By Julian Loevenich
When Hans-Jörg Schewtschenko opens his mailbox, he has seen the same picture for weeks. Complete emptiness. And the 65-year-old is not alone with the problem. Residents of Novalisstraße currently live in a post-free zone.
At first, the lack of post was hardly noticeable. “Then my wife was asked during physiotherapy why she hadn’t paid yet,” he reports. They hadn’t had any mail in their mailbox for two weeks – the bill from the physiotherapist was also missing.
At first he assumed theft, says Florian Rateuke (24). Like the Shevchenkos, he lives on Novalisstrasse. Also with him: empty mailbox for three weeks. When a credit card he ordered didn’t arrive, he complained to the post office. After three calls, he gave up: “They just laughed and said that calls like this were coming all the time.”
Kerstin Kuhls (54) called the post office several times. But nobody could help her Photo: Peter Mueller
An experience that neighbor Kerstin Kuhls (54) also had to make: “Complete chaos, no help.” Other streets in the zip code area 10115, such as Torstrasse and Borsigstrasse, are also affected, she knows from friends.
A spokesman for the Post, on the other hand, explained when asked by the BZ that there had been no failures lasting several weeks, at most “smaller delivery delays”. We would like to apologize for that.
Why are the local residents’ reports and the Post’s statement so different? “We cannot explain the discrepancy,” says the spokesman.
The reason for the admitted delays is the summer wave of corona infections and staff shortages. The responsible management reacted quickly and the situation improved. Some letters have since been delivered, local residents confirm.