HOUSTON — Almost a year after we first told you about major issues involving mail in Houston, it may be happening again. The issues that started last December dragged on for months and led to a Congressional investigation and demands for change.
Now, USPS customers are calling and emailing KHOU 11 about recent delays.
Adele Mirshak told us she’s waited for at least 10 days for a package to arrive at her home near Houston. When she checks the tracking information, it says “in transit, arriving late to another facility."
“It’s frustrating. I’m thinking, come on, not again,” Mirshak said. "Amazon can do it, Walmart can do it, FedEX can do it, so why can’t the post office do it, I don’t think I’m asking for too much."
Mirshak tried calling her neighborhood post office.
“They said things are being held up at this particular Missouri City facility, and it’s just affecting everybody,” Mirshak told us. “So I asked when can I expect my package, I’d like to know, they said we don’t know,” she said.
For Blake Thomas in southwest Houston, it’s a similar story.
He’s waited days for his dog’s nutritional supplement to arrive. It was mailed from California on September 6. Tracking information shows the package has been in Houston since September 10.
“It’s not insulin, it’s not heart medicine, but if somebody was waiting on insulin or heart medicine or something that would be a big deal if they were waiting two weeks,” Thomas said.
USPS blamed delays that began in 2023 on efforts to modernize that included a new facility in Missouri City.
In May, KHOU 11 was invited to tour the Missouri City facility, also known as the South Houston Local Processing Center (SHLPC). At the time, USPS Vice President of Regional Processing John DiPeri said he wanted all the mail sent within Houston to be processed there. He promised it would be 95% operational by the end of August.
“The machines here will be sufficient to handle all of the destination Houston packages," DiPeri said
It’s not yet clear if the U.S. Postal Service has achieved those goals or if network modernization is behind the latest round of delays.
On Monday, Rep. Al Green who represents Missouri City encouraged anyone with a delayed package to contact his Houston office at 713-383-9234.
In a statement, USPS declined to answer specific questions about delays. However, a spokesperson said "local postal management continues to monitor conditions on a daily basis at our plants and post offices to ensure mail and packages are being processed and delivered as quickly as possible."
You can contact USPS customer service by calling 1-800-ASK-USPS (8777) or by visiting their website at www.usps.com/help.
Are you having issues with the post office? Send an email to mailproblems@khou.com and let us know. You can see our coverage of delays at Houston-area USPS processing centers on KHOU.com/PostalProblems.