Jean Morris is tired of having the Forest Hill Post Office refusing to deliver packages to her South Side residence.

Donna Royster is fed up with not receiving any of the letters her grandchildren keep sending her from Hawaii at her East End apartment.

And Christina McGuire is annoyed that she keeps getting letters intended for someone else at her home on East Grace Street, including at least two that were supposed to be delivered to an address in Sandston in eastern Henrico County.

They were among at least 18 people who spelled out problems they are having with mail delivery at a town hall meeting 4th District Congressman A. Donald McEachin hosted Saturday at the Robinson Theater Community Arts Center in Church Hill with representatives of the U.S. Postal Service.

After the 90-minute session, Rep. McEachin told reporters that he wants to see improvement and will be having his staff follow up with the Postal Service and constituents to see if the issues have been resolved.

With tens of thousands of addresses, he knows there can be mistakes, “but not at this level or this voluminous.”

Ms. Royster was almost in tears as she told the USPS representatives, “My grandchildren live in Hawaii — they’ve been there six months now — I haven’t gotten one piece of mail from my grandchildren; not one.

“They call me and say things like, ‘Grammy, did you get my picture? Did you get the pictures I sent? Did you get the handmade birthday cards we sent? The birthday cake?’

“No cards, no birthday cake, no nothing,” she said. “I live by myself and it’s sad.”

Concerns also included monthlong delays in the delivery of summonses for jury duty, missing checks and prescription medicines and cutoffs of health coverage due to the failure to receive earlier notices.

One person complained that a letter from the Internal Revenue Service was found lying in the street, while others talked about finding bank statements and other important mail in street trash bins or discarded on lawns or in nearby alleys.

Since taking office more than a year ago, Rep. McEachin said his office has received more than 100 complaints about missing mail and poor service in Richmond.

Despite passing the complaints to USPS, the congressman said Richmond Postmaster Joseph Thekkekara insisted he was completely unaware of the problems when they met last month, even though many complaints had been posted for the public on the Church Hill People’s News blog on Facebook.

Several people, including Ms. McGuire, said they have hit a wall in Richmond in trying to file complaints. She said she gave up after spending four hours waiting at the Main Post Office at Brook Road, only to have the office shut down for the day.

Rep. McEachin said the town hall allowed the concerns to be heard directly by postal officials, who included Janice Atherly, Richmond USPS district manager; Ben Farmer, Richmond USPS marketing manager; and Fran Kipper, Richmond USPS communications coordinator.

“This is not how we want to do business,” Ms. Atherly said after the meeting in expressing disappointment and promising change.

Ms. Atherly was particularly upset with the problems Ms. Royster has experienced with delivery at Oliver Crossing Apartments on Coalter Street near Mosby Court.

“A grandmother shouldn’t have to worry about receiving letters from her grandchildren,” Ms. Atherly said.

Ms. Royster also detailed the loss and theft of checks and other important mail that she said she and her neighbors are experiencing. She said postal carriers give mail to con artists pretending to be residents without making sure they have a key to a box.

“I don’t care if (the postal worker) sees the address on your license. You should not be able to get that mail without the key,” Ms. Royster said. “I really feel that way, I mean, it’s identity theft — it’s so scary.” 

She said a $6,000 check her Navy officer daughter mailed to her ended up in the hands of someone else who cashed it. She said the check was later replaced.

Ms. Royster also noted that she has pulled from the trash a thick stack of mail that included letters from Social Security and a bank statement that was supposed to be delivered to an elderly neighbor.

Ms. Atherly said she plans to address the issues, such as the one from Ms. Morris, who is disabled and recovering from surgery. Ms. Morris spent four months trying to get an explanation for not receiving packages and instead being forced to go to the post office for them.

“You’ll start getting your packages next week,” Ms. Atherly promised, perplexed that managers and carriers would block delivery.

“We need our post office to be the best post office it can be,” Rep. McEachin said.  

While he praised the USPS for being responsive, he said, “What we need is for this to be resolved.”