Postal Service: Newspaper Delivery Problems Continue

Thursday, January 10, 2013

By John Karlovec, Editor

We routinely receive phone calls from subscribers informing us that delivery of their newspaper is inconsistent.

Several Middlefield subscribers recently told us they received two issues in the same week. One paper arrived on a Monday or Tuesday and another on Thursday, as scheduled.

A reader in Huntsburg called to tell us she often fails to receive a paper in the week it was published and sometimes two arrive at the same time.

Last Wednesday, we received an email from a Newbury subscriber who indicated the last three or four issues have been delivered late.

"A couple were delivered on the Tuesday or Wednesday after the publication date and I received the Dec. 27 issue today, Jan. 2," she wrote.

All addressed papers are taken to the Chardon Post Office each Wednesday.

The Chardon Post Office keeps all the newspaper bags and bundles marked with the 44024 Zip Code and places the remaining bags on a USPS truck that delivers them to the main post office in Cleveland, more than 30 miles away. (Think about that ... we deliver all the newspapers to Chardon and the USPS returns all but the 44024 newspapers to Cleveland only to be sent back out to the other Geauga County post offices.)

They leave Chardon around 7 p.m. that night and then...?

That's the mystery. Some papers must spend a lot of time waiting in the Cleveland post office on Orange Avenue. Others might be collecting dust in other post offices serving Geauga County residents.

Admittedly, there have been several occasions over the years where we failed to deliver the newspapers to the Chardon Post Office on time. Weather, equipment and a recent software update were the main culprits.

However, those are rare occurrences.

We wish we had an answer to delivery problems, but we don't. We have spoken to postal workers in the Cleveland office, with mixed results.

Sometimes delivery miraculously improves – albeit temporarily – after we complain.

Other times, no one has an answer.

Last week, we left several messages for LaVanda Fondren (216-443-4442), manager, consumer and industry contact at the Cleveland post office about the late delivery of newspapers.

Not one call was returned. We then spoke with a Mr. Robinson in the business mail department who indicated we needed to speak with someone in consumer affairs.

After several phone calls, we finally got ahold of Mrs. Young (216-443-4416) in consumer affairs and voiced and registered our complaint.

She said she would contact the people who handle second-class mail and attempt to find out why our newspapers are not being delivered on time. We spoke with her on Monday and nothing has been done.

We make every effort to personally deliver a newspaper to those subscribers who fail to get the Maple Leaf on time.

If we are unable to hand-deliver a newspaper, we will credit each reader who does not get a newspaper, if they call us.

Unfortunately, there's no indication that improvement is on the way. Complaining to your local post office will probably do no good because that's generally not the source of the problem.

The only recourse we suggest is to ask for a complaint card and let your problem be known, again and again. We also would encourage your postmaster to contact Mrs. Young and register a complaint.

We appreciate your continued understanding and support, and can assure you we are doing everything possible on our end to improve delivery.