What to Know
- Residents were vulnerable to stolen mail and identity theft when the communal mailbox door was left open.
- Residents complained to the post office multiple times, but received no response.
- After NBC4 Responds contacted the U.S. Postal Service, the Postal Service told NBC4 Responds it fixed the issue.
Mail sent to the wrong address, left out in the open or disappearing altogether.
An apartment complex in Maryland dealt with mail problems for months, but their complaints received no response.
Frustrated with the U.S. Postal Service, one woman reached out to Consumer Reporter Susan Hogan for help from NBC4 Responds.
Sylvia Robinson said the mail at her apartment complex was frequently delivered to the wrong address. And some mail was never recovered.
“We get a lot of misdirected mail,” Robinson said. “A lot.”
Resident Debra Lee-Anderson said she has received other residents’ mail multiple times.
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“It’s very frustrating,” Lee-Anderson said. “I’m waiting for travel documents, and I don’t know they’ve come, if they’re gonna come or if somebody else has got them.”
But their biggest problem was the door to the communal mailbox, which was frequently left open for days at a time.
“All of our mail -- anybody could just walk up, pull it out and keep going," Robinson said.
Lee-Anderson said the open door concerned her because of the risk of identity theft.
“People can just come in and get your information,” she said.
Robinson and other members of the community reached out to the post office multiple times, but none of their complaints were answered.
“The thing that frustrates me the most is the lack of response from the U.S. Postal Service,” Robinson said. “They have not addressed it.”
So, Robinson called Hogan, and NBC4 Responds contacted the U.S. Postal Service about the problem.
The Postal Service told NBC4 Responds it “apologizes for any inconvenience its customers are having with their mail service,” and that it “wants to assure its customers it’s taking their complaints seriously and will address them.”
The Postal Service later released a statement saying it fixed the problems with the Maryland community’s mail service. It said those with mail problems should contact their local Postmaster or call consumer affairs.
If you have a problem you need help solving, submit your concern to NBC4 Responds here or call 844-NBC-DC44.
