Royal Mail cyber attack is ‘destroying’ small businesses

Small business owners that rely on posting items overseas say the impact of the glitch has been devastating. Caroline Blackburn, a sculptural ceramics artist, says about 80 per cent of her orders come from the US. For the past couple of weeks, these have been gathering dust in a corner of her studio in Stockport, Manchester.

Royal Mail, which Caroline, 58, relies on for shipping, told customers on January 11 to stop posting items overseas following the attack.

She told the Express: “I have already paid for half of the postage for these orders and I’m going to have to pay all of that postage again while waiting for a refund from Royal Mail.

“I’m worried about how this disruption is going to affect my rankings on Etsy, where I sell my ceramics, but there’s nothing more I can do.”

Royal Mail has restarted the export of parcels from a backlog and is accepting new letters for overseas, as it tries to recover from the attack.

But it is still advising people not to send new parcels internationally.

Caroline said: “I have written really grovelling messages to my customers apologising profusely and I am trying to make it as easy for them as possible but we have heard next to nothing from Royal Mail about when things will return back to normal.”