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Thank Dave and Little Nicky.

 -Shrike- wrote:
Is there a reason behind this change?

Wondering that myself. I'd hate to sign the petition purely because it inconveniences me and the hobby, when there's actually a good reason why they're doing it.

It's supposed to be a safety measure

If a large can of paint (think an industrial 5 or 10L tub of paint used by professional) full of VOS (volatile organic solvents) is damaged in transit you've got a big mess + toxic fumes + a fire hazard

all of which are not the case for water based hobby paints (they just never thought about them)

 Palindrome wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:
WTF? Why do they have this restriction?

Because acrylic paint can be used as a component for dirty bombs.

Privatisation, its for winners.

As I have no idea what you can make dirty bombs out of except the obvious of explosives plus radioactive material, I have no idea if this is a real or a troll answer.

The soda bomb plot of 2005 resulted in a global ban on carrying soft drinks onto aircraft (it helped that the airlines could then sell you some aboard). If for some reason the security services were to claim that paints were a vector for nasty materials then we would have to suck up the changing world. However that would result in an outright ban, not a volume restriction.

Colour me a sceptic.

HairySticks wrote:
Well I can't say I get where theyre coming from, but when did this go into effect?
I just had 20 pots of VMA, 200ml primer and 200ml thinners delivered in a single parcel last week.

Theres actually a lot of prepackaged paint sets / selections that will breach this.
My suggestion is to boycott Royal Mail! I think Hermes offer a better value, quicker delivery option for most parcels nowadays anyway.
Youl probably find that most ebay merchants wont use RM anymore since the latest price hikes.

Edit; realising now that my VMA's were delivered by 'Interlink Express' Who I might say have the best tracking system that Ive ever seen.
I can't see Royal Mails new regulations changing anything for us; most online retailers dont even use royal mail, because they suck. Private courier services beat them any day of the week.

Totally agree with this statement Interlink have a fantastic tracking system, plus the guy who delivered to me apologised for being 2 minutes early

I actually phoned the depot to thank them for a great service and to make sure that the driver was thanked and noted for providing a decent service.

I just hope City Link don't pick up the business for this change of policy, if they get it you wont get your delivery of paints.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Palindrome wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:
WTF? Why do they have this restriction?

Because acrylic paint can be used as a component for dirty bombs.

Privatisation, its for winners.

Yes because privatisation always works in the consumers favour

*** Update - 27th November ***

The petition has been discussed during a conference call at Royal Mail today, so at least we've got their attention! Unfortunately, at this stage, they have decided that there will be no changes made to the restrictions.

We have also now been given a reason for the restrictions, which is that it's to 'safeguard the rest of the mail in the system from potential damage'. Now this is perfectly understandable, but there is still no reply on how 5 x 17ml pots of paint can cause more damage than 4 x 150ml pots? Or how 1 litre of whiskey in a glass bottle is seen as a lesser risk than a 200ml pot of acrylic paint?!

So, we have some answers, but still no real progress on these illogical restrictions, and the potential to amend them.

What's the next stage?

Basically, we need numbers! Despite gaining 2,500 signatures in less than a week, we're obviously not registering strongly enough on their radar, so we need to really push the petition out there and gain more support.

So, we're asking everyone who has signed so far to please help us spread the word. Post this on your Facebook walls, on your Twitter feeds, on your blogs, your forums and your websites. Even Tweet some politically inclined celebrities if you like! We're working hard at this end to get some national coverage in hobby magazines and national newspapers, so there's a lot more to come!

Many thanks for your support so far.

Cheers,

Leon Pengilley

We have also set up a new Facebook page, so that we can provide regular updates, and also answer any questions people may have: https://www.facebook.com/PostOurPaint

 Orlanth wrote:
Signed, thankfully one can add anything in the email and address boxes because the T&C doesn't look secure.

Those who signed up with their actual email addresses, I hope you like advertising.

I used a dummy email address.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
It's supposed to be a safety measure

If a large can of paint (think an industrial 5 or 10L tub of paint used by professional) full of VOS (volatile organic solvents) is damaged in transit you've got a big mess + toxic fumes + a fire hazard

Which the sensible postal service gets around by prohibiting the posting of flammable or toxic liquids... Acrylic hobby paint is neither of those things.

 Azazelx wrote:
I used a dummy email address.

You used mine?! ; p /jk Yeah I use a spam one for all that sort of thing, just good internet practice.
--
Yeah, important issue that I hope we can get resolved. It seems like a very poor implementation of something that yes, could probably use some regulation. The motherland is good for us hobbyists down under, and royal mail pricing is much better than courier.

Update - 9th December

As we mentioned previously, Royal Mail have changed the reasoning for these restrictions from 'Dangerous Goods' to 'potential damage to other mail', so we have now sent them a list of questions as a result:

"As a follow-up to our recent discussions on water-based paints, and the restrictions on them in your guidelines, I have a few more questions:-

1. In our original discussions, the reason given for Parcel Force being able to ship these items was due to them having a Dangerous Goods license. Now that we have determined that these items are not in fact 'Dangerous Goods', what is the new reason for Parcel Force being able to ship these paints, and how are they overcoming the same 'potential damage to other mail' reasoning which worries Royal Mail?

2. Do you have any statistics which show the frequency of breakages/leakages in the mail, and more specifically, how many of these are caused by water-based paints?

3. The restrictions allow the shipping of upto 1 litre of alcohol, does this not pose a greater risk of leakage / breakage than 4 small pots of paint, even more so when the alcohol is likely to be shipped in a single glass container?

Many thanks,

Leon Pengilley"

We will now have to wait and see what they reply with before proceeding.

In the meantime though, we still need to grow the support, and get this noticed on a national scale by the mainstream media. To do this, we're asking you to help out by doing two things:

1. Write to your local MP, using the template which can be found on our new Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/PostOurPaint/posts/245576305607450 (modify it to suit if you wish). A full list of UK MP's listed by their consituency can be found here: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/?sort=1 If you get a response, please let us know on the Facebook page, or by email to me directly at leonpengilley@hotmail.com

2. Write to any local newspapers or other media in your area to bring this to their attention as well. The MP letter template linked above can be used for this as well, with only minor modification.

Also, please head over and join our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/PostOurPaint which allows us to keep everyone up to date with the latest news and discussions as we move forward with this. You can also update here as you get responses from your local MP's / media.

Thanks for reading, and again, thank you for your support. Please pass this update around your friends, forums and Facebooks, and we'll keep pushing to get these restrictions changed!

PS, I hope everyone has a merry Christmas as well, there might not be many paints under your tree, but I hope there's something good in their place...!

Cheers!

Authority says you can't do something because X

you prove them wrong about X

so instead of letting you do it

Authority says you can't so it because of Y

etc (Sigh)