain level of priority. As soon as a complaint is filed, it is read, registered and entrusted to a case manager who will start the case analysis. It is only when urgency is required, that we sometimes lead some prioritized actions.
No, the handling of your case is free of charge. The only costs you may need to carry are your own personal costs when you file your complaint (the stamp used to send your postal letter to us, your copies, your phone calls).
The law states that the costs of ombudsman poste have to be borne by the postal sector. The Belgian Institute for Postal services and Telecommunication calculates and collects the contributions from the domestic and foreign companies that are active on the Belgian postal market based on a formula laid down in the law (Article 45ter §5 of the Law of 21 March 1991 reorganising a number of public economic organizations). The amount contributed by the postal operators depend on the number of admissible complaints handled by the Office of the Ombudsman for the Postal Sector in the previous year.