St. Louis company says months-long USPS delays are bad for business

ST. LOUIS – Just north of downtown St. Louis sits JP Bushnell Packing Supply Co. The unassuming exterior houses one of the largest hose, belt, pump, and sheet packing distributors in the Midwest. It’s a small company with some big accounts.

“We have Ameren. We have Anheuser Busch. We have the City of St. Louis. We do have some accounts that are not in the United States. We ship all around the world,” Gina Bardol said.

Bardol handles the company’s accounting. What she can’t account for lately is when their mail arrives.

“It started once and a while with one check or two checks just coming a couple weeks late. Then all the sudden we started noticing some bills were not coming. They were coming past the due date. We’re getting checks four months after they’ve been mailed. That’s just not acceptable,” she said.

In early August, Gina contacted the postal service with her concerns. In it, a USPS representative told her the business’s main mail carrier said they should have no problem receiving mail, adding he assumed the issues may happen on days he’s not working or on vacation.

Gina was told a delivery alert was set up that should rectify the issue. But less than three weeks after receiving that information, Gina says these checks arrived from a company they work with in Millstadt. One of them is dated April 29. The other May 5.

“It’s just progressively getting worse and worse and worse. We’re not talking a couple hundred dollars, we’re talking a substantial amount of money,” Bardol said.

Gina tells us the business is also having issues with their outgoing mail being reliably picked up.

“Usually we end up just taking it to the post office because we can’t trust them to come before we close,” she said.

FOX 2 asked USPS to investigate the issues Gina shared with us. A USPS representative shared the following response:

“We show no record of delays or service issues with this address; however, we will continue to monitor delivery performance closely to ensure we are meeting our customer’s needs. When mail service issues occur, we take steps to quickly resolve customer concerns. We gladly work to address any specific issue from the community when brought to our attention, and we encourage customers to reach out to their local postal station.”

“I know times are tough. Everyone is shorthanded. Everyone is overworked and underpaid. But I just don’t understand what is taking so long? Where is a check going and floating for four months?” Bardol questioned.

USPS encourages customers to email them directly with issues . A representative told us, “Every email will be carefully documented, and appropriate action taken to strengthen service. The Postal Service will diligently continue to investigate customer’s concerns and correct deficiencies to improve service to our communities.”

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