Maryville USPS workers struggling to get all deliveries done

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Some Maryville USPS customers are waiting for credit cards and other important documents as workers struggle to get all of the deliveries done daily.

The Maryville Post Office stayed busy on Tuesday, but some customers said they were forced to visit the facility.

Blount Co. USPS customer, Patrick Sanders, said, “I put some mail in the mailbox two days ago and I had just brought it down here now because it was just sitting there.”

Sanders lives right outside the Maryville city limits. He said he hasn’t seen a mail carrier in weeks and now he’s playing the waiting game for some important items.

“Somebody got into our credit card, so we had to cancel that and now we’ve been waiting, I don’t know about seven days, eight days and were still waiting for our credit card to come in,” Sanders said.

A Maryville USPS worker WVLT News spoke with, who chose to stay anonymous, said COVID-19 and people quitting have caused staffing shortages. The employee said many of the employees work 70-80 hour work weeks trying to finish all the routes. Long hours and short staffing have caused some to leave.

Maryville USPS customer, Rebecca Redding, said “we came down to the post office and they said someone had quit.”

The worker we spoke with said workers continues to walk out on the job.

The U.S. Postal Service did send WVLT a statement stating:

“The Postal Service plays an important role in the community and we are committed to providing the best service possible. We apologize for any inconvenience that may have been experienced by customers living in the Maryville, TN, area. Local management has been made aware and is taking steps to address the concerns. USPS is currently hiring Rural Carriers for the Maryville Post Office and surrounding areas. Applicants can go to www.usps.com/careers and search under Tennessee.

We appreciate the patience of our customers and the efforts of employees as conditions change on a day-to-day basis. While we do not share personnel information publicly, we can confirm that our workforce, like others, is not immune to the human impacts of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Ongoing industrywide delays in ground and air transportation network and recent winter storms across Tennessee have also created challenges for the Postal Service.

We will continue flexing our available resources to match the workload and we are proud of the efforts of postal employees across Tennessee, and the nation, as they define essential public service every day. We urge any customers with concerns or questions about their mail delivery service to contact their local Postal Office, so that we can look into and resolve their concerns promptly. Customers may also visit our website at www.usps.com/help.”

Redding said, “the post office you’ve got to rely on them especially this time of year with taxes and all of that stuff, so we were missing some really important pieces.”

Some customers see the problem getting better, while others have one thought in mind.

Sanders said, “Who knows the next time the mail is going to get here.”

Workers remain hopeful the problem will get better, but hope is dwindling as they haven’t seen any changes yet.

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