'Nothing is improving': Post office delays cause frustration, long wait lines

When Hershey Hudtohan arrived at the Yigo post office, the employee said her package had not arrived. In fact, several people ahead of her faced the same dilemma, which signaled her plight was far from unusual.

The mother of two returned to the office the following day, and the employee repeated that the package with her immigration documents was not there.

She said she waited in line two to three hours a day over the next two weeks.

The U.S. Postal Office has experienced severe disruptions in mail because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In locations where postal workers are unable to work due to coronavirus outbreaks, their absences have further stretched delays.

In addition, the volume of mail coming to Guam has increased during the pandemic as residents order items that are difficult to find on the island, a Postal Service office said.

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According to Hudtohan, the tracking shows that the package is ready for pickup at the Yigo post office. But it is not available.

During the morning, Hudtohan arrives an hour before the post office opens and sees five to 10 individuals ahead of her. In the afternoon, an estimated 30 people stand in line when she returns.

“Rain or shine, I am there. I think the guy in the post office already knows me,” Hudtohan said.

Mail volume 40 percent higher than last year

Duke Gonzales, the strategic communications specialist for the U.S. Postal Service in Honolulu, said that during August, the total volume of mail entering Guam increased by more than 40 percent from the same month in 2019. It was 25 percent higher than December 2019, the most recent Christmas season.

Those increases, Gonzales said, have led to mail backlogs during the pandemic and internal processing similar to “a six-month Christmas rush.” 

“We are currently processing and distributing more packages than we did last December, traditionally our busiest time of the year,” Gonzales said. 

Guam residents appear to order large quantities of cleaning supplies, household goods, and other items difficult to find on the island, Gonzales said.

‘Nothing is improving’

Hudtohan purchased online books to support her two children’s distance learning.

“My younger son has ADHD, so I need a lot of resources to make him feel comfortable at home,” Hudtohan said. She chose the faster shipping method and showed the post office worker an Excel sheet with the latest updates of her tracking numbers, all to no avail.

During the slowdown, mail normally projected to take a few weeks to deliver has on average arrived a month later, according to Hudtohan. 

“I have seen people before me complaining that the packages have been there for a month, and they have not received it yet,” Hudtohan said. “Even when they follow up with a tracking number, they still cannot get it and need to go back.”

Outside the post office, the long line snakes past a nearby apartment. With the start of new social distance policies aimed at making the Postal Service safer, people of all ages, stand under scorching sunlight. 

“We need to be understanding and patient during the COVID-19, but it is super sad that nothing is improving,” Hudtohan said.

Surge in mails correlates with demand for online shopping

The uptick in packages correlates to surges in online shopping across the country. The Guam post offices have spent months reeling from an increase in package volumes.

As stores have closed, consumers turned to online shopping. Gonzales said he expects the volume of mail to decline after businesses safely reopen.

The shift in consumer habits has burdened the Postal Service, which has seen distribution centers struggling to sort incoming mail.

“We apologize for the inconvenience that has been experienced by our customers during this pandemic,” Gonzales said. “Without specific tracking numbers and/or other identifying information about the packages in question, though, it is impossible to determine what may have happened in these cases.”

‘The least amount of time I waited was an hour’

The slower on-time delivery has lengthened already long lines at the post offices. 

“The least amount of time I waited was an hour,” said John Wesley, a resident in Dededo who picks up mail at the Barrigada post office.

During one occasion, Wesley expected to retrieve two items and left the post office with one, having been told his other package had not arrived.

The next day, he received a notification that the package was still at the office.

Although Wesley did not dispute that pandemic-related challenges were to blame for the holdups, he said discrepancies between trackable bar codes and employees’ verbal claims were tied to the slowdowns.

“I told her the paper says two packages, but the lady said if there is only one card, the package probably got separated,” Wesley said. 

Wesley acknowledged that the employees at the post office are not to blame.

“I know people complain about getting the wrong mail,” Wesley said. “The sheer volume is causing them to have more errors than usual.”

But the increased demand is not an excuse for making mistakes, especially when mistaken items contain personal information, Wesley said. 

Postal performance varies across villages, but the overall trend of slower mail performances has been reported in post offices in Barrigada, Tamuning and Hagåtña.

Postal employees have been instructed to expedite mail delivery and are bracing for the holiday season.

“Our employees understand how essential the U.S. Postal Service is to Guam residents,” Gonzales said. “They are making every effort to deploy our postal resources to best serve their customers.”

This article originally appeared on Pacific Daily News: 'Nothing is improving': Post office delays cause frustration, long wait lines