Name: From businesses to brides, mail delays already impacting Houston
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From businesses to brides, mail delays already impacting Houston

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateDelays in mail sorting and processing are leaving Houston-area businesses, brides and voters wary of the coming months. Whether it’s essential medication, ballots or important letters and business items, the USPS is relied upon to deliver in a timely manner. Yet, many Houstonians are already feeling the effects of the slowdown, including month-long wait times and undelivered mail.Melissa Palacios Gonzalez, a U.S. Navy veteran, runs an accessories and clothing shop out of her home in Spring. When customers place online orders of jewelry or sunglasses, shimmery metallic sandals or distressed baseball caps from , Palacios Gonzalez drops them off at the U.S. post office nearby.But over the summer, she and other Houstonians noticed shipping delays as first the coronavirus strained delivery times, then systemic cutbacks by the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, reduced the USPS’s delivery capacity.A USPS Priority Mail order of flip flops, which was supposed to be delivered in one or two days, took a week to reach its destination, Palacios Gonzalez said.“If it becomes a routine problem —” she started to explain, then stopped and sighed. “Even if I say, ‘Oh, sorry that happened, here’s a percentage savings on me,’ I’m still potentially losing money and a customer.”In May, DeJoy, a top Trump donor with no post office experience, took over as postmaster general and began a series of . Among them, overtime eliminated for postal workers, and critical mail sorting machines taken off line or completely dismantled. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has for months , blocking funding for the agency.On HoustonChronicle.com:U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said there is documented evidence that some mail sorting machines at the Southmore Post Office in her district have recently been shutdown.Jackson Lee’s office has received hundreds of complaints about delayed service since May, with a particular increase in volume in the last two weeks.“This is only the beginning,” she said of the flood of disgruntled constituents.Jackson Lee will hold a press conference at noon Tuesday at the post office at 4110 Almeda Road to further explain what she knows about the sorting machine issues and mail delays.Kanickewa “ Nikki” Johnson, a USPS spokeswoman for the Houston district, would not comment on the status of the service’s sorting and processing machines, how possible changes might impact standard delivery times, or on the number of delay complaints received to date. She said the Chronicle would have to submit a Freedom of Information Act request on those three inquiries.In Houston, processing changes are expected to result in 470,000 fewer mail items processed per hour, according to a .Due to delays in the U.S. Postal Service, Adrienne Lynch’s baby’s clothes often come weeks late.More for youThe East Sunset Heights resident said her 20-month-old daughter is growing so fast, she often has to order new clothes. Care packages from the toddler’s grandmother also normally come much later than originally estimated by the post office.Lynch’s mail service is in constant flux, she said. Some weeks, she notices deliveries every day. Other weeks, the household won’t receive mail for a few days.Lynch first noticed the delays in March and April. They have continued and worsened since then, she said.“Sometimes our outgoing mail may not be picked up for a day or so,” she said. “Or on the package tracking, you will see that your package is out for delivery, but it’s sent back to the post office at the end of the day because the carrier’s shift is over and they can’t do overtime.”Uju Nwankwo, 27, sent about 100 to 130 wedding save-the-dates through the mail on July 19 for her February wedding. Almost a month later, many of her Houston friends have yet to receive the letters.“There seems to be no rhyme or reason, so I don’t really get it,” Nwankwo said of the sporadic deliveries.When the soon-to-be bride contacted USPS, she said she was told her area was experiencing sorting delays. Now, with no way to track her letters, Nwankwo just has to wait it out.Neither Nwankwo nor Lynch blame postal workers for the delays.Carriers have a “really tough job” in worsening conditions, Lynch said. She’s started leaving bottles of water and thank you notes in the shade for postal workers to show her appreciation for their work.“I think the delays we are experiencing locally are directly related to the system,” Lynch said. “Postal workers and their union want to serve the country, but their hands are tied.”Service remains key, an agent for Texas and New Mexico letter carriers said.“Our job and our focus is to continue and try to provide the best service possible to the customers,” said Javier Bernal, national business agent with the National Association of Letter Carriers Region 10 which covers the two states. He said Congress needs to “look at providing a stimulus to ensure that we can do that for many years to come.”A representative from the Houston local American Postal Workers Union did not respond to requests for comment from the Chronicle.Lynch worries about how delays might impact her neighbors in East Sunset Heights, many of whom are elderly and homebound.“I am worried about them getting things in the mail like Social Security checks or their medications,” she said.As Houston and the rest of the nation approaches the November presidential election, the slowdown in postal deliveries may also hinder older voters — who are more at risk of contracting COVID-19 — from casting ballots by mail.The last week that mail-in voting processes could be impacted by processing changes.Lynch does not plan to vote by mail because she said it is her “duty as a young able-bodied person” to vote in person to not to overburden the postal service.In Texas, vote-by-mail is only an option for those who are 65 or older, those with disabilities, those in jail, or those who will be out of the county on Election Day. The pandemic has not resulted in allowances for expanded access.Voters’ lack of confidence in the USPS to deliver ballots on time will have devastating long-term impacts, Jackson Lee said.“To undermine the confidence of voters about mail-in ballots undermines their constitutional right to vote,” she said. “It’s one of the most devastating aspects of our democracy: to undermine one’s right to vote.”For its part, the postal service is asking people to take into account the time it takes to completely cycle through the vote-by-mail process.“We do ask election officials and voters to be mindful of the time that it takes for us to transport, process and deliver ballots from the election mail officials to the voters, the time that it takes for voters to consider and prepare their ballots, and the time that it takes for a ballot to be transported, processed, and delivered back to the election official after it is placed by the voter back into the mail stream, based upon our usual delivery standards which have not changed,” Johnson, the Houston USPS spokeswoman, wrote in an email to the Chronicle.But even before November, delays are having immediate impacts on the lives and livelihoods of Houstonians. The majority of small business owners rely on the USPS as their main mail carrier, according to a by the Office of the Inspector General. For example, the price to ship a two-pound package from Houston to Los Angeles within two days is roughly $37 via UPS, $33 via FedEx, and $21 via the postal service.could lose market share due to the delays, said Margaret Kidd, program director for Supply Chain and Logistics Technology at the University of Houston. When they have a bad experience, online shoppers tend to quickly switch their buying habits, which is why Kidd recommends small businesses switch to FedEx or UPS.“This is the time and place to consider using alternative providers,” she said.But business owners like Palacios Gonzalez find themselves caught in the middle. For her accessories and clothing shop, she can either accept the delays or charge more to ship with a different carrier. But both of those options make her vulnerable to e-commerce giants, such as Amazon, which have the scale to ship quickly at low cost.“You cannot afford for your order not to get there,” said Kidd, the supply chain expert at UH.“I anticipate big delays this holiday season because people aren’t going into the stores, and the volume always increases in the November and December time frame,” Kidd said. “It’ll be a problem. There’s going to be some very unhappy consumers.”currie.engel@chron.com

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateDelays in mail sorting and processing are leaving Houston-area businesses, brides and voters wary of the coming months. Whether it’s essential medication, ballots or important letters and business items, the USPS is relied upon to deliver in a timely manner. Yet, many Houstonians are already feeling the effects of the slowdown, including month-long wait times and undelivered mail.Melissa Palacios Gonzalez, a U.S. Navy veteran, runs an accessories and clothing shop out of her home in Spring. When customers place online orders of...

From businesses to brides, mail delays already impacting Houston

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