Royal Mail Parcels Consultation update

Ofcom - allowing Royal Mail to do what they please since October 2011Earlier this month I wrote about the incoming changes to the Royal Mail parcel/packet services .

I mentioned that I was writing to my MP and Ofcom, and I have had replies from both. The one organisation I wrote to about this that did not bother responding was, wait for it…Royal Mail.

I complained about the obvious ploy to circumvent Ofcom’s price cap, the fact that this did not appear on Ofcom’s site and the inability to find out who is a stakeholder.

My MP (Mike Gapes) has responded saying he has written to the Royal Mail Chief Executive on my behalf and will contact me again when he has had a reply. Good luck with that, Mike.

Ofcom responded with the below.

“Thank you or your letter dated 4 January 2013 in response to the Parcels Consultation document; I have passed this our policy team [sic] in Ofcom who deal with this sort of issue. I can also confirm that Ofcom has the power to amend Royal Mail’s proposals if we consider such action is appropriate.

Finally I can also advise that you are a stakeholder.

I hope the above helps and I can confirm this matter has been registered here at Ofcom.

Yours sincerely

Sandra Sutton

Consumer Contact Team”

Thanks for the response Sandra. However I still take issue with one major point – if I am in fact a Stakeholder and Ofcom can amend the proposal, why is there still no mention of this Consultation document on the Ofcom website, “Consultations For Stakeholders”? How are Stakeholders supposed to know about this if the regulatory body does not bother logging the existence of this proposal?

I’ve heard nothing since, and of course the deadline for comments on the document is now past. However, if anyone would like to lodge a complaint or a comment with Ofcom, you can do so by email to contact@ofcom.org.uk
(an email address I had to call to get as I could find no email contact on the Ofcom website).

Make no mistake, this is not only going to affect businesses and it is going to severely increase the costs of sending small parcels within the UK.

 

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