ATLANTA — This week marks six months since the launch of a significant mail facility in Georgia upended service and prompted political outcry on both sides of the aisle.
11Alive News has been investigating delays and fielding concerns from Georgians since shortly after the new Regional Processing & Distribution Center opened in late February. More than 3,000 complaints have been received about everything from missing prescriptions to concerns about absentee ballots that never arrived.
Like many who've reached out, Leslie Johnson mailed a package to her mother, anticipating a simple process.
"It's crazy, it really is," Johnson said, shaking her head while looking at the box she sent, which came back three weeks later.
"This is cookies for my mother," Johnson said. " A couple of days is one thing, but three weeks to get a box to Maryland and apparently back again according to their tracking system, that's a little ridiculous."
Johnson said the box marked 'postage due' showed up on her doorstep after she'd tried to get the USPS to track it down. The tracking previously showed the package sitting in Palmetto for around 12 days, and she showed 11Alive the receipt where she'd paid the postage.
"It showed up on my doorstep this way," she said. "Still don't know why, no explanation, and when I contact the Post Office service themselves, they still think it's in transit."
If you tell me it's a three-day transit, it's a three-day transit, not a three-week transit," she added. "And this is affecting a lot of people. Not just me."
At this point, Johnson just wants to know when service will return to normal, the same answer 11Alive has sought for months as questions continue to come in from residents trying to track down their mail and packages. On April 16, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy apologized for delays in Georgia during a U.S. Senate hearing while reassuring senators and 11alive that service would be restored in 60 days.
DeJoy also defended the need for such consolidation in the state and future consolidations across the country as a critical part of the postal service's 10-year plan to streamline and save money.
"The system has significant problems," DeJoy told 11Alive's Liza Lucas at the time. "These changes are meant to salvage it for the future."
But even now, in the final week of August, daily complaints continue. Diana Naczi is among those speaking out after missing critical legal documents despite having paid extra for additional tracking.
"I would suffice to say I literally have spent hours trying just to track these documents and also follow up with the places where I've sent them to," Naczi shared.
"They've been helpful in terms of trying to help me understand what is causing the issue," she added, referencing branch employees' efforts. "But I know that both of us would simply love for the issues to be resolved."
However, the situation has not stabilized yet, according to Thomas Day, Vice Chair of the Postal Regulatory Commission. While on-time delivery for all First Class mail is up to 87% from the drop to 36% in March, Day has questioned the pace of that progress.
"It's not even at the level of performance that Mr. DeJoy promised at the Senate hearing in April," Day said, noting that Georgia still lags below the national average of 91% on-time delivery for that category.
"I actually do a calculator where I look at the trend of how they're improving and how much further away are they from getting to breaking 90%," Day said. "I think if they get past 90%, ok, at least that's where they were before. I think they're still 6 to 8 weeks away from that, given the pace. Now, if they can pick up the pace, maybe it'll be quicker."
Meanwhile, he sees struggles continue with other categories.
"Two-day service in the state of Georgia for a First-Class letter or postcard is below 70%," he added. "Some of this stuff is taking exceptionally long amounts of time to travel just within the state of Georgia."
USPS has continued to deny 11Alive's requests to tour the facility, so it's difficult to discern what's happening inside. But outside, crews recently filmed another backlog of trucks., and employees have tipped us off on other challenges, sharing pictures showing packages waiting to be hand-processed after an issue with a sorter. The Postal Service said both problems have since been resolved, but unlike First-Class mail, there's no published data to follow.
"You shouldn't have to wonder when you put it in the mail," Johnson said.
11Alive has repeatedly asked USPS when service will return to normal in Georgia. While the Postal Service has answered some questions recently, addressing the truck and package issues, a spokesperson has not returned 11Alive's request for comment about a timeline or answered questions about whether previous solutions to fix the Palmetto facility are still ongoing.