A major IT outage disrupted services at Post Office branches across the UK on Wednesday afternoon, leaving customers unable to send parcels or access other services. The glitch began shortly before 3pm, with reports of a 'total blackout' and internet connection problems, according to outage tracker DownDetector.
The Post Office confirmed the incident was not cyber-related and worked to restore systems by around 4pm. A spokesperson apologised for the inconvenience, stating: 'There was a major outage across the Post Office estate this afternoon. We are pleased to announce that service has now been restored to branches.'
Frustrated customers took to social media to vent their anger. One woman said she walked 25 minutes in flip-flops only to be told the system was down. Another customer said they spent money on a taxi to send documents to the passport office before a holiday, only to find the system down and had to return with a heavy parcel.
The outage comes after a series of high-profile cyber incidents affecting other UK retailers. M&S online orders returned six weeks after a cyber attack in April, which cost the company £300 million. Co-op also admitted that details of 6.5 million members were stolen in a hack that left some shelves empty.
