Post Offices still recovering from holiday shipping season

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SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- It's the most wonderful time of the year, and also one of the busiest, especially for mail carriers.

Even though Christmas has come and gone, the U.S. Postal Service has still caught up with the high volume of holiday mail.

“I was pretty happy with the rhythm and flow of it. I started early and got packages from all over, U.S. Post Office, FedEx, UPS, and the combination seemed to work out fine for me,” Chicopee resident Linda Rosen said.

But not everyone is as lucky. It's still the busiest time of year for the United States Postal Service, mix that with the pandemic, and an increase in online shopping, and mail volumes and be overwhelming.

Amy Gibbs with the U.S.P.S. said they've been working hard to keep up.

“It's basically all hands on deck right now,” U.S.P.S Strategic Communications Specialist for western Mass. Amy Gibbs said.

For those of you who are still waiting for holiday gifts to arrive or suspect your packages have gone missing.

“People will see their packages continue to move through the system; those tracking numbers are going to be visible once it gets through,” Gibbs said. “It's just a little bit backed up right now.”

If you think your package has gotten lost in the mail, you can file a claim if you've gotten extra insurance on the package, or you can work with the retailer where you purchased the product.

But she said cases of mail just plain going missing is very rare.

"With these historical volumes, I think it's just a little bit delayed, I wouldn't say lost, I wouldn't say missing, these packages will continue to work through the system. We're just getting them in and out as fast as we can,” Gibbs explained.