Records show more than a hundred mail delivery complaints at south Fargo branch

Federal records we obtained through a Freedom of Information Request reveal more than hundred mail delivery complaints were filed in less than a year against a south Fargo post office branch.

Prairiewood Post Office is in south Fargo and has been the source of frustration for residents for years. The problem even drew the attention of U.S. Senators.

It took nearly six months, but we obtained hundreds of documents.

They cover 10 months from March of 2018 to January of 2019. All total, there were 139 mail delivery complaints submitted.

The complaints are filed as “eCC cases,” or electronic customer care cases. A United States Postal Service spokesman confirmed those complaints are when a package isn’t delivered.

It comes as no surprise, but the highest number of missed package complaints came around the Christmas holiday.

From December 21, 2018 to January 7 there were 47 complaints, according to federal records.

The USPS spokesman said on average most post offices will get one or two complaints on a given day. Yet, Prairiewood had days where there three to 14 complaints.

According to USPS, the agency’s goal is to return a complaint call within 24 hours or one business day.

On average, records show Prairiewood took at least three days to respond to any one complaint of a package not being delivered.

Moreover, an email sent November 5 by USPS Regional Headquarters in Denver stated there were more than 1200 unanswered complaints for that region.

“We have failed to meet this commitment,” the email stated.

We’ve also reported on previous efforts by former Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and current Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven to address the problems at Prairiewood.

The records show the USPS still has work to do to improve the mail delivery service at Prairiewood.