Frustration is growing for Wyoming postal customers, who are seeing packages bounce around the map in what looks like a giant game of postal pingpong.
Take the case of Gene Galitz, for example. The Pavillion, Wyoming, man ordered an item with ashipping label created in Boise, Idaho, on Nov. 30, but didn’t land at its destination in Pavilion until Dec. 9, according to the U.S. Postal Service’s own tracking system.
What was even more eye-opening was the circuitous route the package followed during that time, Galitz told Cowboy State Daily. It was like watching a Flat Stanley paper doll, a creation of American children’s author Jeff Brown, where the goal is for a paper doll named Flat Stanley togo on a trip to as many places as possible before finally getting to his destination.
A shipping label was created for Galitz’s package on Nov. 30, after which it was officially “accepted” at 9:53 p.m. on Dec. 2, USPS tracking data shows.
It then departed the Boise, Idaho, origin facility at 11:08 p.m. on Dec. 2 and remained in transit until 4:20 a.m. Dec. 4, when it landed in Denver.
It’s shown leaving the Denver Distribution Center at 6 a.m. the same day, then returning the same day to the Denver Distribution Center at 8:54 p.m.
The next day, it left the Denver facility again at 4:45 a.m. Dec. 5, according to USPS tracking information, then landed later that same morning at 8:56 a.m. at the Casper Distribution facility.
It next appeared in the USPS tracking in Baggs, Wyoming, at 8:18 a.m. Dec. 6, after which it arrived in Rawlins at 4:26 p.m. the same day.
Then it headed to Cheyenne, arriving there at 9:21 a.m. Dec. 7.
After that, it went for another jaunt to Casper, arriving at 8:38 p.m. Dec. 7 before departing there at 1:45 a.m. for Riverton, where it arrived at 4:14 a.m Dec. 8.
Finally, at 8 a.m. Dec. 9, it is shown arriving at the Pavilion Post Office, after which it headed out for delivery 11 minutes later, landing at Galitz’s place at 1 p.m. Dec. 9.
A Taste Of What’s To Come?
Galitz believes the routes his packages are taking are just a taste of what’s to come under the Delivering for America plan, which moves most of Wyoming’s major mail processing capabilities to either Denver or Billings.
It will speed urban mail delivery at the expensive of rural mail delivery, and leaves all of Wyoming essentially rural with no Cowboy State city within 50 miles of a major processing area, including Cheyenne, the state’s capital.
“This package was unique,” Galitz said. “Because I’ve never had one go to Baggs or Rawlins like that before. But they usually do show up in Denver, leave Denver, and then show up in Denver again.”
That’s never made much sense to Galitz, and to him looks a lot like someone just forgot the package on the truck, adding an extra day to its delivery time.
Having a package go from Casper to Baggs to Rawlins and back to Cheyenne and then Casper again before finally heading to Riverton and Pavillion is a new level of complicated, Galitz said.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said. “If they’ve got a good reason for that, I’ll shut up. I’ll quit complaining about it. But it just seems ridiculous.”
Galitz also told Cowboy State Daily after seeing the circuitous route his packages were taking that he felt it was ridiculous for Post Master General Louis DeJoy to give himself an “A” for his work, which Galitz feels has gutted the U.S. Postal Service.
“This is a prime example of why we should keep (our mail services),” Galitz said. “I’m hoping (Wyoming legislators) can put a stop to this (Delivering For America).”
Others Reporting Package Pingpong As Well
Galitz isn’t the only one reporting circuitous routes for packages.
Wanda Krimbrough provided tracking details for a package of vitamins and some shoes she ordered.
For one of the two packages, the tracking details show the package arrived in Denver then left for Cheyenne, only to arrive in Grand Junction, Colorado, before then turning around to Cheyenne and back to Grand Junction again.
“Someone has to tell me how functional this is,” Kimbrough said. “How many people had to handle this piece of mail? How much did the USPS have to spend doing this? What a waste of money and time.
“Is it any wonder Trump wants to privatize the USPS? This is crazy.”
Kimbrough also sells Christmas ornaments on eBay and said she’s been experiencing lots of difficulties with the packages she sends through the mail for that as well.
Right now, she has a Christmas ornament that’s been stuck in “Return to Sender” limbo for more than a week. Kimbrough said she was told that was related to the customer having the wrong address on her PayPal account.
“When they tried to deliver it, they said there’s no such address,” Kimbrough said. “So, it’s been sitting at Return to Sender now for more than a week.”
(Courtesy Photo) 
(Courtesy Photo)
Why The Runaround?
U.S. Postal Service spokesman for Wyoming James Boxrud told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday morning that Galitz’s package wasn’t officially accepted until Dec. 2, even though the USPS tracking information shows the shipping label for it was made Nov. 30.
Even without considering those two days in postal limbo, though, Boxrud acknowledged that Galitz’s package still did not meet the postal service’s current six-day delivery standard.
“That’s a little more than a six-day delivery turnaround during the busiest time of the year,” he said. “I also noticed that the customer never contacted our consumer affairs office for assistance.”
Boxrud said he was not able to look up information on Kimbrough’s packages without a specific tracking number, which was not available.
Cowboy State Daily has specifically requested an explanation on why packages are taking such circuitous routes to arrive at their destinations.
Boxrud told Cowboy State Daily he would reach out to consumer affairs for more information on Galitz’s package, but he had not responded to that by the time of this article’s posting.
Privatizing Would Worsen Problems, Postal Workers Say
Ricci Roberts, president of the Cheyenne mail handling unit, told Cowboy State Daily what customers are seeing is a small taste of what’s to come when the Delivering for America plan is implemented in Wyoming.
The plan has been on hold until 2025, but is set for implementation sometime after January.
Roberts said she does not believe privatizing the Post Office, as some have called for, including incoming President-elect Donald Trump, would fix the issues that have angered postal customers in Wyoming.
“Privatizing the post office would hurt everyone, but particularly rural areas,” she said. “The only reason rural communities get mail is because they legally have to. If we move to private, that would immediately incentivize them to raise prices dramatically against the rural communities.”
Roberts said that the expense of delivering to rural areas is one of the big drivers behind the Delivering for America plan.
“It’s simply not profitable to deliver to rural areas,” she said. “If you look at UPS and Amazon, you will find that the vast majority of the time the USPS does what’s called the ‘last leg.’ What that means is they (UPS or Amazon) accept that mail and get the money, then give it to us to deliver at our monetary loss. We legally cannot turn down rural delivery.”
However, the postal service has already been finding ways to subcontract parts of mail delivery to private companies, Roberts added.
“I just found a giant facility that has been subcontracting our mail out to non-postal employees in Denver,” she said. “We are currently grieving it.”
She’s also found out about highway contracts that are not postal which are delivering to places like Granite Canyon.
“There are so many problems with highway contracts,” she added. “They get complaints all the time, get arrested for stealing mail/pills all the time.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
