I have no agenda of my own as none of my family are connected with any courier company but I have to say that it's a awful job especially at this time of year. The drivers are under a lot of pressure and IMO given inadequate time often putting their health and driving licenses on the line to meet timescales.
I know there are worse jobs and some paid considerably less than the vital service they offer, and there is no excuse for unprofessional behaviour, but I think that the drivers get criticised for sometimes responding in the only way they can to ridiculous contracts signed by their management to get the work. I was on the receiving end of 2 damaged items purchased from John Lewis last Christmas delivered by HDNL, I have to say JL customer service was excellent and they replaced the critical item with next day delivery before the courier had picked up the damaged one, so well done JL and good on you for reconsidering courier options iin light of criticism from other customers.
As consumers we have to ask ourselves what 'price' we would put on free P&P - not for a moment excusing some of the exorbitant P&P we have all experienced this year with Q, but question whether we as consumers have a part to play in all this.