GLENVILLE — A number of Glenville residents have recently been speaking out about ongoing issues with mail delivery delays, but inconsistent deliveries seen locally may be part of a larger national issue.
A recent thread on a Scotia-Glenville Facebook Page encouraged residents having issues with mail delivery from the Glenville Post Office to call the USPS customer service line and file a complaint. The post received 70 comments from locals, many of which were from people who reported how long it had been since they had last gotten their mail, three times a week, twice a week, once a week or less in some cases. Others encouraged their neighbors to reach out to their government or representatives.
A number of residents have also reached out to Town of Glenville Supervisor, Chris Koetzle, with concerns about their mail, but the United States Postal Service (USPS) is a federally run government agency, not one maintained by local towns or city governments.
“It’s something we’re not only hearing about, but we’re dealing with ourselves, the town and myself, I only get mail every other day it seems,” Koetzle said.
Glenville has had intermittent issues with mail for “at least a couple of years,” Koetzle explained. It has become a consistent issue within the last three months, he said.
Koetzle has spoken with a mail carrier on the street, and he had explained higher up directors within the mail services are prioritizing package deliveries over mail at this time. Koetzle explained USPS does not have the people to deal with the volume from what he has been told.
“Unfortunately, we’re just a municipal government, we’re under the federal and state government,” Koetzle said. “So, we don’t have anything we can do, other than talk to them. They have an operational issue apparently that isn’t going to get fixed easily. They just don’t have the people to deal with the volume of packages and mail apparently.”
The Glenville Post Office declined to comment for this article.
USPS Strategic Communications Specialist for Upstate New York and Central and Western Pennsylvania, Mark Lawrence also cited employee availability as a challenge.
“We are experiencing sporadic challenges with employee availability in some locations causing occasional impacts to mail deliveries,” Lawrence said in an email.
USPS has taken a number of specific actions to continue service to “our valued customers,” Lawrence explained. He listed some of those actions such as; continuing to fully authorize overtime and allow employees to work the time necessary to deliver mail, expanding mail deliveries to earlier in the morning and later in the evening to ensure customers receive mail at the earliest date possible, using additional carriers from nearby offices, when necessary, to maintain mail deliveries and hiring additional personnel.
“We apologize for any inconvenience incurred to our customers,” Lawrence said in an email.
Lawrence did not answer questions from reporters regarding if the Glenville location was among those impacted by this, or about how
When questioned about the Glenville location specifically and if it was among those facing challenges with employee availability, and how those impacts in Glenville may compare to others nearby or elsewhere in the state, Lawrence stated, “All mail in Glenville is being delivered today (Dec.19).”
The mail delays and inconsistency in delivery has become frustrating for resident and Director of Musicians of Ma’alwyck, Ann Marie Schwartz.
Schwartz explained for her the mail delivery issues started about eight or nine months into the pandemic, when her mail deliveries were “dwindling,” or would come later at night, closer to 9 p.m.
“It has gotten worse over, I would say, the last 15 months,” Schwartz said. “I’ve started keeping a chart over the last few weeks. Last week we got mail on Thursday, that was after a break of not getting it for a few days. We didn’t get mail Friday or Saturday. On Monday we got some packages but not mail, and Tuesday we did not get mail, and yesterday (Wednesday) we got mail.”
Schwartz receives pay checks via the mail. She explained sometimes her paychecks are delayed by a week.
“If I’m mailing things out I can not rely on leaving it in the mailbox for them to pick up,” Schwartz said. “I have to take it to the post office. I’ve called them, and I don’t in any way want to demonize them. I don’t quite understand what the problem is, but I was told that they don’t have people to even sort the mail, let alone carriers. I don’t understand why this is happening.”
The issues are indicative of a large problem, Schwartz said. She explained she called the Post Office about two months ago.
“The guy I spoke to was very nice, obviously stressed,” Schwartz said. “He said ‘I’m sorry but we can’t keep staff, and we’re having trouble finding people, and please be patient.’ At that time he said they didn’t even have any sorters, because I said, ‘well can I come and pick up my mail’. I probably should have stayed more aggressive about it but I didn’t because I feel like they’re doing the best they can in a really bad situation.”
The mail has been being delivered sporadically for Katherine Schmidt for the past three or four weeks. Some weeks her home will not get mail delivered for three days in a row.
Schmidt gets a notification every day alerting her that she has gotten mail. She explained when she goes to check her mailbox that mail is often not delivered for multiple days.
“We don’t have problems getting packages from UPS and Amazon, so where is the problem,” Schmidt said. “Is it just Glenville? Or is it everybody?”
The USPA does not have the ability to find out when a carrier or delivery person will arrive at a specific location, according to the USPS website. The volume of mail fluctuates daily and therefore, delivery times are not guaranteed. The USPA site states that all deliveries should be made by 5 p.m. local time Monday through Saturday, and that Unusual circumstances such as traffic, staffing fluctuations, severe weather, natural disasters and changes in carrier routes can cause deliveries to be made after that time.
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Categories: News, News, Schenectady County, Scotia Glenville
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I mailed 2 legal letters certified return receipt at a cost of $15. 1 letter was delivered and the other was not because the recipient had moved. USPS has lost the return receipt for the 1st letter and has lost the 2nd letter. I attempted to track them down but the supervisor at the Niskayuna station gaslighted me by saying I should have sent them priority mail. I instituted a search for the letters and the USPS cannot find them. If the USPS cannot ensure compliance with their own service guarantees don’t offer that service.
Postmaster general Dejoy a Trump loyalist might be a better person to address complaints to.