Mass computer shutdown leads to half-hour waits for Hongkong Post customers
Longer queue times at post offices as staff have to issue handwritten receipts
Post office customers with urgent letters or parcels were left to queue in frustration yesterday when a major breakdown of the computer system shut the workstations at all 125 branches across the city.
People were asked to return later in the day or wait while staff carried out what tasks they could manually, resulting in delays.
The problem was reported before 2pm yesterday, but some customers said long queues had started forming in branches at lunchtime as systems crashed. Some customers had to wait as long as 30 minutes to be served.
At Tsat Tsz Mui Post Office in North Point, a notice was put up telling customers that local and international courier services and bulk mail, could not be processed because of the problem.
But the technical hitch did not seem to have seriously affected services at the General Post Office in Central, where there were no reports of long queues.
Although notices were put up at branches to notify customers of the system breakdown, some complained that Hongkong Post had failed to mention the problem on its website and that they only found out when arriving at the post offices.