The United States Post Office is dealing with a historic amount of mail this season affecting thousands of Americans.

USPS said they are still getting caught up on holiday packages and mail, which is now affecting post-holiday time-sensitive material. 

"The Postal Service delivered a record amount of packages this holiday season in the midst of the pandemic which significantly impacted our workforce availability. Capacity challenges with airlifts and trucking for moving this historic volume of mail also lead to temporary delays..." The Post Office said, "These challenges were felt by shippers across the board. We are accepting all volumes being presented to us, which adds to the challenge of the workload. We are proud of the hard work and dedication of our employees, and will continue to work around the clock to deliver all packages and mail entered into our system, including returns. We thank our customers for their continued support and understanding."

If anyone is still missing packages or waiting on mail to deliver,  you cannot get a refund unless you paid for Express shipping. To file a claim for an Express postage refund, click here.  

USPS said if your receiver has not yet gotten time-sensitive mail, show them tracking information indicating the delay.

USPS said customers experiencing delays are encouraged to contact the USPS Customer Care Center at 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777).

The mailing delay is also affecting organizations like the Mission Rescue Mahoning Valley which relies heavily on mail donations. 

"The envelopes that get mailed to our donors and they receive in their mailboxes... they turn around and mail it back to us," President and CEO John Muckridge lll, said. 

Muckridge said they're now in the midst of their end of the year tax benefit donation. Being time-sensitive, he said this is concerning. 

"It's to ask folks that felt led to give donations to for the end of year tax benefits, so those were supposed to be in their mailboxes last week," he said.

Rescue Mission said 70-percent of their annual donations come in October-December and currently, 17,000 envelopes are stuck in the Cleveland Post Office, according to Muckridge.

"There's no question from a fundraising standpoint if that money doesn't come in, then the ability to offer the services that we offer to the clients who stay here was of course hindered."

He reminds donors they can still give back in-person at the front desk or online at RescueMissionMV.org

The Cleveland Post Office said they have no definitive time on when this delay will be over or the exact amount of mail on the backlog, but said they've hired hundreds of new workers, with many of them working overtime to meet the demand.