Nowadays, many providers of postal services offer sustainable options, such as CO2-neutral transport or the use of recycled packing material.

If your rights are not respected or if a dispute with the seller occurs, you can

1. report this to the Report website,
2. submit a complaint to or ask for mediation by the Consumer Mediation Service and/or
3. make use of mediation through alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Both sender and addressee can also ask for information or submit a complaint to the postal service provider who has or should have delivered the parcel.

If you are dissatisfied with the postal service provider’s response, you can turn to the Ombudsman Services for the Postal Sector.

However, if no period is mentioned on the website or if no period has been agreed on by the seller and buyer, delivery must take place within 30 days.

That service can be offered by the postal operator carrying out the delivery or by the Internet trader.

Tracking is possible by e-mail, text message, a web page or a mobile application of the postal operator and/or the Internet trader.

• Tip: In order to ensure you do not miss any deliveries you can have your parcel delivered in a postal point. On the site postalpoint you can find all postal points of all the operators within a range of up to 10 km from the address you have entered. You can not only find the precise address, but also the opening hours of the various postal points.

The postal service provider who is tasked with delivering your order can also offer the possibility to change the delivery address when you are not present. Usually that information is provided when you are tracking the shipment.

• Tip 1: If possible inform the postal service provider about your absence.  If you call in another person to accept the shipment, also inform that person of your absence and grant a mandate in case the identity is checked.

• Tip 2: In order to ensure you do not miss any deliveries you can have your parcel delivered in a postal point. On the site postalpoint.be you can find all the providers of postal services within a range of up to 10 km from the address you have entered. You can not only find the precise address, but also the opening hours of the various postal points.

• A deliverer is allowed to leave a parcel at the front door. However, this poses a risk to the seller, because something can happen to the parcel before the buyer gets hold of it. Sometimes sellers request prior consent to leave the parcel at the door. If you give that consent, it makes it harder for you to prove afterwards that the seller is responsible for the theft at the front door, for instance. 

Parcel delivered to the neighbours

• If nothing has been arranged for delivery to the neighbours and the web shop delivers to the neighbours by way of the courier, this is at the web shop’s risk. If prior consent has been given the seller may assume that the neighbours were designated by the buyer to accept the parcel.

Note in the letterbox

• When the deliverer has unsuccessfully tried to deliver your parcel, he can leave a note in your letterbox, digital box or try a second time. If you do not receive a note or if you receive the parcel at a later time, you can click through to: What am I to do if my parcel is damaged or has been delivered too late or not at all?

For example, an online purchase made by a Belgian consumer on a British or Chinese platform:

• The buyer must pay the VAT on the goods imported into the EU from a third country.
• For goods with a maximum value of € 150 and purchased online outside the EU, the buyer must pay the VAT during the sale, if the seller is registered for the one stop shop (IOSS).
• If the seller is not registered for the IOSS or if the amount of the purchases exceeds € 150 the buyer will in principle have to pay the VAT to the transporter during the delivery.

Please verify whom you buy from and especially whether the VAT and the import duties are included in the selling price, so as to avoid any surprises.
Check your order and your invoice!

More info on the website of the Federal Public Service Finance: for private individuals  //  video private individuals

“Customs formalities” are administrative formalities concerning the collection of the various duties and fees.

Some Internet traders give an estimation of the customs duties and formalities beforehand as soon as the order is placed.

Some postal operators will ask a compensation for performing those customs formalities, payable in addition to the duties and fees; others have already integrated those costs in the fixed costs of their products/services.

They have to communicate the manner of their choice to the end-users in a transparent manner.

When operators wish to compensate the subscribers (or users of prepaid cards) affected in kind (e.g. a free movie), they have to communicate this clearly and give the end-users the choice between this form or a financial compensation.