Phil Gyford

Writing

Friday 13 May 2005

PreviousIndexNext Royal Mail spam

The Royal Mail is constantly battling against all those modern private companies who want a slice of its action. In theory I’m all in favour of some kind of monopoly on the universal delivery of post in the UK. Just as it makes sense to me that one company should run a rail network, it seems simplest to have the Royal Mail run the mail. But every time the post(wo)man pops a bunch of junk through our letterbox I want to see the company die a little.

Royal Mail spamIt’s not the usual junk mail, like credit card offers or spurious lottery prizes, which we avoid entirely via the Mailing Preference Service. This is unavoidable spam, not addressed to an individual, posted through every letterbox by the posty, avoiding all filters. Today we received one genuine item of mail and the pictured seven bits of junk. Grrr.

I generally shove them in the nearest Royal Mail post box, which gets me an inkling of satisfaction, but any better ideas for retaliation would be welcome.

UPDATE: Boing Boing has a post about Royal Mail spam which includes links to the opt-out form as a PDF or Word DOC. (6 Sep 2006)

Comments

I open them to see if there are any pre-paid reply envelopes inside, which I use to return the crap to the spamming sons of filth. If there is no envelope, like you, I pop the crap in the post box.

I also still receive letters for the previous owner of my home, who left four years ago. For the first year, I forwarded them. Then, when I didn't receive so much as a Christmas card of thanks, I started returning them to sender with "Moved" written on the front. Recently, I started returning them to sender with "Dead" written on front.

Posted by Richard Carter on 13 May 2005, 9:23 pm | Link

Sadly, though, it's the anonymous junk that keeps the Royal Mail solvent these days. Just as magazines would cost

Posted by nick on 14 May 2005, 4:00 am | Link

Have you tried a "No Leaflets" sign on your letterbox? Be interested to know if the postman obeys that.

Of course, we should pity the postperson. Before this started they could miss out your house if you had no post. Now they have to walk down every single drive. Believe me, that makes a difference...

Posted by Pete Ashton on 15 May 2005, 10:27 pm | Link

Yeah, although I think they get paid extra for delivering leaflets (so I heard).

I'm not sure we'd be able to put a "no leaflets" sign on our flat's letterbox without someone kicking up a fuss about it ruining the look of the place!

Posted by Phil Gyford on 15 May 2005, 11:52 pm | Link

How about this one?
send an email to optout@royalmail.com
and you will get a form back which you can fill in and send off to RM and they can stop your postie from delivering leaflets as far as is humanly possible.

Posted by public enemy #" on 24 May 2005, 3:09 pm | Link

Tired of disposing of unwanted mail.

Posted by J & S.D. Place on 4 September 2005, 1:00 pm | Link

Please send me a form to register so we no longer receive unnecessary mail

Posted by Diane Wells on 4 September 2005, 9:03 pm | Link

Please forward me form to fill in, re.opt out service

Regards

Alan Smith

Posted by Alan Smith on 6 September 2005, 7:01 pm | Link

Please send me a form so that we can opt out of receiving junk mail.

Thanks

Julie Ward

Posted by Julie Ward on 8 September 2005, 3:00 pm | Link

READ THE COMMENTS - there's one which says you should send an email to optout@royalmail.com in order to get a form.

That ISN'T THE SAME as posting a comment here. Send an email to optout@royalmail.com.

Posted by Phil Gyford on 8 September 2005, 3:12 pm | Link

Please send me a form to enable me to stop unsolicited junk mail

Leo

Posted by Leo Pearson on 9 September 2005, 9:51 pm | Link

OK, I'm closing the comments on this post because you're all clearly too dumb to be allowed the privilege.

Posted by Phil Gyford on 10 September 2005, 11:25 am | Link

Commenting is turned off for this post.