Royal Mail - SAR failure Complaint - tried ICO - is there a legal timeframe before which the organisation must respond?

[parity4all]

 

I made a complaint about my redirection to Royal Mail via phone. Royal mail send me a letter saying if I had any more issues I can contact them via the address on the top of the letter. That address was/is:

 

Customer Service Centre,
P O Box 740,
Stoke on Trent,
ST1 5XZ

 

Within the letter the staff member said the address is a freepost address. 

I found the need to contact the customer service centre again. 

 

I wrote a letter to the Customer Service Centre. As I'm unable to post the letter myself, I asked a colleague to post it to the address above. I also told her that it was a freepost address. As 'freepost' was missing from the address she had decided to write the address on the envelope as: 

 

FREEPOST
P O Box 740
Stoke on Trent
ST1 5XZ
 

Any ideas if the letter will make to to the recipient?

 

I think she may have felt that as the address did not have 'freepost', sorting office may delay or not deliver the item as they may not be aware the address is freepost Is it common knowledge (among postal staff) that the address is freepost and do we not need to specify this on the address?

I'm attaching the letter from Royal Mail that said the address is freepost:

letter from Royal Mail with Customer Service address that says it's freepost

[dx100uk]

yes write freepost as the 1st line of address and pop it in a postbox

 

sorry that didnt come out properly

its a general centre for lots of royal mail depts

 

you needed to have used 

On 19/08/2021 at 16:10, parity4all said:

Customer Service Centre,
P O Box 740,
Stoke on Trent,
ST1 5XZ

 

but put freepost as the 1st line

 

[parity4all]

Turns out she's put:

 

Customer Service Centre
Customer Service Advisor
FREEPOST
P O Box 740
Stoke on Trent
ST1 5XZ

 

Pretty sure it's not conventional to put the person/job title of the person it's addressed to after the team/department, but I can't see it causing too much confusion.

 

The FREEPOST soon afterwards makes sense. From what I've seen on the RoyalMail twitter account that's the usual practice. See tweet attached:

royal mail tweet with customer service centre address previously based in Plymouth

 

The tweet is from 2012 with the same P.O.Box number but Customer Service Centre was then in Plymouth then, not Stoke on Trent. Can't see the convention changing though.

 

Quote

but put freepost as the 1st line

 

I think the Freepost at the top comes only if it's accompanied by a code or a name. As mentioned in this website. See (5) below (note that the webpage is not from the royal mail website):

 

Quote

Royal Mail Customer Service
Those who wish to get in touch with the Royal Mail Customer Service can make use of the following ways;
1. These users and customers can make use of the online tools like the “Help Centre” to find instant help online
2. They can call on the number 03457 740 740 to get in touch with the advisors
3. These customers and users can also fill out the online forms uploaded on the website
4. The users can also choose to get in touch with the customer service department of the company through the text-phone 03456 000 606
5. To write to the company about the queries and the problems the postal address is;
Freepost RLZL-LHZH-JZHT, Royal Mail Customer Services, PO Box 740, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7YB

 

I wouldn't use that address these days though, for the simple reason mentioned before. i.e. customer Service centre seems to be now based in Stoke on Trent. 

 

BTW, just discovered from the Royal Mail Website, it seems businesses/charities can buy a licence for a Freepost name. we (customer/donor) only need to put 'Freepost [NAME OF BUSINESS/Charity]
when writing to business/charity. 

 

Wonder how come Royal Mail don't have a similar Freepost name for Customer Service Centre. Something like...'Freepost Royal Mail Customer Service Centre'. Just one line.

 

Could it be to prevent customers complaining about trivial matters, such as postie not closing the gate after delivering mail or postie walking across the grass lawn.

 

At the moment, only select few customers are aware of the Customer Service Centre freepost address, and we have to write a few lines for the address, not a single line.

 

Seems there is a Royal Mail Customer Services in Plymouth, as opposed to Customer Service Centre (in Stoke on trent). Address is listed as: 

 

Royal Mail Customer Services

FREEPOST

Plymouth

PL9 7YB

 

Also here: https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/Mail_made_easy.pdf..unpublished

 

as: Royal Mail Customer Services, FREEPOST, PO Box 740, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7YB

 

But that is talking about making a claim for loss, damage, delay. it seems depending on the query/issue we may have to contact one or the other address. i.e. Plymouth or stoke.

 

Not sure if they are other customer services related addresses depending on the area of expertise. i.e. loss/damage/delay, redirection of mail etc.

 

Apparently, royal mail does have one line freepost addresses. i.e. 'Freepost Royal Mail International':

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/the_address_for_freepost_royal_m

 

However, according to that customer, they (one line addresses') such as those are frowned upon by royal mail staff.

[parity4all]

I lodged a Subject Access Request with Royal Mail on 06 September 2021.

 

They responded to it on 30 September 2021. However, they didn't provide all the information that I requested.

 

I lodged a compliant (as per the guidance on the ICO website). 

 

They (Royal Mail) replied on the same day:

 

Quote

 

In regards to your concerns around the information missing from the information disclosed to you, specifically e-mails, reports, letters and call recordings;

 

this will be progressed as a complaint, we endeavour to respond to all complaints within 1 month of receipt but depending on the amount of data to be reviewed and any additional searches required it may take longer.

 

Please be assured the concerns you have raised are being looked into, and we will respond as soon as possible.

 

 

I didn't hear back.,

 

I complained to the ICO. ICO didn't reply within 3 months,  I lodged an appeal at the First-tier Tribunal.

 

Then ICO contacted Royal Mail by letter. Still no reply to the complaint.

 

again ICO contacted Royal Mail. Only then I received a reply just a few days ago.

 

On the reply Royal Mail have said they need the reference number in order to try and locate the two emails I requested. they've told me they've not been able to locate a letter.

 

They've apologised and said 'whilst there is no statutory set time scale for responding to complaints, we endeavour to respond to all complaints as soon as possible within one calendar month of receipt.'.

 

Suffice to say, it has taken well over 9 months, nevermind one calendar month.

 

Is there really no statutory (legal) timeframe?.

 

I remember there used to be.

 

Perhaps changed with GDPR?

[dx100uk]

The SAR itself can be legally enforced in a court of law after 30 days .

 

However, you allowed them to treat the failure to return all of your data as a complaint, that typically gives them 56 days or 8 weeks before you can escalate to the FOS. 

 

Dx

[dx100uk]

Threads merged

 

Dx

[parity4all]

The FOS as in the Financial Ombudsman Service?

Don't they deal with financial institutions like banks, building societies, Fintech's etc.

Pretty sure  they won't handle Data protection matters even if it's to do with consumer rights. 

[dx100uk]

you are missing the point.

 

its no longer an sar failure issue - they chose to deal with your issue as a complaint, you let them..you should have issued a court claim on day 31 too late now.

 

quite honestly i'd inform the ico of their reply and pointout what is still missing.

 

BTW:

why are a couple of emails and a letter so important to what appears to be a mail redirection issue?

what are you hoping or not to gain by this exercise?

why do you need them?

 

dx

[parity4all]

5 hours ago, dx100uk said:

 

what are you hoping or not to gain by this exercise?

 

dx

 

My personal data.

 

Sorry about hitting 'quote' but I need to clearly state this is indeed what I'm replying to.

 

Quote

why are a couple of emails and a letter so important to what appears to be a mail redirection issue?

 

The SAR is not solely to do with the redirection issue. I had used the Royal Mail website's 'report a crime' feature. Kept the screenshot where it say 'Thank you. Your submission has been received' . I also requested my personal data about this submission within the SAR. Royal Mail didn't have a record, so, attached to the complaint, I sent them the screenshot, which has the website URL. Date and time are on the screenshot as well.

 

Royal Mail response was that they conducted a search using my name, address and email address, but no records were identified. Odd since I had provided them my personal details within the report.

 

Quote

quite honestly i'd inform the ico of their reply and pointout what is still missing.

 I contacted the ICO again earlier this week, they (the case officer at ICO) emailed me yesterday and said [it is]'common practice for an organisation to seek clarification on what information a data subject requires as part of their request when deemed necessary.'"

 

"...once you have received a final response from the organisation, you still remain unsatisfied, you could forward the correspondence to us so that we could consider the matter."

 

The Royal Mail letter does not state it's a final response, so I think I'd need to liaise with them until they make that clear or there is a lack of response (again).