Post Office hit by computer errors on vital postal day

Tuesday, 13 December 2011 10:35

Thousands of Post Office customers were forced to queue at branches for long periods of time yesterday (December 12th 2011) after a computer glitch affected its services.

Debit and credit card reading machines failed and staff were unable to scan parcels, meaning they had to manually work out the cost of sending goods and attach individual stamps.

The incidents happened during two 30-minute periods and caused long delays, with customers queuing out of doors in some branches.

It came on what was predicted to be the busiest day of the year for the postal service as Christmas approaches, with 131 million items expected to be sent, double the usual number.

The Post Office has apologise to people who were inconvenienced and said service has now been restored at its 11,800 locations, but a statement on its website says some of its internet pages are still "operating much more slowly than we would normally expect".

"We are working hard to fix these problems," it continued.

Consumer Focus spokesperson Andy Burrows said: "People rely upon the Post Office not just for mail services but also to access cash and much-needed pensions and benefits. We will be taking up our concerns with Post Office Limited as a priority."

It is not the first time this year that the Post Office has had problems - in July, a computer issue shut down Post Office card accounts for 3.3 million people.

Earlier this month service was affected for somer customers due to another computer system glitch.

Britons are advised that the last postal date for standard parcels is December 14th, while it is December 17th for second class mail and December 20th for first class.

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