Today the Post Office has confirmed that all Royal Mail international services have been reinstated at Post Offices up and down the country, exactly six weeks from the 11th of January 2023,when Royal Mail went public and admitted that a cyber incident had occurred. This consequently resulted in Post Offices being unable to handle international mail or parcels at its 11,500 branches. Domestic services were unaffected.
On the 19th of January 2023, Post Offices were able to accept and sell postage for Letter and Large Letter sized items internationally through Royal Mail. This excluded the sending of goods internationally – basically you could send anything that needed a customs declaration.
Today, the 21st of February 2023 following close work with Royal Mail since the incident first occurred all international services, including the sending of goods either via a letter or in a parcel, have been reinstated and can be sent from Post Offices.
Postmasters have been the innocent victims of this faceless crime, unable to support businesses and consumers wishing to use their expertise to get parcels sent abroad. For many small businesses, Post Offices are an integral part of their business set-up and this has been a challenging time for them too. We have worked day and night in partnership with Royal Mail to reinstate all international services via our branch network.
Post Office is providing additional remuneration to Postmasters for handling international items at branches in the form of a new fixed payment for each transaction. In addition, for all Royal Mail international labels sold in branch during February and March, Post Office will pay additional commission on the value of each item.
These past weeks have been difficult for Postmasters who through no fault of their own have missed out on remuneration for providing international mails services. Postmasters are operating in a tough economic climate and this package of remuneration improvements should help rebuild their earnings from international parcels.
– Neill O’Sullivan, Managing Director Parcels and Mails, Post Office
3 Responses
42 days. Almost as quick as a first class letter lol.
In that time sellers have found other ways to ship which are less hassle. GSP for ebay sales and Evri for everything else (no customs forms required) they handle it all for you.
No mention there that Royal Mail are asking franking machine users not to send international mail via a franking meter! Instead they expect us to go to the post office and pay extra for the priviledge!!