PETERSBURG, Va. -- Tenants at a new apartment building in Petersburg are frustrated because the U.S. Postal Service has not delivered mail to their building for three months over what their landlord said is a simple lock and key issue.
"This one particular mail slot here," building owner Joe Battiston said pointing to a cluster of apartment mailboxes. "The lock needs to be put in from the post office because it contains the lever that unlocks all the boxes."
Bank of mailboxes waiting for key.
What Battiston said he assumed would be a simple request for a lock and key, still does not have a resolution after three months.
"I started the process a couple of days before the first tenants moved in figuring it was a quick, easy process," Battiston explained.
Tenants in his downtown Petersburg building are frustrated.
"I was expecting to get mail and a change of address when I moved here," said James Coles, who now takes a drive about once a week to get his mail. "I go all the way out to Dinwiddie to get mail so I can get bills paid."
Joe Battiston
On the other hand, Alex Cvrk said he found an expensive solution to the temporary problem.
"I have to pay for a post office box," Cvrk said. "It's been irritating especially because it's out-of-the-way to go and check the p.o. box."
Battiston said the Petersburg postmaster visited the building three months ago and said the lock and key would come soon.
At this point, he is hoping for an update.
"Supposedly ordered the keys from 3 different suppliers and they haven't come in, according to what the clerk said the postmaster told her," Battiston said.
Battiston's building.
And while tenants acknowledge Battiston is not to blame, he said he is "getting heat from quite a few of the tenants, but there's nothing I can do."
WTVR CBS 6 has reached out to the U.S. Postal Service bout the lock and key issue, but we had not heard back as of 6 p.m. Thursday.
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