While most concerns about the mail service in the Lake Charles area have come from residential areas, a local man says it's causing problems for his business.
At Southland Coins they buy and sell precious metals, rare coins, and collectibles.
Owner Malcolm Self explains his business relies on the mail service.
“The mail system is vital to my business, as we've gone more to a mail order type system. 99 percent of my business is mail order. So, that's the lifeblood of my business,” said Self.
Self is convinced the mail system is broken.
“We get mail every day. So when you don't get mail for two days, we could easily be talking about over $100,000 in checks that should be in the mail that we get, and if we don't have that, obviously we can't buy product from our clients,” Self said.
Self says it's been an issue for years and he's complained as recently as last week.
"When we went down there to complain one of the managers, his answer to our problem was that the carriers are just lazy,” Self said.
Self says he does not think the problem is with the carriers.
“I find most carriers are like salt of the earth. They're good people, they're hard workers, they want to do the right thing. So, I think the real problem may be higher up,” said Self.
Self does as much business as possible over the internet, but you can't send a package over a computer.
“We've noticed a dramatic problem with the packages we ship. We shipped a package several months ago to Pensacola, Florida that took over 30 days. And when you're dealing with precious metals that people have paid for, they want to receive it promptly and not wait 30 days,” said Self.
As the problems continue and solutions appear hard to come by Self wonders if the answer may be privatizing the mail.
Self says other dealers around the country have similar problems.
