SECOND DAY OF NO MAIL: SERVICES INTERRUPTED BY USPS BUILDING COLLAPSE IN HOUSTON
Mail deliveries to locations in and around Washington County are still being held up by flooding damages in the Houston area.
Officials at the Brenham post office today (Saturday) were turning away customers seeking their mail, following the collapse of the U.S. Postal Service’s processing and distribution facility in north Houston on Thursday.
Brenham post office workers are not responding to media when asked the current state of deliveries. However, they were overheard telling customers there is no mail, and the status of deliveries is unknown.
KWHI initially reached out to the Brenham post office via phone, and was hung up on. When we approached staff at the office in person, they were dismissive and directed our questions to the U.S. Postal Service’s Southern Area Corporate Communications office.
Several customers were seen entering the post office this morning and leaving seconds later, empty-handed.
A statement from the U.S. Postal Service Friday said the Houston facility that collapsed sorts mail and packages, and provides service for its commercial mailers. The Postal Service said it will resume regular operations in the building as soon as it is safe to do so.
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This issue has just reiterated the need for me to avoid the postal service at all costs. I already use other methods to pay my bills. I will begin questioning the shipping methods of online purchases. If I can see that there is a transfer to the US postal service, I will avoid ordering. The brick and mortar stores will receive my patronage. The USPS is outdated, has terrible customer service and employs a large amount of people to be as poorly run as it is.
For “Enough Is Enough” and others interested. Refer to the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General’s website. Read the Executive Summary titled, “Federal Budget Treatment of the Postal Service”. It will clear up the confusion as well as verify that the USPS is self-sustaining.
I’d like to clarify my point. Taxpayers do not pay the salaries of USPS employees. Federal taxes are taken out of every check I’ve received for the past 19 years. It is a verifiable fact that US citizens don’t pay postal employees salaries with taxes.
USPS is cheaper than UPS and FedEx. Also, UPS and FedEx are customers of the USPS. They pull up to our docks regularly dropping off packages for us to deliver. When tracking your package with either of those services, you’ll notice a point where it specifies the transfer.
I will agree that customer service at the PO is awful overall. There are a handful of employees who are helpful and professional but the PO as a company can definitely improve in that area.
So, does anybody know if any mail is leaving Houston? If it can’t be processed, is it just piling up somewhere?
I work for the postal service and safety is key ,we’re working fast to get Houston customers there mail I’m in Dallas tx working North Houston mail and it’s alot of overtime 12 hour 6 to 7 days so please be patient with us we’re trying to process quickly and correctly, and this could go on for months but you’re sure to receive mail…the is being processed it just it will take a little time…
I had to go to the post office for sending my packages to the wrong address…. Tired of this system.
I’ve received packages for my neighbors delivered by USPS, UPS, FedEx, and Amazon Delivery. I guess human error will always be a factor.
Sure hope there’s not a lot of folks waiting on meds or money through the mail!
Act of God!
Not to mention bills etc!
Yes, because a building collapsing from torrential rain is the post offices fault. People’s impatience nowadays is astounding!!!
I can agree that people are sometimes impatient and hard to deal with but consider this quote from the article:
“KWHI initially reached out to the Brenham post office via phone, and was hung up on. When we approached staff at the office in person, they were dismissive and directed our questions to the U.S. Postal Service’s Southern Area Corporate Communications office.”
This is completely and totally unacceptable. The post office is a taxpayer funded and created agency. It looses money every year and has to be subsidized by the taxpayer funds. The employees who work there work for us, the people (taxpayers). We depend upon the mail service to receive checks, bills, pay bills, and many other important items. I am waiting on medication for my eyes that should have been here several days ago and it is getting critically low (before anyone says it, insurance will only allow you or order within certain time intervals, this is not a failure to plan on my part)
It is completely unacceptable for them to hang up on people or to be dismissive to anyone. If you cannot answer the questions politely say so. There is no need to hang up on anyone or to be dismissive. To often, government employees forget that they work for US and are here to serve US. I have watched postal employees leave a line of people standing there and say they are going on break, they move slowly, and some are not very polite or nice. It is time for this to change. I think the local postmaster should use this time while they are not delivering mail to give some classes on customer service.
What part of “act of God” or “natural disaster” do you not understand? I think people in general need a class in common decency, politeness, and basic understanding of difficult situations nowadays!! Also a class in the world doesn’t revolve just around them or their time! Yes, USPS “loses” money every year and they are funded by tax dollars, but what does that have to do with this situation? Nothing, that’s what.
Perhaps the first folks to sign up for your class should be the employees of the US Postal Service.
The issue I raised was not as a result of their failure to deliver the mail which is understandable and not something I took issue with. The issue here is the complete and total lack of customer service and basic communication to the community they serve. To hang up on people or to be dismissive of questions being asked is completely wrong. They are loosing money because of poor customer service, a culture the fails to realize who they are supposed to serve, and a lack of appreciation for the taxpayer dollars that are being wasted with generous salaries being paid at rates exceeding their private competition and benefits that are exceedingly generous. When a member of the local press asks simple questions, it is not to much to ask for the person to direct that reporter to the correct person. To be dismissive and hung up on is totally unacceptable and some accountability for how our taxpayer dollars should be considered.
Totally agree and more!
Exactly!!!
The PO is NOT taxpayer funded. If so, they owe me a hefty refund for the last 19 years. We are profit based. The PO is “an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States.” This is why we were not affected by the govt shutdowns. The PO uses no taxpayer subsidies to fund their business. It’s all from postage sales, products and services.
I suggest you read the post office’s annual report, if the post office is profit based it would have been closed a long time ago. In the year 2017 the post office reported a net loss of $2.7 BILLION dollars, in the year 2018 the post office reported a loss of $3.9 BILLION. The fact is that according to the same reports, the post office has reported a loss for the past 12 YEARS totaling over $13 BILLION dollars. If the post officer were a business, it would have been bankrupt years ago. The losses reported by the post office are in fact taxpayer subsidized and have been hotly debated in Congress. There have been load outcries to fix the system, but like almost everything else the government touches, it never seems to happen The system is inefficient, bloated, and gives horrible customer service. Don’t take my word for it, read the reports published by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), they are not exactly fans of the way the post office operates.
In 2006, under a lame duck congress, the GOP passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. Suddenly rather than the pay-as-you-go pension system that other government agencies follow, the USPS was required to fund every single pension for 50 years in advance. With no time to read the legislation and a voice vote only, the USPS was faced with a $5.5 billion debt each year for the next several years. The law also dictates that the USPS cannot expand their business model to find new sources of income. So when looking at the Government ACCOUNTABILITY Office records, you may need to look at pre-2006 and post-2006 numbers.
I stand uncorrected…..wow!!!!
With regard to pensions, what you may not realize is that Congress changed how ALL pensions were funded, not just the postal service. This made the concept of a pension become non-viable for most businesses around the country and they sought alternative methods to help their employees fund their retirements. But typical of the government, departments like the postal service made the decision to continue offering a benefit that is no longer available to most Americans and is using taxpayer money to pay for this rich benefit. Once again their decision making is costing taxpayers while benefiting those within the ranks of the postal service.
So what do we as taxpayers get for this, we get hung up on when we call, we get a dismissive attitude when questions are asked, very long slow lines, and poor quality customer service. The postal service is a needed service, but if you are honest with yourself, it could be managed much better than it is and we as customers could be treated much better than we are. FedEx, UPS, and others are thriving because the postal service failed in it’s primary mission to be a cost effective way to deliver mail and goods. These companies are successful because they have learned to do what the Postal Service cannot do.
I am. I havent received my social security check so cant pay bills or meds. No mail now for six days. 77518