Business owner loses money over USPS shipping delays, Congressman demands answers

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - If you have a package on the way from USPS, you may have to wait a little longer, and several say they are already in that position.

And, it’s been especially hurtful for business owners who rely on fast shipping for their products.

Dozens of people have reported that their packages have been sitting at USPS’s Gardiner Lane facility for weeks at a time.

“We’ve got 187 packages that are sitting at the Louisville USPS hub, and some of them are as old as Black Friday,” said Ryan Houchens, owner of Kids Love Rocks.

“We make gemstone mining bags, and we distribute them to people’s homes where, this time of year, people can’t go to an attraction and go do mining,” said Houchens. “Typically, in a Christmas season, we’ll ship anywhere from 500 to 1,000.”

Houchens said several customers have reached out to him asking why their packages haven’t come yet, which he hasn’t seen this early on since 2020.

Some customers have even asked for refunds.

“As soon as I see that it’s been there for three weeks or so, we end up having to eat it and giving the customer their money back,” said Houchens.

And Houchens is far from the only one having problems. Dozens of people have posted online, showing screenshots of their packages stuck at the Gardiner Lane facility.

WAVE reached out to USPS for a statement, and they said:

Recent severe weather across the region has affected transportation networks and delivery organizations nationwide, including the Postal Service. These conditions, combined with higher-than-normal mail and package volumes, have contributed to delays in unloading inbound trailers at the Louisville Processing & Distribution Center.

In spite of these challenges, the Postal Service is taking swift action to keep operations moving. We have increased staffing, scheduled planned offloads, and re-routed volumes to alternate USPS processing locations nearby to help ease inbound congestion and maintain steady processing flows.

To keep customers informed, we have issued two Industry Alerts and continue to provide updates at Industry Alerts and Notices.

We remain fully committed to delivering for the American people. The Postal Service continues to closely monitor conditions and will make any necessary adjustments to ensure we provide the reliable service our customers expect.

“Typically, we’ve seen these issues resolve December 23, 24, you know, a lot of those packages get delivered last minute,” said Houchens.

But, USPS’s response wasn’t good enough for Congressman Morgan McGarvey.

He posted to his Facebook, saying he’d gotten lots of calls from constituents. He is claiming the company is not giving workers the resources they need to make sure packages are delivered on time, and that these problems existed long before winter weather was a factor.

Now, business owners like Houchens are having to find other solutions.

“We’ve had to go to offering UPS as a shipping option, which costs the customer two to three times more,” said Houchens.

McGarvey is asking for an update from the Postmaster General about steps being taken to mitigate delays by next Thursday, December 18.

Copyright 2025 WAVE. All rights reserved.