Royal Mail website falters amid ‘technical issue’

Royal Mail’s website was down for hours on Wednesday after suffering a ‘technical issue’ as the group’s woes continue amid strikes and delivery delays.  

The group has issued an apology to customers hit by yet more disruption, in a crucial month for deliveries. 

Royal Mail’s website said earlier: ‘Our website is temporarily unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.’ 

A Royal Mail spokesperson told This is Money: ‘We are very sorry for the difficulties experienced by some customers when using our website today. 

‘We are working to resolve this technical issue as quickly as possible and apologise for any inconvenience caused.’

The site was completely down for a number of hours on Wednesday, but is, as of this afternoon, sporadically springing back to life. 

While battling against technical issues today, Royal Mail has also been embroiled in strike action over a long-running dispute with many workers over pay, jobs and conditions. 

The last walkouts at Royal Mail affected 23 and 24 December, with postal delays expected to rumble on ahead of the new year. 

At present, there are no further strike dates confirmed for 2023, but the dispute between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers’ Union shows scant sign of reaching a swift conclusion.

Andy Furey, the CWU’s acting deputy general secretary, said earlier in December that an offer from the union to Royal Mail had been ‘thrown back in our face’, adding there were ‘no further talks planned at this stage’.

Ahead of the recent pre-Christmas strikes, the CWU said: ‘An offer extended to the company to suspend the strikes and establish a period of calm from now until 16 January, 2023, as well as the union and the company both signing a joint statement incorporating Royal Mail’s latest promise of no compulsory redundancies, was rejected almost immediately.’

In a letter to staff earlier this month, Royal Mail bosses, including chief executive Simon Thompson, said: ‘We are now fighting for the life of this business.’ 

‘There’s no one else who will save this business. The politicians and the regulator have been very clear. It’s up to us.’ 

Royal Mail, which was privatised in 2013, has struggled to keep up with competition from parcel delivery rivals and to transition from a business principally focused on the delivery of letters to a a more modern enterprise. 

In November, Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services, said it swung to a loss of £127million in the six months to September, against a profit of £315million at the same point a year ago. 

Last month Royal Mail also said its losses stood at around £1million a day. IDS shares have fallen by around 60 per cent in the last year.