The new year has started, but old frustrations remain as the United States Postal Service continues to deal with an unprecedented amount of mail. Many customers are waiting weeks for deliveries that should have taken days.
A spike in demand for online orders coupled with staffing shortages because of the pandemic means the package for a Christmas gift may not have arrived yet.
Sebewaing resident RJ Shier said a package he ordered has sat in Ohio since early December. He said he has reached out to the U.S. Postal service.
“There it sits. There’s no updated tracking after that,” Shier said. “It’s aggravating. Contacted them requesting information on the 18. It’s pretty much a dead end. They just say we’re in the middle of a pandemic and we apologize.”
A spokesperson for the USPS said they’ve delivered a record number of packages this holiday season.
“We are accepting all volumes being presented to us, which adds to the challenge of the workload. We are proud of the hard work and dedication of our employees and will continue to work around the clock to deliver all packages and mail entered our system, including returns. We thank our customers for their continued support and understanding,” USPS said in a statement.
Keith Combs, president of the local Detroit American Postal Workers Union, blames some of the backlog on moves made by U.S. Postmaster General Louis Dejoy.
“Cuts and his restructuring of the postal service that is causing a huge delay as well,” Combs said.
Combs wants people waiting on packages to know postal workers will get the job done. It will just take a little longer than usual.
“The employees are working in many cases seven days, 15, 16 hours a day,” Combs said. “They are definitely trying to do their job to get these packages moved on the way.”
Shier said he is done with USPS.
“I just wish they would give me some tracking or some information that yeah your package is going to get to you,” Shier said. “They just seem like they don’t care.”
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