UK Royal Mail climbdown throws open compensation floodgates

Postwatch chairman Peter Carr is urging business mail users to look again at compensation they received from Royal Mail, after it paid a further #200,000 to a UK building society which queried an original settlement.

Royal Mail has admitted failing to properly process invoices during 2003-04, resulting in the increased payout.

Carr comments: “Royal Mail failed all of its 15 performance targets in 2003-04. Customers were promised compensation.

“Postcomm believes that #80m was owed, but only around #40m has been paid a year later. I advise all business product mailers to find out from Royal Mail how much compensation they should have received, and compare this with how much has been paid.”

Meanwhile, the Postal Users Group (PUG), an alliance of major postal users across Europe, has welcomed a European Commission report on evolving services. The Application of the Postal Directive report highlights the need for better price controls, compensation procedures and transparent cost accounting.

David Robottom, chairman of the PUG and director of postal affairs and industry development at the DMA (UK), comments: “The most important thing the report says is that mail is officially a ‘vital player’, not a dying medium. This will hopefully encourage and energise a dynamic debate on what could be a bright future for everyone in this segment of the postal market. “PUG will, as an immediate priority, organise a debate on its own reform menu, in the context of the report.”