Royal Mail’s pre-Christmas glitch

 

 

The Price Finder website has been hit by technical difficulties for more than a week

People starting to send Christmas cards and presents from the UK are being hit by problems on a Royal Mail website.

The Price Finder page – which calculates postal costs of packages based on size and weight – has been closed due to “technical difficulties”.

Online stamp buying, redirection and redelivery services were also affected on occasions since last Monday.
The Christmas deadline for second-class post is 17 December and is three days later for first-class deliveries.
The problems, lasting more than a week, were caused by a migration of online services to a new computer server.

They come as one consumer watchdog urged people to plan ahead and beat the festive rush.

Glitch

The Price Finder website gives accurate postal cost information, for both UK and overseas mail, based on selections made on drop-down menus.

This includes weight, the location of the recipient, and the level of service required. It is part of a move to encourage people to deal with postal services at home, rather than by queuing at a post office, which includes postage labels and payment on the internet.

Small businesses and those using internet auction sites also use the service when it is operating.

However, anyone visiting the Price Finder site has found a service message explaining that it is not available.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience this is causing. We are working hard to fix these problems as quickly as possible,” the message reads.