postal issues being addressed

brooklynpotter

anyone else see this in the times?

Talk Therapy for Postal Rage


By JAKE MOONEY
Published: July 1, 2007

The low point in the relationship between United States Postal Service employees and customers in Brooklyn may well have come in late March, when someone videotaped a fellow customer’s five-minute, profanity-laced tirade against an employee at the borough’s Kensington post office and posted the clip on YouTube. More than a few commenters on the Web site said they lived in the area and knew how the ranter felt.
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Tom Bloom

Several weeks later, in response to other, unrelated complaints, the agency convened a new Customer Advisory Council, a panel of representatives from Brooklyn community boards, with the goal of improving service. The most recent of the group’s quarterly meetings, closed to reporters, was on June 21, and the next is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 20.

Alan Dubrow, the chairman of Brooklyn’s Community Board 12 and a member of the advisory panel, said the group has its work cut out for it.

“There have been times when I have been on line and there were no clerks behind the window,” said Mr. Dubrow, citing his experience as the holder of a post office box at the Kensington station. “If it’s quiet or something, all of a sudden they’ll go take a walk.”

The other panel members’ complaints, Mr. Dubrow said, mirror those of customers across the borough, from Williamsburg to Ocean Hill: brusque service, long lines for basic tasks like buying stamps, and a shortage of windows for picking up packages.

Just recently, Mr. Dubrow said, he waited a half-hour to deal with a matter regarding his post office box, only to be told he was in the wrong line. His e-mail complaint to post office management has gone unanswered for two weeks, he said Friday.

Even so, Bob Trombley, a Postal Service spokesman, said the response to the Customer Advisory Council was positive.

A similar advisory council, initiated in Jamaica, Queens, in the 1980s, is still in place and has been a success, Mr. Trombley said. As a result of the Brooklyn panel, he added, several post offices will soon have windows just for the elderly.

At the Kensington branch on a sweltering afternoon last week, meanwhile, there was even a sign that tensions might be easing. One customer, Nancy Halfon, a Kensington resident who arrived on her bike and spent 10 minutes mailing a package, emerged from the post office to report, happily, that an employee had gotten her a paper towel to wipe her sweaty brow.

“Clerk No. 4, Kensington Station, went above and beyond the call of duty,” Ms. Halfon said, brandishing a piece of paper with the woman’s name. She planned to report the woman to her supervisors for commendation.

christina

YAYYYY!!! Does this mean I'll also receive my mail occasionally?

charles

I live next door, literally, to the P.O. and they regulraly deliver other peoples mail. Also, they return bills, correctly addressed, and have runied my credit rating.

pensodyssey

The mail carrier almost cost me my netflix subscription. I had to spend an hour on the phone explaining that I wasn't stealing the movies and reporting them as "lost".

Also, I was supposed to have received the official offer letter for a promotion at work. It was sent over 6 weeks ago, and it's never arrived!

But thank god the "GuitarCenter" circulars still make it, though.

:eyeroll:

armchair_warrior

the ones in bensonhurst are great. always fast quick and friendly.

christina

Yeah Netflix have me on their shitlist as well, especially after 3 copies of the same movie never made it to me. On the upside they never throttle my service anymore...

charles

The Van Brunt PO is also sending my correctly addressed mail back. Sometimes I don't receive bills/ And, of course, I get lots of mail for people at different addresses.

bookistan

I was at the Van Brunt post office a few days ago. Long line, but there was some kind of supervisor walking around smiling and greeting. She also seemed to be helping the lady in front of me with some small issue. Very nice, but I wish someone would clean up that dump!! (and of course, deliver the mail on time)

rose

bookistan wrote: I was at the Van Brunt post office a few days ago. Long line, but there was some kind of supervisor walking around smiling and greeting. She also seemed to be helping the lady in front of me with some small issue. Very nice, but I wish someone would clean up that dump!! (and of course, deliver the mail on time)

That woman has been there for a while and she is very helpful when she's around, but the systemic issues have not been addressed, as far as I can tell. One thing that drives me crazy about that post office is that they have the self-serve kiosk so you can print your own postage for packages, but half the time there are so many packages in the package mailbox that you can't actually put your packages in it and you have to stand in the line anyway. That would be such a simple problem to solve yet they can't be bothered.