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Neither rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night can keep the postal service workers from doing their jobs -- except, it seems, in one Houston neighborhood.

KHOU - TV

For Jessie Phillips, the final straw came a week and a half ago when the mail carrier didn’t deliver any mail.

That meant he didn't get his Social Security check.

“The thing is a lot of these people get their checks on the 1st and the 15th, and the last 1st came on a Saturday and people that were depending on getting their checks, they didn’t get it,” Phillips said.

He says delivery is usually late.

“Sometimes the mailman comes early in the day or late in the evening,” he said.

That’s what happened to Henry Dennis, who lives a few blocks over.

“I was sitting the house and it never did come, I got up that Sunday morning and looked out there and mail was in the box,” Dennis said.

A spokesman with the post office in that northeast Houston neighborhood admitted there have been problems in the ZIP code area. He said the problem stems from short staffing.

Dave Lewin said four postal routes are vacant.

“We don’t have people to fill those particular routes. And until the new year, our folks are going to have double up and carry more than one route,” he said.

But what about that day no mail came?

The post office says that a truck broke down.

Phillips isn’t buying it. “Don’t use an excuse that the truck broke down.”

He just wants his mail in his box on time.