UK Royal Mail TMI plan sparks legal threat

Royal Mail is facing legal action following a dispute over the postal operator’s Tailor Made Incentives (TMIs) discount scheme.

Pabo, which specialises in lingerie, magazines, videos and sex toys, spends around #2.4m a year on Royal Mail’s services. But it is consulting its lawyers over a dispute that centres around a marketing venture that involved sending out a 16-page booklet to consumers featuring its best-selling items.

The firm says it spent #75,000 on the mailing and, after discussions with Royal Mail to ensure it met the criteria for TMIs, expected to receive a discount of around #6,500. But it claims Royal Mail offered just #305.

Pabo UK director David Billington says: “You get different information from different sectors of Royal Mail’s business. We understand that the maximum TMI anyone now receives is 5 per cent, but it is not a level playing-field.”

The spat follows accusations from catalogue bosses that Royal Mail is slashing TMIs (PM October 1).

Royal Mail maintains there are no plans to withdraw the discounts completely, and that the scheme’s structure has not been changed since May last year.