As the countdown to Christmas creeps dangerously close, people living in east Dallas's Casa View neighborhood say unreliable mail service is putting a damper on the year's busiest shipping season.
It's taken Laura Hirsbrunner 20 hours over the last month to track three missing packages.
For all three, she was notified the package had been delivered even though her porch sat bare.
"I was home all day. I can hear the beep when they scan it. I know they didn't try to deliver it," Hirsbrunner said.
The first turned out to be a delay. The second sat at someone else's house for an entire week. And when it comes to the third, Hirsbrunner's just counting it a loss. Even a visit to her closest post office on Ferguson didn't provide clarity.
"They reported the package wasn't in the building. It wasn't in the mail truck. They didn't know where it was. They couldn't tell me why it was marked as delivered when they knew it wasn't delivered, and they couldn't tell me why it was gone," Hirsbrunner said.
It's a story that's shared by several of her neighbors.
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"I had a package that was marked as delivered, but I received the mail from the mailman and it never did come. At the post office, they told me they don't know where it went, put my name on a list, I gave them my contact info, and I never got a call back," said Brandon Biczo.
Biczo never received his package: an antique car part he spent a full year searching for. Another missing package turned up at a neighbor's house, while he's received packages for others at his.
When NBC 5 first reported on mail delivery complaints in the neighborhood back in November, USPS released a statement saying, "The goal of the U.S. Postal Service is to provide the best possible experience for our valued customers. We sincerely apologize for any service issues that customers in the Casa View area may have experienced. Local postal management is working to resolve any service issues brought to our attention. This is being accomplished by increasing staffing and enhancing training activities, especially for new employees."
Three weeks later, neighbors say they don't see the improvements.
"It can range from one day of mail not being delivered to a week, and sometimes we get neighbors' mail or mail from other streets," Biczo said.
While USPS promised to increase staff, Biczo believes the problem lies in a long route and most importantly, the lack of a regular carrier.
"I don't put the fault on the carriers. I think there's a management issue," Biczo said.
NBC 5 is waiting on a response from USPS.
