BATON ROUGE - Tenants at a business complex in Baton Rouge say their mail delivery is nonexistent when their usual mail carrier is off work or reassigned. It's an issue that predates the pandemic and the latest stint persuaded tenants to contact 2 On Your Side.

"We haven't gotten mail since Tuesday a week ago," complex owner Bunky Hughes said.

The business complex in the 12200 block of Industriplex Blvd has 32 units with 24 businesses. Tenant Pam Roy owns a medical supply company and is often waiting on time-sensitive materials.

"It would be very easy for us to have a missed billing deadline for a patient or perhaps we don't receive the signed physician's order," Roy said.

Other tenants are waiting on bills and Hughes is waiting on rent payments.

"I have banknotes we got to pay. I have rent money that's outstanding," he said.

Hughes says the issue has been happening on and off for a couple of years, and it appears to happen when their regular mail carrier is off work.

"It's on a regular basis whenever the carrier's gone," he said. "I went to the post office four times to talk to someone."

Hughes and his tenants have made phone calls, in-person visits and even written letters to the postmaster, but the issues continue to happen. Days go by with no mail until one day the boxes are stuffed full.

"All of the sudden when he returns we have a massive amount of mail," Roy said.

Thursday, 2 On Your Side reached out to the United States Postal Service, which says that letter carriers are being rotated to carry different routes because of the impact of COVID-19 and employee availability. While Hughes and his tenants believe the USPS is stressed, they say their issues have been around long before the pandemic.

They're hoping to break the cycle.

"These tenants deserve to get their mail," Hughes said.

Some tenants report that their mail was delivered Thursday. They went more than a week without any mail. They don't expect to return to a normal delivery schedule until their normal mail carrier returns to work.