Residents in towns across Maine are reporting increasing delays in mail deliveries from the postal service. The union representing postal workers says the issues are the result of long-term staffing shortages. And some devoted postal service customers say they’re no longer confident paying bills by mail.
Lance Tapley has come to the Post Office on Western Avenue in Augusta to pick up his mail. It's usually delivered to his house, but he asked that it be held.
"I put my mail, our mail, my wife and I, on hold while we went to Boston to see our kids and grandkids over the holidays," Tapley said.
But a week after returning, he said he still hasn't seen any mail.
"I came back on the on the second of January and went into the post office to get my mail," Tapley said. "And there was a line of about 15 to 20 people there, and the clerk yelled just as I came in- I don't think he was yelling at me- but he said, 'We can't get your mail, we're short staffed.'"
Tapley isn't alone. Blake Brown, who lives in the Waldo County town of Palermo, said his wife ordered a package to be mailed to their house, but it was sent to the Forest Avenue post office in Portland, instead.
"And we're having an issue even getting ahold of it," Brown said. "Every time you call that post office it goes straight to mailbox, nobody answers."
Brown said he's had other problems with the postal service. He sent a check through the mail to pay a bill last fall, but it didn’t arrive for weeks. He finally settled the debt over the phone.
"Because we're rural, we don't have great internet reception out here," Brown said. "There's supposedly something coming, but some of us, I'm 61 years old in May, I can do internet, but I don't like doing internet."
John Graham said he would also prefer to pay his bills via the U.S. mail.
"So I'm very resistant to paying them online, but at current, the post office is leaving me no choice," he said.
And Graham is very familiar with the workings of the postal service. In fact, he's president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 92, which covers territory from Waterville to Kittery.
He said service is being affected by understaffing, because the postal service can't find or retain enough recruits.
"They mandate in Portland, they mandate people that come in on their day off every week," Graham said. "Every day of every week ... they were mandating people to come in and work six days a week."
Representative Chellie Pingree confirmed that her office is getting complaints from constituents whose mail is delayed by a week or longer. And she attributed the problem to years of short staffing.
"We know we have hard working postal employees, but many of them are overworked and just over stressed," she said. "And there's just not enough of them to process the mail, or the system that they've developed in their reorganization isn't working."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the postal service said delays in specific zip codes this winter were because of poor road conditions. Pingree doesn't buy it.
"Well, road can certainly impede the delivery of the mail," she said. "But this is Maine. I mean we have snowy winters and bad roads every year, and this is a newer phenomena that's come with the reorganization of the post office and the lack of staffing."
A spokesperson for the postal service also highlighted the agency’s recent hiring fair in Portland, and ongoing virtual job fairs through February.
Customer Lance Tapley in Augusta said its pretty clear to him that the problems within the agency are not the fault of local postal workers.
"You could tell that the clerks here were very frustrated," he said. "I mean, yelling at yelling at people as they come in the door, I can't get your mail, but it's always either a funding problem or some other problem with higher ups."
And on this, his fourth visit to the Augusta post office, he finally walked away with his missing mail.
