Stalled USPS deliveries disrupting eBay seller's business

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A local merchant says he is not having a good holiday season. The reason? Packages he's sending are not getting delivered on time.

People who make their living selling goods on eBay depend on prompt deliveries to stay in business. One man in Bryan says the U.S. Post Service is not holding up its end of the bargain.

Mitchell Robinson sells items on eBay and right now he claims when it comes to getting his goods to buyers, the post office is just not delivering.

"USPS has caused me a lot of issues with a lot of remarks from buyers, things are delayed," he said.

Robinson says when he started checking he found plenty of items not where they were supposed to be.

"I called the consumer affairs in Houston and they were basically a catch all, they understood and they were working on the problem," he said.

Robinson says his packages problems actually started in early November.

"I looked into the tracking some had showed departed Bryan, some had showed arrived Houston, some had showed departed Houston and they had been sitting there 3 to 5 days already," he said.

Using the U.S. Post Office website, we found four of Robinson's packages that had been put in the mail in Bryan on November 27th; they arrived at the North Houston Postal Facility five days later on December 2, and a week later they are still there.

So we called the post office, officials are now apologizing to Robinson:

"When claims of problems arise, the postal service investigates possible causes and takes the appropriate steps to remedy the situation to prevent future occurrences."

The post office did not say why the delays are happening, but they are now trying to find out exactly what's behind those stalled deliveries.