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Greenwood mom says custom Christmas gift has been sitting at nearby post office for 2 weeks

GREENWOOD, Ind. (WISH) – Many people are still waiting on gifts to arrive the day after Christmas. It’s a problem families are facing as the U.S. Postal Service is experiencing a high volume of packages this year due to the pandemic.

The Postal Service released a statement that reads the pandemic has slowed down deliveries and a lot of workers are out due to COVID-19.

Rebecca Bennett tells News 8 that she ordered a customized coffee mug as a gift from her young son to his father on Dec. 1.

“It was in transit and it has been sitting at the Greenwood post office, which is literally less than 5 miles from my house, since the 8th of December,” said Bennett.

Bennett mentioned that other gifts arrived the day after Christmas, and she has considered stopping by the post office herself to pick up the customized coffee mug.

“I’m not going to try to make their lives harder by going down there and throwing a fit, but at the same time it’s a little disheartening that everything didn’t get here on time,” she added.

Other families are waiting for gifts to arrive, too.

“There’s been some issues with my Bath and Body Works that I ordered in the beginning of December,” said Amy Henderson. One of those packages has gotten lost and I finally got it a week ago and I still have another package that I haven’t received yet. So there’s just a lot of lost stuff and then a package came today for my son and it was just damaged.”

The Postal Service encouraged people to shop early this year due to high volume of packages and employees with COVID-19 and encouraged people to send their holiday gifts and cards early, but some families say they’ve placed orders as early as Black Friday.

“Like the week after Thanksgiving, so having placed the order on Dec. 1, I should probably have it here in time and it still wasn’t here by Dec. 24,” Bennett said.

The postal service said 644,000 employees have been working tirelessly to ensure the delivery of holiday gifts and greetings and are continuing to hire more people, but despite the delayed gifts, most people are understanding of the circumstances.

“We’re just glad that everybody’s healthy and here that’s the biggest thing. I have friends that work for the post office and I know they’re working hard,” mentioned Henderson.

The Postal Service said its leadership team, the unions and management associations are all working in close collaboration to address issues and concerns as they arise.