Door-to-Door Royal Junk Mail opt-out

[pseudomonas]

I am cross, partly at myself. It seems that many of the pizza companies, supermarkets, charities depositing plastic bags, and the like through my letterbox in defiance of the "No junk mail, no free newspapers" sticker were not employing annoying casual deliverers but were instead using the Royal Mail, whose employees are under strict orders to ignore such signs. They have an opt-out procedure, which is somewhat tedious. Basically, you email them, they email you a form, you print it, sign it, send it back. After two years, they start sending you junk again without giving you a reminder.

I'd like to know if they'll respect forms sent in by people that haven't sent emails requesting forms explicitly. I've put the form here, if you'd be willing to try this and let me know if it works! (it's Freepost)

The email you're certifying that you've read and understood is the tedious:
Dear Householder
Royal Mail Door to Door

Thank you for contacting Royal Mail about the ‘opting out’ of Door to Door deliveries. We are happy to
stop deliveries of unaddressed items to your address, but before doing so we need to make you fully aware
of the implications of opting out, and to get your written authorisation to stop deliveries of these
items.

The main areas for you to consider are:

• The opt out service only relates to unaddressed mail delivered by us. Royal Mail is still legally obliged to deliver all addressed mail, which includes mail that is addressed “To the Occupier” (or with any other generic recipient information), as well as mail that is personally addressed to you by name.

• It is not possible for Royal Mail to separate material you don’t want from material that you do want, such as advertising offers or leaflets from Central and Local Government and other public bodies. Opting out from Royal Mail Door to Door stops all unaddressed items from being delivered by us (although in exceptional circumstances Government may request that we make an exception to this opt out). Election material is not delivered by the Door to Door service and is therefore not affected by this opt out.

• Opting out means no one at the address will receive unaddressed mail items - is this acceptable to everyone living at the property?

• Please be aware that Royal Mail only delivers about 25% of the total volume of unaddressed mail items in the United Kingdom. The opt out will not cover any other distributors, who will continue to deliver unaddressed mail items. Opting out of Royal Mail Door to Door deliveries will not necessarily reduce by a significant amount of the number of items that you will receive, as there are other carriers in the market place.

If you would like to opt-out from deliveries from other unaddressed mail distributors, who are member of the Direct Marketing Association, you may wish to register with the Your Choice Preference Scheme run by the Direct Marketing Association. The contacts details are:

Your Choice Preference Scheme
Direct Marketing Association (UK) Ltd
DMA House
70, Margaret Street,
London W1W 8SS
Telephone: 020 7291 3300
Fax: 020 7323 4165
Email: yourchoice@dma.org.uk

If you would like to stop any other unwanted communications please visit www.mydm.co.uk, which provides details on all other preference services, or call the Mailing Preference Service on 0845 703 4599

If you still wish to opt out of receiving Door to Door mail items, please complete the attached form and return it to the address given on the form and we will process your request. Every effort will be made to prevent the delivery of Door to Door mail items by Royal Mail. Exceptionally, if relief staff are used, an occasional delivery may occur. Please be advised that it may take up to 6 weeks for your request to be implemented, and that your opt out will last for a period of 2 years. If you wish to resume deliveries of Door to Door to your address during this period please contact us.

(See attached file: Door to Door Opt out form.pdf)

Please note that your address will be opted out of receiving Door to Door items for a period of two years. At the end of the period you will need to confirm that you are still resident at the address and wish to continue opting out of Door to Door deliveries.

Yours sincerely

Opt Out Team
Royal Mail Door to Door

I'd also be interested if anyone has any ideas how to make this process more streamlined. Ideally the sort of enter-your-address-and-click-OK thing that the MPS has would be nice.

Comments

[aldabra]

I'm resisting doing that because I feel I ought to read the Council stuff that they deliver too and withhold if you opt out of the ads. Although all I actually do is put it in a pile, so I suppose I could live without it.

[gerald_duck]

Alas, I think I agree with their 25% estimate. Royal Mail probably delivers me an even smaller proportion than that, actually.

Then again, I guess anyone else is trespassing if I stick a notice on my letterbox and they ignore it.

Next time I'm near a printer I might give that form a try, thanks.

[pseudomonas]

I have a notice on my letterbox, so I think Royal Mail is probably the major culprit.

[pseudomonas]

I wonder if the Council could set up an RSS feed.

[curious_reader]

I must admit I have never tried to stop it. I usually ignore it if it is really junk and put it streight into the recycle bins. When it is from the council it is sometimes important. This letter sounds like they don't care about stopping it. I absolutely understand that you are annoyed. Making the effort filling out stupid forms and then being told it does not change anything. I filled out a form to be included in the local election and wasted money on postage. Then I got a form that I have to do it again as there is nobody reported at the address being able to vote. It was addressed to "the occupier". Luckily they sent me a pre-paid envelope. I hope they got it now. I cannot vote for the UK parlament as I am only EU. It is very expensive to become a British citizen. They should make it free or very cheap for EU citizens who have been living here for a certain period of time and do not intend to leave.

[karen2205]

*puts one in the post* - I've been needed to renew mine since June. AFAIR they don't acknowledge receipt of them though.

[ewx]

I am somewhat tempted to return unaddressed mail via the postbox, if it came via RM…