Rant about the mail

Who knows maybe people need to start speaking up when they go there want to talk to the management and say You need more people in here. Maybe there is a number people can call. Now Christmas time its going to be extra crowded in there. I passed by it at noon today and it was packed. Instead of having the person who is in the Pick up Window there when no one is picking up move that person to a window to help people.

brooklynpotter wrote:

--the other day i went to van brunt @11 am to put about 7 pre-paid priority mail in the giant box for such things. two small packages into my task the handle thing jammed. i had to ask for help FOUR times, and each time they said they'd send someone out to open the box. it took 20 minutes. when i looked inside i saw why, because the box was already filled to the top.

This happens all the time! The concept of the self-service package mailer is so great, but then they don't empty out that package mailbox often enough, and it jams and becomes unusable. One time I was putting packages in that box as the worker was coming out to empty it, and he told me that it would be better if people would just stand in line to mail their packages, because the box fills up "too fast." Unbelievable.

Paul did a favor for me unasked yesterday, yet another reason why he is the best. I'm going to give this thread to him with his gift today. I'm sure he knows he's the awsomest postman ever but this will still be nice to see. Shoot, maybe he'll show it to all the losers delivering your mail.

Subject: Just today...

I ranted about the craptacular mail service in the Slope in a previous post. Here's what happened to us today...

* My wife waited 20 minutes in line at the 9th street PO (PO'ed, get it?) to pick up a pink slip package. She then waited 15 minutes while they looked for it. Wait for it ... wait for it ... wait for it ... that's right, they couldn't find it. They said they'd call her when they found it. Of course, the originating zip or address wasn't written on the slip, so we have no idea what it is.

* I came home to yet another mis-delivered Christmas card (our street address, wrong street). We got another one last week. And also last week, A HUGE BUNDLE of mail that was meant for many addressees at a building on 7th Avenue with the same street address (we're on a #'ed street). I hand-delivered the bundle to one of the businesses on the ground floor, because now, apparently, I'm a fucking mail carrier.

What a disaster. I've never seen anything like it (lived in W-Burg, Greenpoint & Sunnyside -- 15 years total). Should we organize a protest in front of the PO and get all of the local news stations there? Obviously, the complaints are getting delivered about as well as our mail. Maybe it's time for an angry mob.

Subject: Re: Just today...

Shinybeast wrote: What a disaster. I've never seen anything like it (lived in W-Burg, Greenpoint & Sunnyside -- 15 years total). Should we organize a protest in front of the PO and get all of the local news stations there? Obviously, the complaints are getting delivered about as well as our mail. Maybe it's time for an angry mob.

Yeah, I've lived in about a dozen different zip codes across 4 boroughs--not so fast, Staten Island--and I've never seen such crappy mail service as the one we get here in PS.

Oh, and have you ever seen these guys working the mailboxes of your building? I have. Remeber that ridiculously inept mailman from the John Cusack flick Better Off Dead? Ok, not as good as that guy.

I'm with Shinybeast on getting some press to spotlight the shenanigans. When my crazy neighbor goes over to 9th St and gives them hell they get their act together for a few weeks until inevitably they crap out again. Maybe it's time to bring out the big guns.

the only good experiences i have are with the PO on PPW. calvin, the manager, rocks. but, they're tiny and there's no place to drop-off pre-paid stuff.

My magazine subscription always come late and the back pages of the magazine are SHREDDED 90% of the time, like they were caught in a machine.

well went to the post office really early not that long of a line, but only 1 teller at that time lolol.

Did you hear someone was robbed in the post office, she left an evelope with money in it on the counter left i guess for a sec and someone took it.

Subject: USPS forgetaboutit

I've had serious mail issues at 4 different addresses in Park Slope and Prospect Heights. Pieces of mail go missing about 8 or 10 times a year, and they are not stolen here in the building, they just never make it this far. And who'd want to steal my Dachshund Quarterly subscription bill anyway? We have one mail slot in the front door for all 4 apartments here, so when a replacement carrier is on route s/he usually just skips our building thinking that we don't provide mail access. Package slips are sometimes left, but not filled out, so we have no idea who the package is from or sometimes even who the package is for! Not once, but twice this sucker stood in line at that dreadful Stalinist PO on 9th Street for almost an hour last month, just to get yet another friggin' box of christmas cookies from a newly unearther aunt Martha in Whittier. Everytime I moved I made sure to fill out the proper forwarding cards, but it never really worked that well. Over 70% of my mail was still being delivered to my old address for about 6 months after my move, even after I spoke to the postmster and refiled the paperwork. And most of the time if you scratch out the old address and ask for the mail to be forwarded to a new address, the mail spends a few days or weeks floating about somewhere and then gets safely returned to the original and wrong address. Oh and I get tons of 1st class mail for an address with my street number, but one avenue away. So basically dealing with the USPO is hopeless. I finally got a PO Box, so at least I know have people who deal with packages, signing for letters and problems with service. And shipping out using UPS, FEDEX, DHL, etc. is usually about the same price or cheaper than USPS and they're certainly more reliable. Privatize!

Okay, so now they're returning a large percentage of my mail that was all addressed correctly--at least five things have been returned to sender claiming my address does not exist. WHAT THE FUCK?!

Subject: chinaski

just read bukowski's post office and then you will understand why the service sucks so bad.

I've ordered a few things online lately, including several vintage items on eBay. Yesterday I got a postal slip for 2 packages. Went to the 9th St. P.O. today, and they could only find one. They said they'll call me if they find it. I am not filled with hope.

Meanwhile, I could hear one of the workers SCREAMING hysterically at someone ... this was the same woman who once lit into me so harshly and relentlessly I started crying, because I'd allowed a woman to step up to her window in front of me to quickly ask her if she had a piece of tape.

Oh boy the 9th Street Post Office is without a doubt the worst. Whenever I see the pink slip in my mail box my heart sinks. It is so rare I show up there without a slow moving line or a slow moving worker behind the window. Are the workers there rejects from other post offices in the city? The post office at Grand Central runs like a dream.

My mail carrier who handles the bigger packages is very moody and mean. Sometimes he will drop a paacke at out mailbox, but there have been a few times when I have buzzed him in and he was literally screaming up the stairs for me to come down. He needs his meds.

FedEx has an office off 3rd Ave. somewhere around 25th St., in an industrial park a good 10 minutes' walk from the subway. I had to go there to pick up a new cell phone because FedEx wouldn't redeliver it after 5 p.m. when somebody might actually be home from work. Don't know about UPS.

I've got my own personal horror story with the Times Plaza post office on Atlantic Ave & 4th Ave.

Everytime i'm in there, the line is overly long - mainly due to the simple fact that only 1 person is working behind the glass. One particular time the Automated Postal Machine was out of stamps and rather than fill it up with more, they made people stand on line to get stamps at one special window.

And dont get me started on the recurring times i've had to go to the P.O. to pick up a package because the mail person claims they attempted to deliver it but I know for a fact they didnt because I was home at the time. And on top of it, they dont even leave a notice - which if not for my obsessiveness for checking things on the internet, i'd never know the package was ever attempted for delivery in the first place.

I don't know what can be done but some sort of action should be taken against this consistent presence of laziness and lack of attention to detail by the staff at this particular postal establishment.