Door-to-door opt-out survey
Q2 - Did you return the opt-out form?
The door-to-door opt-out form warns householders of the consequences of opting out. In particular, the warning that registering with the service may result in "missing information from local and national government" has often been critisised as an attempt at scaring people out of stopping unwanted mail.
Chart 2 - Number of opt-out forms returned
|
||
 Yes |
82 | 89.1% |
 No |
9 | 9.8% |
 Don't know |
1 | 1.1% |
Nearly 90% of respondents were not put off by Royal Mail's warnings. That is a significant percentage, but less then we had expected. So, what were the reasons for not returning the form?
Q3 - Why did you not return the opt-out form?
Of the nine people who did not return the form, eight told us that they were worried about missing information they do want to receive. Only one respondent had not returned the form for another reason: "A housemate threw it out thinking that it was junk mail!".
Chart 3 - Reasons for not returning the form
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||
| Just forgot |
0 | 0% |
| Worried / changed mind |
8 | 88.9% |
| Other reason |
1 | 11.1% |
How 'effective' Royal Mail's 'scare tactics' are is still difficult to establish. All respondents who had requested an opt-out form had done so via our website. We always explain that important information from local and national government is unlikely to be distributed via the door-to-door service and we encourage people to ignore the warnings. People who request an opt-out form via the Royal Mail website are therefore likely to be more inclined to be discouraged by the warnings.
Q4 - Do you know when your registration with the door-to-door opt-out will expire?
We tried to get some idea of to what extend people have been influenced by the information on our websites by asking if people know after what time the opt-out will expire. The reason for asking this particular question is that Royal Mail does not give this information to people who register with the opt-out (it is not to be found on the opt-out form or on the Royal Mail website) - but it is included on our websites. The registration period is also somewhat unusual; most opt-outs automatically expire after five years, but the door-to-door opt-out stops after two years. Therefore, if people know when the opt-out needs to be renewed they will in all likelihood have read the information on our website.
Chart 4 - Do you know when your registration will expire?
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||
 1 year |
20 | 24.4% |
| 2 years |
49 | 59.8% |
 3 years |
6 | 7.3% |
| 5 years |
7 | 8.5% |
Nearly 60% of respondents chose the right answer. This indicates that most people do read up about the opt-out service when they request an opt-out form via our website. We don't know how many respondents followed our advice and ignored Royal Mail's warnings, but it is likely that householders requesting an opt-out form via our website are more likely to ignore the warnings.