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If you want to opt out of receiving door-to-door items delivered by the postman, you first need to contact Royal Mail and ask them for an opt-out form. This form is then sent with a standard letter asking you to reconsider opting out.
There is no good reason why you would need to sign and return a form to opt out of something you haven't asked for in the first place. To stop addressed advertisements you can simply phone the Mailing Preference Service or go their website. Royal Mail should offer its customers a similar service.
After you have completed, signed and returned your form it will take Royal Mail up to six weeks before your postman will actually stop pushing leaflets through your letter box. Surely, if it was the other way around and you would ask them to start delivering door-to-door items again it wouldn't take a month and a half to do so. There is an element of punishment in this customer unfriendly and slow process.
Finally, the opt-out form is peculiar in that it warns customers wanting to opt out that they may no longer receive important information from local or national government. The text you need to put your signature under reads:
I understand that I may miss important information from local or national government or other publications that are sent using this service.
Exactly the same text was used in the letter Royal Mail sends out with the opt-out form. The text in the letter was changed after Postwatch accused Royal Mail of using 'scare tactics' (see above). Yet, the same text has remained the same on the opt-out form.
All the above can easily be changed. It would give Royal Mail's customers a much better service.