Kantar - Royal Mail Monitoring and Posting Panel

mrselliott

Thank you for all your replies, glad it’s not just me. I know there’s usually additional questions for accepting the unaddressed survey ie does anyone else have access to mail etc but I’ll wait and see what I get this time, as I said I don’t mind either as it’s easy to do 🙂

molerat

mrselliott said:

Thank you for all your replies, glad it’s not just me. I know there’s usually additional questions for accepting the unaddressed survey ie does anyone else have access to mail etc but I’ll wait and see what I get this time, as I said I don’t mind either as it’s easy to do 🙂

That is intended for communal letterboxes where anyone could lift all the junk mail so they don't really want people in that situation..

Invited to survey - press accept - worry about which one it is later

Money_Grabber13579

seatbeltnoob said:

That was the whole point of the barcoded stamps, the barcoded will be unique and will only work once. If its been sent through twice the qr code should alert royal mail about it 

Whether the idea actually works in practice though is another matter! Royal Mail have also claimed that for it to work properly, the post markings need to only obliterate the stamp part and not the bar code (so that the bar code continues to be readable) but even with the new stamps, I’m still receiving enveloped where the post marking obscures the whole thing. I also received one the other day where the post marking was on the back of the envelope rather than the front…

NBLondon

In theory - if the barcode is read the first time it goes through the sorting mechanism, that unique number is recorded as "used".  If it is later obscured by the postmark - only an idiot would try to re-use it.  If it isn't, then in the second time through it will be detected as a re-use and thrown out.

How realistic it is to do that in real time - I'm not sure.  There would have to be readers in every sorting office all connected to one master database.  Maybe it will have to be a sampling operation with only some mail streams being checked some of the time.  But if people believe they are all being checked - it will deter some people from re-using and others from buying cheap already used or forged stamps on eBay.    Like the TV Detector vans; they didn't actually work but if enough people believed they did and thus didn't try and cheat then it was worth the outlay.

The second thought is that if a re-use is detected - who gets chased for it?  Currently - the recipient is asked to pay postage and a surcharge to receive the item.  They would then have to identify the sender to RM for RM to take any action.

gt94sss2

NBLondon said:

How realistic it is to do that in real time - I'm not sure.  There would have to be readers in every sorting office all connected to one master database.  

The second thought is that if a re-use is detected - who gets chased for it?  Currently - the recipient is asked to pay postage and a surcharge to receive the item.  

I believe all mail goes through an mail centre, so the machines there can do it.

As for surcharging.. Royal Mail will still surcharge the recipient on the basis that r sender put no valid postage on the item

simon8368

lesliejack said:

back on the panel after a short break, in training of course!
now they say I can't participate because I don't have the app, I only have a basic phone, and my area requires me to use the app
peeved at the moment!

Hi, i'm new to this forum. I've been on the panel for 8/9 years now. I received an invite in July to do another 6 months, and it said about the app then. I contacted them and they replied and said whilst they like people to use the app so the time is exact, i can still record it on my computer when i get home (i don't have a smart phone either) so i'm able to continue. I wouldn't buy a smart phone so if that changes in the future i'll have to stop.

It's a shame they require you to use it where you live (and strange it's not everywhere).

NBLondon

gt94sss2 said:

I believe all mail goes through an mail centre, so the machines there can do it.

Yes.....  so every mail centre needs machines that can read the barcodes and a massive database of already used barcodes.  How many machine is that to be upgraded?   Fast online lookup that can tell the machine which letters to reject?

gt94sss2 said:

As for surcharging.. Royal Mail will still surcharge the recipient on the basis that r sender put no valid postage on the item

Yes.... that's what I said.  So the recipient (who may be totally innocent) pays because  the sender is a cheapskate or a fraudster.  Not the person who actually defrauded RM.    The better use of the barcodes is to deter and detect forgeries - but you still have to track down the sender; ask them where they got those stamps from and then pursue the source.  That's a lot of detective work by RM.  I don't think they are going to do it just because poundsinbucks recycles Kantar envelopes - they are after the big players.

Saetana

simon8368 said:

lesliejack said:

back on the panel after a short break, in training of course!
now they say I can't participate because I don't have the app, I only have a basic phone, and my area requires me to use the app
peeved at the moment!

Hi, i'm new to this forum. I've been on the panel for 8/9 years now. I received an invite in July to do another 6 months, and it said about the app then. I contacted them and they replied and said whilst they like people to use the app so the time is exact, i can still record it on my computer when i get home (i don't have a smart phone either) so i'm able to continue. I wouldn't buy a smart phone so if that changes in the future i'll have to stop.

It's a shame they require you to use it where you live (and strange it's not everywhere).

It may well depend on how short they are of panellists in a particular area - if they are desperate then far more likely to allow someone not to use the app, if they have plenty of people available then they are going to insist on the app I would imagine.  Just my theory on the matter.

quoia

mrselliott said:

Just a query regarding the correctly delivered and unaddressed mail surveys, just wondering if anyone else has the same issue. I get the correctly delivered invitation come up but if I’m quick enough to accept it, it thanks me for joining the unaddressed mail survey. I never actually get the correctly delivered but seem to be almost constant on the unaddressed one, which I don’t mind as it’s £5 pretty regularly. I’ve messaged them this week with a screen shot of it as I got the correctly delivered invite on Monday but no reply yet. Does it happen to anyone else? It seems to happen if I’m on the website or if I use the app on my phone.
 

I reported this to Kantar about 8 or so weeks ago. 

It's just the App that is wrong
It ALWAYS invites to the CORRECTLY Delivered irrespective of that it could be the Unaddressed survey that is on offer.
The accompanying email has the correct information 

NBLondon

quoia said:

mrselliott said:

Just a query regarding the correctly delivered and unaddressed mail surveys, just wondering if anyone else has the same issue. I get the correctly delivered invitation come up but if I’m quick enough to accept it, it thanks me for joining the unaddressed mail survey. I never actually get the correctly delivered but seem to be almost constant on the unaddressed one, which I don’t mind as it’s £5 pretty regularly. I’ve messaged them this week with a screen shot of it as I got the correctly delivered invite on Monday but no reply yet. Does it happen to anyone else? It seems to happen if I’m on the website or if I use the app on my phone.
 

I reported this to Kantar about 8 or so weeks ago. 

It's just the App that is wrong
It ALWAYS invites to the CORRECTLY Delivered irrespective of that it could be the Unaddressed survey that is on offer.
The accompanying email has the correct information 

I get the reverse of mrselliott - I'm invited to Correctly Delivered and always get Correctly Delivered.  

Could be another thing that varies from area to area - depending on the volume of Unaddressed Mail perhaps?

Wonder if this glitch is also connected to the survey last week asking me why I've never accepted an offer to do Unaddressed?