The holiday season might be over, but delays at the United States Postal Service continue.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Frank Hawley who lives in Harford County.
Hawley said his bills are arriving late or not at all. He said he mailed his credit card payment on December 8th, but he said the company still hasn’t received it
“They actually charged me an additional 30 late fee,” he said.
For Hawley, it’s frustrating. He’s on a fixed income and simply can’t afford it.
“I looked at my check book today to try and figure out what’s going on I basically don’t know where the checks are because they are not showing up as clear,” he said. "That’s frustrating because I’m being charged late fees on bill I already paid.”
Meanwhile, miles away in Pikesville, Sara Reisner said she’s experiencing similar issues. For her, it’s hit or miss mail delivery and a package she’s been waiting on for about a month.
“The last time any tracking was updated for it was December 17th and that was after it sitting for long stretches of time as well and it continues to say arriving late but it doesn’t have any movement on the tracking at all,” she said.
USPS is blaming a record number of packages this holiday season, combined with a pandemic that’s led to staffing shortages for the delays.
In a statement, a spokesperson said, “we regret service problems experienced by some customers and thank them for their continued support and understanding.”
Hawley isn’t buying it and said USPS should have had a better plan in place.
“They had plenty of time to gear up to get ready for all of this. It’s not like this happened overnight.” he said.
Full USPS statement below:
The Postal Service delivered a record amount of packages this holiday season in the midst of the pandemic, which significantly impacted our workforce availability. Capacity challenges with airlifts and trucking for moving this historic volume of mail also led to temporary delays. These challenges were felt by shippers across the board. We are proud of the hard work and dedication of our employees and continue to work around the clock to deliver all packages and mail entered into our system, including returns. We regret service problems experienced by some customers and thank them for their continued support and understanding.
