Virgin Media Junk Mail

Scandall

Anybody else get tonnes of junk mail from Virgin Media? It's all "To the Occupier/Householder" i.e. unaddressed mail. I read the tips on this site and I'm awaiting a form for Royal Mail to opt out of this kind of mail.

Anyway, I was wondering, if I sent a letter to Virgin Media saying:

1) I no longer wish to receive their mail.
2) Highlight the fact that a company with its very own "Sustainability" section on its website should realistically avoid using such a wasteful form of marketing.
3) Any more mail received after a specific date (like 28 days after date of letter) will incur a charge of £50. If you continue to deliver junk mail at my address, you are agreeing to pay this charge and an invoice will be sent to you.

Can point 3) actually work? I'm thinking in the same way that private car parks can charge for parking with their signs saying "if you park without a ticket you agree to pay a charge" etc. Would something like this stand up in Small Claims if they continue to bombard me with junk mail?

Guardsman

If you started doing that could your home address then be classed as a business ?

Scandall

I don't know. What are you getting at?

Guardsman

Well if you started sending out bills from your home would that mean that you could possibly have to pay business rates rather than the lower domestic rate to the local council.

CoolHotCold

Why of course


You can always invoice them.

Good luck seeing any money. Try taking it to the courts, and well, Judges love a laugh, not only is £50 a letter a HUGE amount of profit for your time to put it in the bin, or put RETURN TO SENDER and drop it off in a post box, but you cannot enforce a invoice like that without the other side EXPLCITLY agreeing to the T&C.


Also "To The Occupier" with your address isn't actually classified as Junk Mail under Royal Mail or MPS, so good luck with that.

wealdroam

Scandall wrote: »

3) Any more mail received after a specific date (like 28 days after date of letter) will incur a charge of £50. If you continue to deliver junk mail at my address, you are agreeing to pay this charge and an invoice will be sent to you.

Can point 3) actually work? I'm thinking in the same way that private car parks can charge for parking with their signs saying "if you park without a ticket you agree to pay a charge" etc. Would something like this stand up in Small Claims if they continue to bombard me with junk mail?

Yes, you can do this.
Just like the private parking companies do.

It will not work though, for the same reason that the private parking companies cannot make it work.
When was the last time that a private parking company actually took someone to court over this... let alone won a court case?
They know they would lose such a case, so they don't bother.
Have a read of some of the threads on the Parking board.

Attempting to charge a large fee like that would be considered a penalty.

You can only claim damages, which can only be your losses in dealing with the stuff.

Also, I seem to remember that if you opt out from this unaddressed mail delivery, Royal Mail have told us we would not receive all unaddressed mail.
Apparently this may mean that some important stuff from government, both local and national, might not arrive.

Scandall

Good luck seeing any money. Try taking it to the courts, and well, Judges love a laugh, not only is £50 a letter a HUGE amount of profit for your time to put it in the bin, or put RETURN TO SENDER and drop it off in a post box, but you cannot enforce a invoice like that without the other side EXPLCITLY agreeing to the T&C.


Also "To The Occupier" with your address isn't actually classified as Junk Mail under Royal Mail or MPS, so good luck with that.

What you meant to say was:

"No this won't work. An invoice like that can't be enforced without the other side explicitly agreeing to T&C."

Everything else (sarcasm etc) is enormously unhelpful.

Anyone know of how of any way this can be combatted? Or is it a "Write to your MP" job?

CoolHotCold

Sorry, I guess I thought you were joking since you were asking for £50 a junk mail letter.


My mistake.

Scandall

The idea isn't for me to get £50, but for them to stop sending the junk mail! I wanted to see if that could work, because if it wouldn't work, they'd know and ignore it.

There doesn't seem to be any way to stop them. If they're just bulk sending this stuff out to anybody and everybody and at the frequency I'm receiving them, I'd hate to see how much paper was being wasted.

keyser666

I get these all the time even though I have been a customer and still currently customer some 5 years after procuring their services.

wongawonga

You might find this site helpful http://www.stopjunkmail.org.uk