Post offices hit by computer glitches

Computer glitches left post offices across the country unable to process transactions for up to four hours, leaving some customers without the means to draw their pensions and benefits.

Frustrated customers said they were unable to post parcels and were told that staff would not be able to deal with any transaction which required the use of a computer when the problem happened yesterday.

In Shropshire subpostmasters said services went down between 10.30am and 2.30pm.

Ray Khela, postmaster at Newport Post Office in High Street, said most customers were able to withdraw cash from outside.

He said: "It meant we couldn't do anything that required card payments.

"It's frustrating but we are fortunate to have numerous cash machines nearby so it's not as bad for us as it is for others."

Bruce Bill, who runs Minsterley Post Office, said he lost about 65 per cent of his regular trade yesterday. He said the system went down between 10.30am and 2.30pm.

Mr Bill said: "The problem for me and all of the other post offices is that some of the transactions could be done initially and then some others couldn't be but you didn't know unless you tried.

"Then I was logged off and couldn't log back on.

"Most of the day was a total waste of time. In reality I have lost about 60 to 65 per cent of the trade.

"People were coming here from other post offices thinking it was an isolated problem but it wasn't – it affected everyone."

Mr Bill said many of his regular customers turned up to post parcels and rather than turn them away he took the parcels and paid the postage himself when the system was back on.

He said the customers, who he knew very well, would reimburse him at a later date.

A Post Office spokesman said it apologised to its customers for the inconvenience caused by the computer problem.

He said: "We are very sorry for any difficulties this has caused our customers."

He said branches were making special cash payments to Post Office Card Account customers.

Post Office ATMs and Post & Go services in branch were unaffected.