It seems that in recent times we have all become accustomed to the slowing down of our postal services. This is an unfortunate effect of decisions made at the top of the food chain, which is not the focus of this petition.

Within the Northlakes area of Hickory the mail service over the last year or more has become completely intolerable. At my household we constantly experience not only severe delays in mail delivery, but missing mail and or damaged mail. Our neighborhood (HOA) Facebook page is filled with posts of people asking if anyone has seen their packages and letters. Regular mail that a household knows to expect (credit card and utility bills) fail to arrive and seem to have vanished into the abyss. We have personally received Five (5) water bills at our residence in one day. Not one of these five water bills belonged to our household. When mail that is expected fails to arrive it is noticed. But when you have random mail pieces vanish you may not even realize it, that is until you get medical bills with “Final Notice” marked on them. This is unacceptable.

Recently a man who we had never met from the next neighborhood started bringing our mail to us. Our mail is being delivered to his house. The only thing we have in common is the same house number. We live on different streets in different neighborhoods. Yet our mail is commonly delivered to his address.

The issues with the mail carrier have been brought up to the Postmaster at the Hickory office many times – by many individuals. Nothing is being done to improve service. Therefore, the problem lies not only with the carrier but also with management who chooses to overlook these issues.

Unfortunately, not all Post Offices run like a well-oiled machines. All employees, no matter their title, should learn to do their jobs to the best of their ability & learn to do it efficiently. The USPS is supposed to be here to serve the public & that’s what all PO’s & their employees should be doing.