Frustrated residents tire of lodging complaints
SUNSET PARK — Despite assurances from U.S. postal officials that delays in mail deliveries to pockets of Santa Monica and West Los Angeles have been cut dramatically in recent months, residents here say they are still not receiving important pieces of mail, such as pay-checks, applications for American citizenship, gas bills, even an Easter card from grandma.
The problem has been left to fester for so long, that some residents said they have given up on filing complaints with the U.S. Postal Service, and that may be the reason why postal officials believe the problem has been solved.
“The service we’ve received has just been horrible,” said Marta Schwab, who lives on the 1400 block of Maple Street and refuses to mail important letters from home out of fear they will never reach POSTAL SERVICE, from page 1 their final destination. “I think it’s incompetence. If they’ve said they’ve solved the causes of these delays, then why are we still seeing our mail delivered as late as 9 (p.m.)? Why is mail not being forwarded? Why are we still having to deliver mail to our neighbors that’s delivered to us?”
Schwab, frustrated by the lack of solutions, said the problem became unbearable early last month when mail service to her block was stopped following a postman being bit by a neighbor’s dog. Service was restored two days later, but Schwab said the post office gave her no warning about the stoppage in deliveries.
This angered her so much so that she circulated a letter to roughly 100 of her neighbors to see if they too have had problems over the years. Schwab received several responses about poor service, which she compiled in a letter to U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, who has been investigating the issue since last fall, when scores of his constituents complained daily about late deliveries or no deliveries at all.
The problem was supposed to have been solved with the hiring of more postal employees to help sort the mail and get it to mail carriers quicker so deliveries are made before residents get home from work.
Larry Dozier, a spokesman for the USPS, said the consolidation of post offices in Santa Monica, along with the hiring of more employees and the realignment of mail routes, has “almost eliminated complaints,” which have dropped from 25 per day in January to three or four a day, the average.
“We are still working on this issue, but for the most part, we have gotten things under control,” Dozier said. “We had a problem with staffing that has been addressed and there was a slight learning curve when we moved from the Marina del Rey (mail sorting center) to the main office (in South Los Angeles), but things are running smoothly now.”
Dozier said the main distribution center in South Los Angeles sifts through roughly six million pieces of mail daily at a rate of 36,000 letters per hour, up from nearly five million letters sorted daily before the Marina del Rey center was closed. Dozier said the closing of that facility has nothing to do with the delays, but rather it was staffing shortages, something that has now been resolved.
In a statement Thursday, Waxman said he is aggressively working on the delay dilemma and has had face-to-face meetings with the postmaster general, John E. Potter, at which times complaints from constituents have been handed over to Potter, making him aware of problems specific to Santa Monica. Staff members in Waxman’s office said he will address the delays in more detail when the Committee on Government Reform holds its next hearing.
“Residents deserve consistent and timely postal service, and I’m investigating all possible sources of these problems,” Waxman said in an e-mail to the Daily Press. “We’re working with the Postal Service to get to the bottom of undelivered and late mail, and to rule out waste, fraud, or abuse. We’ve heard back from some residents that their problems have been alleviated, and will continue to work hard to address those complaints that persist.”
In the meantime, residents have resorted to using Fed-Ex or other private mail carriers to deliver important packages. Some have stopped mail delivery to their homes altogether, purchasing post office boxes.
“We’re tired of the excuses from the post office,” Schwab said. “We want something to be done. It’s not as if we can just give up on the postal service. Surprisingly, in this age of e-mails and paying bills over the Internet, you still need regular mail delivery.”
“We’re tired of the excuses from the post office. We want something to be done.” — MARTA SCHWAB RESIDENT
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 5, 2006. Read the original PDF.