CUSTER COUNTY, Colorado — Several people in Westcliffe and Silvercliffe are fed up with their post office. Some have lost prescriptions, others say the slow delivery led to their bills not being paid in time. Congressman Scott Tipton visited Custer County on Monday to try and resolve the issue.
At a community meeting, postal customer Teri Munson explained why she thinks many of the problems can be traced back to the new post master, who started here in January.
"She's incredibly rude to her staff and to the taxpayers and the citizens of Westcliffe and Silvercliffe," Munson said.
Munson is firefighter and said that she has resorted to hand delivering payments to town vendors for fear of late payment.
"People are getting sent to collectors because their mail wasn't received in time," Munson said.
Mr. Tipton said called the community meeting with hopes of resolving these customer service related issues.
"Our goal is, we've got some really dedicated folks that work in the post offices, but to make sure that the management is putting in protocols delivery systems, to make sure that it's working for the constituents."
He said the post master was invited to come to the meeting as well, but she didn't show. News 5 stopped by the post office to try hear from her, but we were told she was out sick for the day.
David Rupert, a spokesperson for USPS in the Western service area explained in a statement that mail-order pharmacies want any deliveries where the mail is insufficiently addressed to be returned as a means of curbing prescription drug abuse and fraud.
"At their request, we do not reroute insufficiently addressed mail," Rupert said. "However, we have embarked on extensive customer education in these Westcliff to help ensure customers use their proper mailing addresses, which is critical for timely and accurate delivery of mail."
He went on to encourage customer feed back through the USPS website https://www.usps.com or by calling 1800-ASK-USPS (275-8777)
Congressman Tipton said he wrote to US Post Master General to try and get his constituents some help.
"What we heard today seems to indicate that there are still some challenges ahead," Tipton said.
He also introduced legislation to establish a new zip code for the Town of Silvercliffe in hopes of alleviating some of these same service issues.
