Royal Mail down updates — Customers unable to track deliveries as online service suffers outage

Most reported locations

According to , the most reported locations experiencing issues include:

• London
• Bristol
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Nottingham
• Leeds
• Birmingham
• Glasgow
• Edinburgh

Who owns Royal Mail?

Royal Mail is owned by private shareholders.

The selling process began in 2013, and finished in 2015.

The biggest share is owned by Daniel Křetínský, a Czech billionaire whose Vesa investment group controls 25% of the company.

Royal Mail started operating in 1516, and remained publicly owned until 2011, when the coalition government at the time passed the Postal Services Act, which allowed 90% of the service to be privatised.

When could your parcels arrive?

The Royal Mail delivers Monday to Saturday every week.

However, weekend delivery depends on where you live and what kind of mail you are expecting.

Details on Saturday service locations can be found on the .

Issues begin to drop

According to DownDetector issues are beginning to fall.

Despite this, Royal Mail's tracking is still not working via their website.

Am I entitled to compensation from Royal Mail?

While you may not be able to claim compensation for the tracking system being down, you might be able to get money back if your parcel is delayed or lost.

If the item was sent somewhere within the UK, the normal compensation is a book of six first class stamps, according to Citizen's Advice.

If it was sent by special delivery then you'll get a full refund of the cost.

You can claim compensation online via the Royal Mail website or by picking up a paper claim form from your nearest Post Office.

You'll need to provide information including proof of postage.

How can I contact Royal Mail?

There are several ways to get in touch with Royal Mail.

If you have social media then you can Tweet the @RoyalMailHelp Twitter page.

Bear in mind that this is separate to the general Royal Mail Twitter account.

You can also speak to the company by phoning 0345 774 0740 or by filling in a complaint form on its website.

Users hit with 'service temporarily unavailable' message

Royal Mail customers that are attempting to track their parcels are being met with an error message today.

For customers using the website's tracking page, they are met with a "service temporarily unavailable" after entering their tracking number.

What issues are users facing?

Royal Mail customers are current dealing with issues following today's outage.

The most common problem is the Track and Trace option on the website and app with over 66% of users reporting similar issues.

Outage heatmap

This heat map shows where user-submitted problem reports are concentrated over the past 24 hours.

It is common for some problems to be reported throughout the day.

Downdetector only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day. 

Reports continue to rise amid Royal Mail outage

Customer reports have continued to rise as Royal Mail's tracking service experiences tech issues.

Almost 800 reports have been made this afternoon, as per Downdetector.

What has Royal Mail said?

Royal Mail confirmed issues with its tracking service today.

Responding to a complaint on X, the company wrote: "Our IT team is aware of an issue and they're working to fix this ASAP.

"Please try again later."