AN ENTIRE neighborhood missed out on mail for a month when USPS just stopped delivery there.
Customers have demanded answers after they found a puzzling sign on their mail box.
Clifton Thomas, who lives in Meadow Park in Bexar County, discovered a notice pinned to the front of the community mailbox cluster one morning as he was getting his mail.
The message said that the unit had been targeted by “vandalism” – which was misspelled.
Without a proper explanation, residents read that they must pick up their post from a different post office.
The new mailbox location was over 30 minutes away, which was very inconvenient for the residents of the northeast San Antonio neighborhood.
And they had to deal with the problem for several weeks.
Each day, post was diverted to the distant office, and nothing arrived in to the mail box near Jeffs Farm and Caramel Way.
With no update from USPS about when the issue might be resolved, Clifton took action.
He contacted KENS 5 news to share the postal woes of Meadow Park.
Clifton told the San Antonio news site: “Really just standing up for the entire community here. We just want some answers.”
The resident has lived with his family in the community for almost a decade.
To make matters even worse, four of his parcels were deemed “undeliverable”, and didn’t even make it to the alternative office.
He said the situation was “very aggravating”, because people needed to receive important documents like bills via mail.
“Not everybody pays their bills online nowadays”, he added.
The frustrated customer said: “We thought it maybe would be corrected over time and here we are still in the same
situation, no mail, no packages, anything.”
Getting his mail business sorted in person at the post office was a challenge in itself.
Clifton said: “There’s lines out the door, you have to sit there and wait.”
He had tried to address the problem directly by calling up USPS several times, but with no joy.
According to a USPS representative, maintaining the security and confidentiality of the mail is top priority for the U.S. Postal Service. This involves keeping mailboxes secure and in good shape at all times.
“In this case, local postal management is aware of damaged mailboxes at the specific location mentioned in the 78244 ZIP Code area and is working diligently to complete repairs as quickly as possible. As soon as the work is completed, mail delivery will resume.
“In the interim, residents may continue to pick up their mail at the J Frank Dobie Post Office, located at 4950 E. Houston St., San Antonio, TX 78220, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Saturday.
“We apologize to our valued customers for any inconvenience that may have been caused and appreciate their patience as we work to successfully resolve this matter.”
KENS 5 said that mail delivery resumed the day after their report on the issue was published.
