PALM HARBOR, Fla. (WFLA) – Many in a Pinellas County neighborhood said their post office didn’t deliver for days, and when they called they were told the issue was due to COVID-19. But the post office told News Channel 8, that isn’t true.

A woman who lives in the Highland Lakes neighborhood said when it comes to getting the mail lately, something has been off.

“Having it so close to the election, I was a little concerned that something funny was going on,” Joyce Tsipouras said.

Tsipouras said didn’t receive mail for almost a week, last receiving it Friday, so her husband called USPS to find out why.

“They said the mail had been slowed down due to COVID-related issues,” Tsipouras said.

News Channel 8’s Christine McLarty called the USPS customer care line, entered their zip code and sure enough heard the voice message saying, “Due to the COVID-19 virus, employee availability has impacted some delivery operations.”

News Channel 8 reached out to USPS for more details, they declined to go on camera but said the voicemail is just a generic nationwide message, not specific to this neighborhood.

USPS went on to say there hasn’t been a delivery delay at all, sending us a statement that reads in part, “We assure our customers that mail is being delivered to the Highland Lakes neighborhood every day.”

The U.S. Postal Service strives every day to provide excellent service to our valued customers, with deliveries to over 160 million addresses, including in Palm Harbor, FL. We assure our customers that mail is being delivered to the Highland Lakes neighborhood every day. On Monday, Oct. 12, due to the Columbus Day holiday, regular mail delivery was not made, with the exception of Priority Mail Express items. Because of mail volume fluctuations, customers may not receive letter mail or packages every day. We encourage customers to sign up for a free feature, Informed Delivery, at informeddelivery.usps.com, to preview mail that is scheduled to arrive soon.

David Walton, Corporate Communications, United States Postal Service

“Tuesday and Wednesday we got no mail until late Wednesday afternoon,” Alex Allen said who also lives in the neighborhood and has also been having issues with mail delivery.

News Channel 8 spoke with multiple neighbors having the same issue.

“I was getting it because the stuff I finally got late yesterday afternoon it was for a couple of days,” Allen said.

He continued saying all his mail was postmarked from days previous.

“I got tons of mail and all the back mail,” Tsipouras said.

She went on to say that three trucks showed up in their neighborhood and delivered all the mail Wednesday night.

Tsipouras said she’s pleased the issue has been sorted out but is left questioning why USPS is denying the issue happened.

USPS said if you have issues with your mail, they want to know about it to fix the problem. You are encouraged to call the Customer Care Center at 1-800-275-8777.