Due to an unexpected problem with the USPS, residents in the area have experienced a mail service disruption lasting more than a week.
Carter Hotchkins, one of the affected residents, had to endure an eight-day wait before his mail was delivered to him.
Hotchkins expressed his frustration at receiving notifications about missing bills and incurring late fees ranging from $7 to $10.
“The issue with our mail is the lack of consistency,” Hotchkins told local CBS affiliate WTKR.
“The person who delivers our mail is a lovely gentleman, but when he took a vacation, we didn’t get any mail for eight days.”
Hotchkins was told by the North Main Street post office in Suffolk, Virginia, that the delay was due to a staffing problem.
Other residents, Terry and Irma Mottley, also said they were having complications with their mail delivery.
The couple had set up for the post office to forward their mail to Florida while they were away from home.
However, the pair said that they don’t receive all the mail to the Florida address they provided.
Irma said that some of the mail comes, but she noticed not all of it has been forwarded.
“It got to be three months down the road, and I should have gotten like three checks, and I did not,” she said.
When she got back into town, her suspicion that all of her mail wasn’t delivered was confirmed.
“Guess what’s in our mailbox,” she told the outlet.
“The forms that we should have received through mail forwarding to fill out so that I could have been getting all these checks all these months.”
The delayed mail comes just weeks after DOGE announced it would cut 10,000 postal workers’ jobs by 2026 to reduce the government’s costs.
The USPS will offer workers the option for early retirement and a $15,000 incentive for accepting the retirement package.
The US Postal Service responded to the customers’ complaints, stating that there were issues with employee availability.
However, the agency noted that “most customers in Suffolk are receiving normal mail and package delivery.”
USPS mess-ups
The United States Postal Service is facing customer complaints as the mail agency struggles to stay afloat admit workforce cuts and financial loss.
“There have been some recent unforeseen employee availability issues at that office,” the agency wrote in a statement.
“When possible, we implement contingency plans, such as bringing in employees from nearby offices and staggering routes.
“We expect delivery to return to normal very soon, and we will continue to monitor delivery in the area.”
The USPS told residents to contact their local post office or 1-800-ASK-USPS for help with lost packages.
