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ninalanyon I think a lot of the tolerance is due not to so many major service companies making themselves deliberately so difficult to contact (except when you want to buy something from them) that trying to complain is more trouble than it's worth.
A lot of the delivery drivers are not even properly their employees, and their excessively tight rounds make it very difficult for them to deliver anything properly. Not all are like that by any means, but the whole trade has become tarred with the same brush.
Also, these companies are delivering to domestic customers, only thanks to a previous government (Tony Blair's Labour one I think) breaking the Royal Mail's monopoly. Royal Mail was and is designed to deliver to both homes and businesses, but these other couriers were and still largely are businesses-only. So they have no regular rounds times to residential areas, no local sorting-offices and no easy re-scheduling etc., though some now use local shops as pick-up points (for an extra fee).
Damaged goods are not always the carrier's fault though.
I receive very few parcels deliveries; but once had something arrive in packing damaged enough for me to fear some small parts were missing. I could see it had not been packed properly by the supplier (or the manufacturer), so I contacted him, not the carrier; and described why the packaging was breaking up. He very helpfully sent some photos to augment the instructions, so I was able to determine that in fact all parts were there.
At work one I took delivery of some cut metal plates on a small pallet. The supplier had bundled them with plastic strapping not protected from their sharp edges, which duly cut the straps in the jolting during the journey. The escaped plates were unharmed but had smashed an adjacent car headlamp in its own carton, on its way to a garage somewhere. We could see at once that it was not the poor carrier driver's fault, and my manager stressed that when he contacted our firm's metals supplier.
