VALLEY PARK 鈥 Henry Eirich fixed his Valley Park home after hail damage, then waited for the final reimbursement check from his insurance company.
For five weeks, he waited for the check to arrive in his mailbox. It finally came Saturday, two days after he had it canceled.
鈥淭he government doesn鈥檛 know how to run anything,鈥 Eirich, 73, said in an interview Wednesday. 鈥淭his is not service at all. It should not take a week, even, to deliver that mail.鈥
Eirich鈥檚 complaint about staggeringly slow mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Service has joined a growing chorus across the 51黑料 area. Residents have complained about weekslong delays of magazines, checks, mailers and more.
This week, seven members of Missouri鈥檚 congressional delegation sent a letter to the Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service about 鈥渟ignificant mail delivery disruptions鈥 in the 51黑料 area.
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The lawmakers are asking for an audit of the agency in the 51黑料 area and an outline explaining how mail delivery will improve.
The audit, they said, should cover postal facilities and distribution centers in 51黑料 County, St. Charles County and the city of 51黑料.
The letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt and U.S. Reps. Ann Wagner, Robert Onder, Jason Smith, Sam Graves and Eric Burlison. The lawmakers, all Republicans, asked the inspector general for a reply by April 15.
Many in the 51黑料 area experience 鈥減ersistent delays,鈥 the letter said, 鈥渨hile some go extended periods without receiving any mail at all.鈥
Packages are shuffled between 51黑料 area post offices for weeks, the lawmakers alleged. Customers鈥 mailed payments are late. One resident got mail on only 10 days so far this year.
鈥淭his is simply unacceptable,鈥 the seven lawmakers said in the letter. 鈥淥thers have struggled to access critical prescription medications and Social Security checks, creating unnecessary hardships.鈥
Hawley asked for an audit a year ago. The postal agency chose instead to audit a more broad region, the Kansas-Missouri postal district, with emphasis on the Kansas City area. That audit鈥檚 released in September included: Employees scanned packages improperly. Master keys or 鈥渁rrow keys鈥 weren鈥檛 secured properly. Employees had a high number of unscheduled absences.
But the seven members of the congressional delegation who signed Tuesday鈥檚 letter said the Kansas City-area audit, 鈥渄id not specifically address the challenges faced by residents in the 51黑料 area. Since that time, mail service in the region has not improved.鈥
They added, 鈥淚dentifying and addressing the root causes of these service failures is critical to restoring trust in USPS operations in the region.鈥
In an audit in 2022, the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service said it found 5,145 pieces of delayed mail at the Maryville Gardens Station, 2920 Meramec Street.
The last time the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service conducted an audit here was in 2022 when it examined four 51黑料-area post offices, according to Tara Linne, a spokesperson for the Inspector General鈥檚 office. The delivery delays at one of four stations but package scanning issues at all four, among other problems.
The Post-Dispatch wrote about complaints of missing mail in January. Residents across the 51黑料 area reported empty mailboxes, seldom-seen letter carriers and other issues with mail delivery after a storm dumped as much as a foot of snow and ice on the region.
Tara Jarrett, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Post Office, said at the time that snow and ice made deliveries difficult.
But for many, the troubles haven鈥檛 improved even as the weather has.
On Monday, Eirich, the Valley Park man, shared his complaints about mail delivery on Next Door, a neighborhood-focused social media site. Within two days, more than 210 people had chimed in on his post.
Some said the decline has been happening for years and that competitors like Fed Ex and UPS aren鈥檛 always better. They were pretty close to split about whether privatizing the U.S. Postal Service would help.
A West County woman said she changed to paying most bills online after she was hit with late fees when checks mailed in plenty of time didn鈥檛 arrive promptly. A High Ridge man got his license renewal notice in the mail after his license had expired. A Ballwin woman mailed a St. Patrick鈥檚 Day card to a friend March 11, but the friend still hadn鈥檛 gotten it nearly three weeks later.
Michael Sanders, of Kirkwood, said that some days he gets no mail at all.
鈥淓very once in awhile,鈥 Sanders, 73, said in an interview, 鈥渟omething will come in from a local address that was mailed weeks ago. It鈥檚 inconsistent, I would have to say.鈥
