Frustrated couple pickets Wallingford post office to try to get mail delivered

A Fremont couple, fed up after not getting mail for days, picketed outside their local post office.

That couple is just one of several people telling KIRO 7 they have not received regular mail delivery.

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KIRO 7 put the question directly to the USPS; what’s up with the mail?

We couldn’t get them to go on camera. But they recited the familiar issues, including understaffing.

But that is little comfort to those who say they need their mail.

For nearly two weeks in December, resident Leo Griffin says mail trucks were a rare sight in his Fremont neighborhood after his USPS mail stopped arriving mid-month.

“It stopped on the 17th,” said Griffin.

And for 12 long days, he says, they got no mail at all, something that had never happened.

“They seem short-staffed because every once in a while, we’ll just have a day where there’s just no mail delivered that day, and it gets caught up the next day,” Griffin said. “But I’ve never had it for such a long time.”

So, he emailed the US Postal Service.

“And then it says they’re ‘using all available resources currently, including bringing in carriers from outside the area to move the mail and meet our delivery commitments,’” Griffin said, reading from the reply.

Griffin and his wife got so frustrated that they picketed outside their Wallingford post office last Friday.

“We just kinda wanted to make clear that people, you know, need their mail,” insisted Griffin.

They are not alone.

Last month, KIRO 7 talked to Maple Valley residents who complained their mail was also AWOL.

Since then, we have heard from residents in Covington, Kent and West Seattle.

In a statement, a USPS spokeswoman wrote, in part:

“We are just coming off our peak season for mail delivery. Our networks … continue to be very busy. We are using every available resource at our disposal, including borrowing employees from facilities across the state.”

“I think it’s a management issue at the post office,” said Griffin. “The individual mail carriers are working their tails off.”

So, he is appealing to Congress to act.

“I would like them to have hearings on it, to tell you the truth, because I think it’s a bigger problem,” he said.

At least one member of Congress, Rep. Kim Schrier, has said she is looking into the issue.

As for the delivery problems at Griffin’s house, the postal service says their records indicate mail was delivered in his neighborhood on Dec. 24, the 28th, the 29th and Jan. 3.

That may be. Griffin’s wife says they received packages but did not get one letter between Dec. 17 and Dec. 29.

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