The highlights of this week’s controversy about the Wake Forest Post Office and mail delivery include a letter from David Webster, the district manager at the U.S. Post Office regional Greensboro office, and more and varied complaints about problems in mail delivery.
But the real news is the response from the Greensboro office to a number of Gazette questions.
Question: How many new couriers have been hired for each of the Wake Forest and Rolesville routes since late November when McKay was sent in? How many more are needed to permanently and properly handle all the routes? You said in December there are 42 routes; how many need to be added to assure delivery for all customers before 5 p.m.?
Answer: The Postal Service brought in carriers from surrounding areas to help deliver mail in Wake Forest and Rolesville during the holidays, our busiest time of the year. Eleven new carriers have already been hired for 20 open permanent carrier positions at the Wake Forest Post Office. Additional candidates are currently in the hiring process to meet demand.
Due to periods of increased mail volume and the growth of package delivery due to online shopping, carriers will make deliveries earlier in the morning, later in the evening and on Sundays to accommodate customer demand.
Question: What are the names of the postmasters for Wake Forest and Rolesville? If there is still no official postmaster for Wake Forest, just McKay, when will he/she be appointed? Why has there been such a lag in appointing a new permanent postmaster?
Answer: Angelyn Eldridge is the Postmaster at the Rolesville Post Office and Tammy McKay is the Acting Postmaster at the Wake Forest Post Office. The Postal Service often places employees in “acting” positions until the positions are filled permanently.
Question: Why was the Greensboro office not aware a year ago of the tremendous growth in these two towns? Did the postmaster in Wake Forest send information up the right channels that more couriers were needed or did he/she not? I’m aware that Mr. Webster and others may not want to answer that question, but his letter of Jan. 10 stated: “Immediately upon learning of these issues, we initiated evaluations of our delivery routes and carrier volumes . . . We found there has been a rebound in the housing market and tremendous growth in this area over the past two years. (Why were they unaware before?) Space constrains are limiting carrier additions. We plan to move the Rolesville carriers back to the Rolesville Post Office around the first week of February. We will be looking to hire additional employees to ensure the office is fully staffed when the move occurs.”
Answer: While the increase in delivery points grew modestly, a significant change has been tremendous growth in package deliveries due to the popularity of online shopping. The Postal Service handled more than 750 million packages this past holiday season, a double-digit increase compared to last year and double the volume of packages handled just four years ago. The U.S. Postal Service anticipated and prepared for the growth and welcomes the increased opportunities to serve customers’ shipping needs.
Question: I still want Mr. Webster to visit the Wake Forest Post Office and see the state of the entry and the grounds. No one is complaining about the attitude and helpfulness of the employees who work there, just the state of disrepair. And the lack of enough people to do the job.
Answer: The Postal Service continually maintains its facilities to ensure they are safe, convenient and welcoming to customers. We welcome customers’ feedback and strongly encourage customers who visit the Wake Forest Post Office to respond on the customer survey found on every receipt. The survey is read by postal leadership and it enables customers to leave recommendations, including an opportunity to share ideas to improve a facility’s appearance. The Postal Service takes customers feedback seriously and reviews these surveys often. Customers also are always welcome to call the USPS helpline at 336-668-1375 to leave feedback. Be assured local management has been made aware of your concerns regarding aesthetics and remains committed to providing a professional environment.
The Webster letter was written as the result of complaints from Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles and the Gazette editor to U.S. Senator Thom Tillis’ office and was postmarked Jan. 10. The letter ended, “We believe that customers who experienced mail delivery service issues should already see improvements. We will continue to monitor, evaluate and improve our processes so that we meet the standards our customers expect.”
Webster also wrote, “Immediately upon learning of these issues, we initiated evaluations of our delivery routes and carrier volumes in the Wake Forest/Rolesville area to improve mail delivery service. We found there has been a rebound in the housing market and tremendous growth in the area over the past two years. Space constraints were limiting carrier additions. As a result, we plan to move the Rolesville carriers back to Rolesville Post Office around the first week of February. We will be looking to hire additional employees to ensure the office is fully staffed when the move occurs.”
The Gazette notes that its complaints began early in December. It is very possible that more attention began to be paid when Eagles began calling and visiting the Greensboro office.
One of the more interesting comments in the letter from Webster was the sentence: “Space constraints were limiting carrier additions.” Huh! This from someone or someone in his position who ordered that the Youngsville rural carriers were to be moved to Wake Forest back in 2014. Remember they built a new parking lot to accommodate the extra employee vehicles? That move was rescinded sometime in the past two years. Was it because there was not room for everyone? Did the Wake Forest postmaster, who resigned at some point with no permanent replacement yet, keep quiet about all the growth in Wake Forest and Rolesville or did the Greensboro office ignore his requests leading to his resignation?
As for the complaints, the most vivid one was relayed by a woman who just wanted to read her Wake Forest Weekly. “That Thursday night (Jan. 12) the mail arrived a little after 10 p.m. I could see the headlights as the truck passed the front of the house on the way to the mail box. I got up right away to get the mail. When I took the mail out of the box our copy of the local newspaper, Wake Forest Weekly, was not in there. So, I went running down the street after the truck and caught up with it a few houses down the street.
“I told the man I did not get my newspaper,” she continued. “He was very nice but I could tell he was overwhelmed. He told me he had been on vacation and was called into to cover this route and it was not his. His truck was overflowing with mail, boxes, newspapers. There was barely room for him to sit. He started undoing the packs of newspapers from the floor in the back of the truck. They were not in alphabetical order or sorted by neighborhood from what I could tell. The light in his truck made if very difficult to read the labels on the newspapers and the mail. He finally tore the label off one newspaper, put the label up on his visor and gave the newspaper to me. The next day our newspaper was in the box.” This account has been sent on to the Greensboro office.
Another Gazette reader on the other side of town reported, “Last Thursday no mail. Wake [Forest] Weekly comes that day but got it on Friday. Saturday got a bunch of bank documents. Only items that day I believe. Sat evening was 7:30 p.m. Next door often has reports of misdelivered mail and occasional missing packages. Total mistrust of the system. You don’t know what might be missing. Thanks for checking up on us.”
Someone who checks on comments on the NextDoorNeighbor site for his neighborhood said he had heard from four more people about late mail and no mail. Another said he had arranged for all his incoming and outgoing mail to be handled through the UPS office near the Harris Teeter on Rogers Road. “He wrote that the owner told him the USPS has missed two or three dropoffs and pickups in the past two weeks.”
Someone on South Main Street is still waiting for a small package that was mailed on Jan. 5 in Chapel Hill to make it to Wake Forest. And their mail is always delivered after 8 p.m.
