Royal Mail export computer systems were hit by a cyber attack on Wednesday 11 January 2023 and are unable to process international export post or track some international orders.
As a result I am unable to post international orders and have removed all international postage options, this is a less than ideal situation following months of Royal Mail worker strikes which have directly resulted in a loss of income for myself and delays for customers and will result in further loss of income, more delays and generally more headaches to deal with.
I have already cancelled and refunded orders where this has prevented me sending the order within my maximum stated dispatch time, outstanding orders will be held until they reach that point and then if Royal Mail export systems are still not operational then I will contact each customer individually with a range of options.
Orders posted just before the cyber attack are almost certainly going to be delayed, currently I don't know which orders are going to be delayed and how long the delays will be, I would request that customers awaiting orders dispatched around that time please be patient and allow extra time for delivery, the delays are entirely out of my hands and currently I can't give any other information other than when it was dispatched.
If you are outside of the UK and would like to place an order please feel free to contact me through the contact form on my website to request a notification when I start to accept international orders again, please do not try to bypass the blocked shipping options by selecting UK as your delivery country, any orders placed that way will be cancelled and refunded minus the non-refundable transaction fee I am charged.
Statement from Royal Mail,
“Royal Mail is continuing to experience severe service disruption to our international export services following a cyber incident.
We are temporarily unable to despatch items to overseas destinations. In order to prevent a build-up of export items in our network and support a faster recovery when we restore service, Royal Mail is continuing to ask customers not to post international export items until further notice.
Items that have already been despatched may be subject to delays.We would like to sincerely apologise to impacted customers for any disruption this incident is causing.”