Small business owner takes parcel to US himself as Royal Mail delays drag on

A British business owner flew a package himself to a customer in the US after becoming increasingly frustrated by Royal Mail delays.

Vern Tessio, who runs the dog accessory business WildBarc, personally flew the delivery 3,641 miles across the Atlantic after the Royal Mail banned sending parcels abroad after a cyber attack.

The 40-year-old brought the package with him on his holiday to New York before sending it on to the relieved customer in Tennessee.

Earlier this month a ransomware attack linked to Russian criminals caused severe disruption to the computer systems used by the Royal Mail to send packages abroad.

He told the BBC the Royal Mail's pause on international orders was affecting "thousands of small businesses across the UK", leaving overseas customers "waiting patiently for their goods".

"However, when we had an order from Tennessee, and we just happened to be visiting New York City for a short break, we knew what we had to do," he added.

‘We did it off our own back’

Mr Tessio opted against using other providers after discovering it would cost upwards of £58 to post a small box.

He said: "We messaged the customer to notify them they wouldn’t be getting the parcel anytime soon via mail, but told them we were going to NYC and happy to ship.

"We said no to them paying and did it off our own back," said Mr Tessio, who receives about 30 international orders a week.

"Royal Mail aren’t updating customers on what’s going on. At least when the strikes were going on we knew what was happening.

"We haven’t had a lot of information on this cyber attack. We get a couple of messages when trying to buy online but no one really knows what’s going on."

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We continue to make progress in exporting an increasing number of items to a growing number of international destinations. We are using alternative solutions and systems, which are not affected by the recent cyber incident.

"Our initial focus has been on despatching the export parcels and letters which were in our network before the cyber incident. We have also been successfully despatching standard export letters since reinstating those services for customers on 18 January and International Tracked & Signed and International Signed letters and parcels since 26 January."

The Royal Mail said customers should not submit any untracked export parcels into their network for the time being.

The spokesman added: "We would like to sincerely apologise to impacted customers for the disruption this incident is causing. Our teams are continuing to work around the clock to reinstate the remaining export services for letters and parcels as quickly as we can."