What’s going on with Tri-Cities mail delivery? Here’s why customers are frustrated

With Christmas just days away, some Tri-Citians are concerned because they’re not seeing mail for several days at a time. But postal officials say nothing is wrong.

The complaints all share a similar pattern. People have seen packages or mail alerts through the U.S. Postal Services informed delivery system, but they are actually taking days to arrive in their mailboxes. The online system is supposed to give residents a daily preview of what mail should be arriving.

The Tri-City Herald asked on Reddit what people are experiencing and many responded saying that they are having multiple packages listed as “out for delivery” but taking days to reach them.

One person said informed delivery showed they were supposed to receive mail on Saturday and Monday, but they didn’t get any mail. Then they received that mail on Tuesday.

Post office spokespeople David Rupert and Lecia Hall say there’s no problem. Both told the Tri-City Herald that “all mail is current” in the Tri-Cities.

“It is true we cannot get to every address every day, but those addresses are prioritized for delivery the next day so no one should go more than two days without mail,” Rupert said.

However, he said recent snowstorms hampered delivery in some areas.

Customer traffic at all post offices has been increasing since Dec. 5, Hall said. This week, which is the recommended deadline for holiday shipping, is expected to be the busiest.

The Tri-Cities are served by two delivery hubs. One in West Richland that also serves Richland and the other in Pasco where Kennewick deliveries are routed through.

Both have seen delays, according to customers, but Pasco’s delivery routes seem to have had more problems.

As the Herald moved to postal service delivery for printed newspapers this week, editors fielded calls about delivery issues from customers who had not received mail for multiple days, including inside the city of Kennewick as well as outlying areas such as Hermiston, Ore.

Two readers who responded to the Herald’s Reddit post, say the Pasco distribution center has struggled with a worker shortage.

One commenter, who said he was a former carrier, said he was working 12 hours a day for seven days a week last year during the regular season. He left the job before the peak season started.

This shortage of workers combined with an influx of packages and winter weather has appeared to have bogged down deliveries.

“The Postal Service is aggressively hiring carriers and clerks to stabilize our workforce,” Hall told the Herald.

Postal service trucks in the area have been seen with signs on them encouraging people to apply.

While people have said there is an employee shortage, the Pasco Post Office has no job openings listed on the postal service’s website.

And the problem doesn’t seem to be unique to the Tri-Cities region.

There were issues reported of mail delays in California in November, North Dakota in October and Montana in July.

What you can do

Residents have some recourse if mail is being delivered to the wrong address or delayed, according to the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General.

People who are having problems with an attempted delivery, mail going to the wrong address or arriving late, can contact their local post office or the Postal Service Consumer and Industry Contact office at 800-275-8777.

You also can file a complaint online at bit.ly/USPSComplaint.

The service recommends contacting customer service if letters haven’t arrived five days after they were mailed and if packages haven’t arrived 14 days after being sent.