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.”

The Royal Mail said: “Following the recent cyber incident, we have been temporarily unable to export mail parcels to overseas destinations and we have temporarily asked customers not to submit any new export parcels into the Royal Mail network until further notice

“We have been working on new despatch processes and we have started moving export parcels that are already in the network. Our initial focus is on clearing export parcels that have already been processed and are waiting to be despatched.”