Twin Cities residents report mail disruptions, but postal officials call deliveries 'stable'

A house sale delayed in Minneapolis. No mail for a week in Falcon Heights. A congresswoman demanding answers for the south suburbs.

Throughout fall and the holidays, more and more Twin Cities residents say they've noticed that mail isn't being delivered regularly — a disruption to one of life's important routines.

"On average, we receive our mail once every 10 days," Joey Cameron of Edina said Friday. "This has been going on for some months now. I have serious concerns that we are not receiving some pieces of mail at all."

Postal Service officials in the metro area say all is well — or nearly well. "Delivery in the Twin Cities is stable with improvements in many areas," Desai Abdul-Razzaaq, a Postal Service spokesman, said in an email.

But on Friday, U.S. Rep. Angie Craig released a letter she sent to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy seeking answers for delays and disruptions she's heard about in the larger suburbs in her district — Lakeville, Apple Valley, Eagan and Mendota Heights.

"My constituents have reported to me that they regularly go three to four days without receiving their mail; some have told me they haven't received mail since December 16, 2022 — now 2 weeks ago," Craig wrote. "I've been told by local postal officials that a route would never go unserved for more than one day at a time, but it's clear that is simply not the case."

She said short staffing and increased holiday volumes were understandable but do not excuse the problems.

"This no longer seems to be isolated to neighborhoods or even individual cities, but rather a larger issue across Minnesota," she said.

In November, Craig sent a letter to Postal Service leaders about poor delivery service in Lakeville. In August, Minnesota U.S. Sen. Tina Smith also wrote to DeJoy seeking answers about missing and delayed mail deliveries in the state.

In a statement Friday, the Postal Service said it would review Craig's concerns and respond directly to her.

"The Postal Service is committed to providing the best possible service to our customers, and we apologize for any inconvenience that may have been experienced," it said.

"We appreciate the patience of our customers. We will continue flexing our available resources to match the workload and are proud of the efforts of postal employees as they define essential public service every day."

Mail is current in Lakeville and Apple Valley, the agency said, and should be current in Eagan and Mendota Heights by Saturday.

Lakeville Mayor-elect Luke​ Hellier said he has experienced delays in receiving mail since late summer.

"There are definitely weeks where we'll go three or four days without mail," Hellier said. "I think that there [are] other post offices that certainly are having that holiday season bottleneck, but the Lakeville problems have extended well beyond that."

When his wife gave birth to twins in October, there were delays getting birth certificates to show to an insurance company. Ultimately, they used UPS overnight service to deliver the "paper records to prove that they were our kids," Hellier said.

Just this week, Hellier told postal officials that city staff may be able to temporarily sort mail to alleviate some of the issues for the Lakeville post office, which he said he thinks is undersized for the city's population.

In Minneapolis, real estate agent Scott Graham said he had to delay a home closing for a client this week because the buyer's down payment funds were snagged by mail delays.

"You feel bad for people because the buyers and the sellers are at the very least inconvenienced," Graham said. "Sometimes these situations are intense. They can find themselves homeless or with furniture stuck in a moving truck, all because the check is literally stuck in the mail."

Falcon Heights resident Chad Fehn didn't get his mail for more than a week. Having signed up for the Postal Service's "informed delivery" email, he has learned exactly what mail he should have received.

Among the delayed items were his wife's driver's license, a letter from his doctor and a Comcast bill. They finally arrived Wednesday and Thursday.

"When I called, I was told they were delivering only packages to seniors and [that] others waiting on medication got it on time," Fehn said. "But still, they should have told us. Sent out a communication of some kind."

Vince Rosetta of St. Louis Park said he had a 401(k) dividend payment delayed and ultimately lost in the mail this fall. Other delays included numerous Christmas presents, his car tabs and critical life insurance information, he said.

"The informed delivery is a great tool because at least I have an idea of what I 'should' be getting," Rosetta wrote in an email.

On Friday, the Postal Service reported that from Oct. 1 through Dec. 23, 91.6% of first-class mail across the country was delivered on time. Holiday delivery was impacted in some local markets because of the recent winter storms.