Royal Mail 'cyber incident' hits overseas post

gt94sss2

Royal Mail says it is unable to send letters and parcels overseas after a "cyber incident".

It is telling customers to stop sending items overseas while it tries to resolve the issue.

The firm said there were also minor delays to deliveries into the UK, but domestic deliveries are unaffected.

It apologised and said its teams were "working around the clock to resolve this disruption" and would update customers when it had more information.

Royal Mail is understood to be calling it a "cyber incident" rather than an attack because it does not know what has caused the issue.

It said its computerised systems for sending letters and parcels abroad had been "severely disrupted"

More at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64231473

soolin

I sent something tracked and signed for to the US on the 28th December, as at today the 14th January it is still at Langley and hasn’t left the UK, and now with these International issues it’s likely to stay there for a while.

Luckily this was not an item I sold, but it makes me remember why it is that I no longer ship overseas. A large letter less than 100g cost me nearly £10 and I think this level of service is unacceptable. 

gt94sss2

soolin said:

I sent something tracked and signed for to the US on the 28th December, as at today the 14th January it is still at Langley and hasn’t left the UK, and now with these International issues it’s likely to stay there for a while.

Luckily this was not an item I sold, but it makes me remember why it is that I no longer ship overseas. A large letter less than 100g cost me nearly £10 and I think this level of service is unacceptable. 

Sounds if your item would have been caught by delays caused by Storm Elliott even before this cyber incident.

Quite often though I can't tell something has actually left the UK until it clears customs in the other country.. and US customs is often slow.

molerat

https://news.sky.com/story/royal-mail-cyber-attack-carried-out-by-russian-linked-ransomware-gang-12785685

misterthrifty

I posted a parcel to an ebay buyer in Canada on the 5th of Dec the postage alone cost nearly £30, so far it has just made it to the Langley centre. The buyer has opened an INR so I will have to refund as I can't prove it has been received and I won't be able to make a claim with RM because it is being tracked. Eventually it will be delivered to the buyer and the best I can hope for is that they will be honest and send me the money I refunded, or refuse to accept it so (hopefully) it is returned. 
I have always supported RM but the business is in crisis and I can't see them surviving the next few years.

Archergirl

I have had several buyer from overseas since the 11th Jan incident, I have contacted them and told them they still want the items but I expect I will get eBay telling me my items are overdue for posting even though I can't post them.
I have one item for December that I have posted but it's still telling me about overdue delivery, I have phoned eBay and asked them to remove the warning and they said they would but it's still showing as awaiting dispatch........most annoying!!

soolin

Archergirl said:

I have had several buyer from overseas since the 11th Jan incident, I have contacted them and told them they still want the items but I expect I will get eBay telling me my items are overdue for posting even though I can't post them.
I have one item for December that I have posted but it's still telling me about overdue delivery, I have phoned eBay and asked them to remove the warning and they said they would but it's still showing as awaiting dispatch........most annoying!!

At the moment ebay don't seem to have any policy in place to protect sellers - hopefully there is something in the pipeline. A few sellers who have phoned ebay have allegedly been told that as ebay placed a warning on their postage page about this international incident and suggested sellers use another service, that it is up to the seller to ensure that deadlines are met. I suspect many sellers have temporarily removed any overseas options though to protect their accounts as ebay are sometimes slow in reacting to issues like this. There are certainly instances already where INR claims have been allowed for December parcels which have suffered due to RM strikes, USA weather conditions and now this- and some businesses are already taking losses.

What will be interesting is how ebay treat the GSP sales, as it is them that will need protecting , although perhaps they can afford to just switch to a courier. I am aware in the past for instance that where Italy starts being a real issue that GSP is temporarily halted for sales from there until the post picks up- just to protect ebay from having to continually refund. It's probably just a co incidence but I usually have a very high percentage of GSP sales but have had nothing now for days.

Personally I would temporarily remove any overseas sales reliant on RM to protect a seller account until ebay issue some sort of guarantee about seller protection.

this is a cut and paste of the ebay message on their postage purchase page:

Royal Mail International Services Unavailable

Royal Mail are no longer delivering items to overseas destinations and have temporarily removed all export service options.

Please use alternative carriers with international services such as UPS or DPD via eBay Delivery by Packlink.

Archergirl

I certainly have not had a warning, the first I knew was when I went to the post office.
If I get an order I contact the seller explain what is happening and put the cut and paste thing, I ask them if they want to cancel for a refund but they have all said they will wait. I trust them not to give neg feedback.

soolin

Archergirl said:

I certainly have not had a warning, the first I knew was when I went to the post office.
If I get an order I contact the seller explain what is happening and put the cut and paste thing, I ask them if they want to cancel for a refund but they have all said they will wait. I trust them not to give neg feedback.

Ideally you and other sellers need a guarantee that INR claims can be delayed as the clock is still ticking even though you can't post, I suspect it will be easier to get poor feedback removed than it will be to stop an INR claim. However I accept that ebay can't retrospectively extend the delivery times once a buyer has purchased so it is a Catch 22 situation. 

I would take extra care to ensure that your POPs are kept safe in case you want to make a claim further down the line via RM, but once again even then there may be an issue if an INR claim is opened and closed and then item is delivered. 

Hopefully this will be sorted in a few days anyway and there is enough slack in the system to allow for a delay in receipt.

soolin

Incidentally, I sell on etsy and they are carrying this message which suggests that sellers remove overseas options temporarily, so it isn't just ebay. 

An important update regarding Royal Mail

Due to a Royal Mail cyber incident, purchasing RM export labels is temporarily unavailable and shipping internationally via RM should be paused.

gt94sss2

Update on Royal Mail website at https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12556/related/1

ROYAL MAIL INTERNATIONAL EXPORT SERVICES

Following the recent cyber incident, we are trialing operational workarounds and have started moving limited volumes of export parcels. While we trial these operational workarounds, we continue to ask customers not to submit any new export parcels into the network. Our initial focus will be to clear mail that has already been processed and is waiting to be dispatched.

We are pleased to announce that we have resumed the export of letters which do not require a customs declaration to all international destinations. From 19:00 hrs, customers will be able to start re-submitting international export letters which do not require a customs declaration into the Royal Mail network again through all channels including Royal Mail post boxes and Post Office branches.

Royal Mail continues to work with external experts, the security authorities and regulators to mitigate the impact of this cyber incident, with a focus on restoring services for export letters and parcels. Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Domestic services remain unaffected.

We apologise to impacted customers for any disruption this incident may be causing. Please be assured our teams are working around the clock to resolve this situation and we will update customers as soon as we have more information.