Don’t blame the St. John post office
The sometimes unexplainable, often times unreasonable delays in mail service on St. John can be traced back to a messed up system in Puerto Rico. That’s the conclusion of the USPS Office of Inspector General, after investigating ongoing complaints first hand.
“They found that all of our complaints are valid and told us that every class of mail they observed being processed through Puerto Rico demonstrated delays,” says Congresswoman Donna Christensen in a statement. “However, once the mail got to the Virgin Islands, it moved quickly and efficiently.”
Well, that last part may be a bit of an exaggeration, but now at least we know the St. John post office can officially pass the buck.
The investigation found Priority Mail, usually a two to three day service, takes on average more than a week to get from the territory to the mainland. It blames Puerto Rico mail workers for misdirection, excessive handling and lack of communication between the postal workers and Customs folks. It also blames out of date sorting machines for damaging large packages (the mashers!)
Christensen asked for the investigation, and wants the Virgin Islands to be allowed to process its own mail, instead of Puerto Rico. The agency will issue a final report this winter.
October 30th, 2008 06:35
That “blamestorming” is nothing new…the blame has been put on PR for years!
October 30th, 2008 17:23
I mailed myself a box from STX to Florida when I was down in August it took 5 weeks to arrive. The box was destroyed and half of the contents were gone! Every time I called my local PO about the missing box I was told it had not yet left STX. Then one day it just showed up.