CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — People living at a luxury apartment complex in Greenbrier told 10 On Your Side that for the past two months, they haven’t even had the luxury of getting their mail.
“It’s a major inconvenience to quality of life,” said resident Evan Gordon.
A car crashed into the mailboxes back in August, demolishing most of them. Since then, the mail area at the apartment has been taped off and remains unrepaired.
“They said they’d have it fixed in a month,” Gordon said. “It’s now been two months. It’s incredibly annoying.”
Since August, residents have been told to pick up their mail from a post office on North Battlefield Boulevard, about a 10-minute drive from The Hideaway. But this week, the apartment manager emailed residents to tell them the post office will now only hold mail for one day before returning it to sender.
“I said to them yesterday, ‘What if we work? Are we SOL to get our mail?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, you’re SOL,'” Gordon said.
Gordon, like other residents we spoke with, said they can’t get to the post office on a daily basis because of work schedules.
“I’ve had my car registration sent back, I’ve had some of my tax information sent back, it’s really difficult,” said Lindie Webb.
A representative for the Post Office division told 10 On Your Side it is the responsibility of the apartment complex to provide a proper place for mail to get delivered. But Webb isn’t holding her breath.
“They said the mailbox was starting to get fixed this week, but I haven’t seen any construction towards it,” she said. “They still have the fences up, it’s still demolished.”
Below is the statement sent to us from the U.S. Postal Service’s North Carolina and Virginia District representative:
“Mail holds are supposed to be a maximum of 30 days per postal operating procedures. In this instance, local management extended the mail hold for customers beyond the 30 days as a courtesy to customers. However, mail and packages have been piling up and it takes clerks away from the retail counter to retrieve multiple bundles of mail when they are supposed to be providing retail services to customers. We thank customers for their understanding.
The sanctity and security of the mail is a top priority for the Postal Service, and mail must be delivered to mailboxes at this property. The property owner is responsible for installation and maintenance of cluster box units at the complex so mail can be delivered. When the new boxes are installed, the Postal Service can key the locks so mail delivery can resume.”
U.S. Postal Service’s North Carolina and Virginia District
