Royal Mail website hit by IT problems...again

Royal Mail website hit by IT problems...again

As stamps run out in shops, customers can't even get them online

By | Computerworld UK | Published 17:20,

Customers of Royal Mail's online postage services have suffered yet more intermittent outages today and over the weekend.

This is the fifth consecutive month that users have experienced problems trying to access the Royal Mail's SmartStamp and online postage service on the Capgemini-managed website since online data was migrated to new servers in December 2011.

Royal Mail first acknowledged the problems in its Twitter feed this morning at 11:01 GMT: "@mgdm We're aware there have been some issues with the site over the weekend & this morning Michael, so sorry for that."

Later in the day, at 14:07 GMT, Royal Mail updated its Twitter feed with an apology.

"SmartStamp & Online Postage customers - really sorry for further access issues. We're investigating these now."

The fact that the website glitches have been recurring since December have not bypassed customers.

One, a small business posting on Twitter under the name Sharon @littlecottonsoc, said: "@RoyalMail your site has not been right since your changeover before Christmas! Why is it taking so long to get everything sorted?"

Meanwhile, as customers rush to buy stamps before the price hike due at the end of the month, one customer said that the online problems have only added to the pain.

@rebeccaejulian posted on Twitter: "So I can't buy stamps from Viking or Superdrug and now the @RoyalMail is down! Well isn't that just brilliant? #losingfaith"

Royal Mail has yet to respond to requests for comment at the time of writing.

Comments

  • Unhappy SmartStamp User Thank you so much for posting this article - without it I wouldnt have known that the problem wasnt down to my computer I have spend hours and hours trying to work out what the problem was as Royal Mail have failed to notify customers that there is a problem again not everyone uses Twitter so Ive been re-installing SmartStamp and trying everything possible to get it working which was obviously a complete waste of time as the problem is at their end not mine Why am I paying 599 a month for this so called service I mean Royal Mail dont have to pay for the printing of the stamps as I supply the labels ink and printer there is no distribution costs and the retailerPost Office doesnt take a cut yet I still pay the standard postage fees unlike frankingaccount customers who get a postage discount so what is the 599 per month actually for The same service is available on the Royal Mail website named Online Postage but its free of charge however it takes around five pages to print just one stamp which I can only assume has been done on purpose to make small businesses pay the 599 SmartStamp subscription rather than wasting five minutes printing one stamp The SmartStamp software is the same old clunky software that has been used since the service launched so its not like the subscription fee is being used to develop better software which is probably why users are experiencing these problems - because the software is knackered I really feel like Ive been shafted my Royal Mail
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