CINCINNATI — After residents in Clifton and Corryville didn't receive their mail for days on end, only to be showered with mail in one day, the United States Postal Service has apologized for delivery issues.
Sandy Kohn's mailbox filled with missing bills and tax records after she showered the post office, her congressman and senator with complaints about the delayed deliveries.
"I received five days worth of mail in one day," she said.
Cincinnati City Council member Mark Jeffreys heard similar stories from people in Clifton and Corryville neighborhoods where he said some people who depend on USPS for prescription and social security check deliveries have been waiting two or three weeks.
"They need consistent mail delivery," he said. "Personally, last night my postman was around 8:30 at night. So, they're working a lot of extra hours to make it up. So we want to acknowledge that but this is a staffing issue that goes a lot higher and needs to be addressed."
Kohn said she feels lucky — her delay lasted less than a week. Overall though, her mail delivery has hardly been consistent.
"We were receiving mail about every other day," she said. "Then it started becoming every third day. Then we didn't receive it for every fourth day and that is when I went over to the post office."
Kohn complained online through a service request. The reply blamed staffing shortages and asked residents for patience. She wishes that communication happened sooner and to a broader audience.
"Everyone is screaming about not having enough help," Kohn said. "Maybe that's the case but there certainly needs to be a way to communicate to customers what's going on and figure out a way to accomplish things."
USPS plans to hold a job fair on Friday from 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. at the main Cincinnati post office at 1591 Dalton Avenue.
A spokesperson for the United States Postal Service sent the statement below:
The Postal Service is committed to providing the best possible service to our customers and we apologize for any inconvenience that may have been experienced. Local management is aware of delivery issues in Cincinnati and is taking steps to address the concerns. We appreciate the patience of our customers and the efforts of employees during challenging times.
Our workforce, like others, is not immune to the human impacts of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. We will continue flexing our available resources to match the workload and we are proud of the efforts of postal employees as they define essential public service every day.
When mail service issues occur, we take steps to quickly resolve customer concerns. We gladly work to address any specific issue from the community when brought to our attention and we encourage customers to reach out to their local postal station. Customers can also go to our website usps.com and click on “Contact us” at the bottom of our homepage, or utilize this direct web address: https://usps.force.com/emailus/s/
Every email will be carefully documented and appropriate action taken to strengthen service. In addition, the official Twitter account of the United States Postal Service, managed by the Social Media staff at USPS HQ, can provide help. For customer service, please tweet @USPSHelp. The Postal Service will diligently continue to investigate customer's concerns and correct deficiencies to improve service to our communities.
