The Sunday hours continue this month at the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office on East 14th Street. (And apparently not everyone could agree on the hours, as you can see that 2 p.m. got changed to 1 p.m.)
Regardless! We all know how much fun it is going here. (A reminder here and here.)
And people, as people do, have taken to Yelp to offer their opinions on this branch … the overall average rating: 1 star!
Here's one recent 1-star review:
This place is hell on earth. I'm writing this review whilst standing in line- it's now been over an hour waiting to pick up an express international courier package I never received a notice for (with everyone else that's been screwed over by usps in this area)
I feel like it's a Survivor TV show challenge- survival of the postal service fittest. I'm watching people concede the line after waiting TOO long, hungry babies crying, there are the elderly sitting on the floor due to body aches, there are loud fits and nervous breakdowns from customers at the service box when rude staff aren't helpful after they've been waiting a half life for a stamp.
2 hours later, I need to pee. And I'm still waiting.
In any event, this is likely the last holiday season here … as this branch is supposedly closing in the spring. The USPS will lease the former Duane Reade on East 14th Street near First Avenue for retail services, such as stamp sales and P.O. boxes.
Previously on EV Grieve:
UPDATED: Did you hear the rumor about the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office branch closing?
Report: Closure of the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office is pretty much a done deal
We have a PO Box here and got a letter notifying us of the move, so it seems official. Box owners need to get another box number at the new location, which will be smaller. Another chance for USPS to misplace your mail as they forward from the old to the new box number! Yay! I'll try forwarding back to my residential address; that new location is even further away from most of Alphabet City and even more inconvenient for many of us.
ReplyDeleteI love watching USPS tracking. It says it was delivered, but 3 days later I get a slip saying to pick if up from the post office... Ya, no, I've already reported it lost and express ups has countered needing to see the lady behind the counter that should apply to guiniess world records as the slowest in the world...
ReplyDeleteAnd we are going to have to go to 23rd Street to pick up packages? What the hell? Why don't they just shift package pickup to Cooper Square Station, where the staff is far more professional and courteous?
ReplyDeleteI believe package pickup will be at the new Duane Reade location. Our mail carriers will be operating out of 23rd St. No room for error here (sarcasm face here).
ReplyDeleteWe entered the hellmouth yesterday and barely escaped with our lives. USPS tracking now emails me to say they tried to deliver a package today but nobody home. (Everybody home.) Sign peach slip. (No peach slip.) Third and final attempt to deliver. (Ordered package from Amazon on Friday.) So, at least they are consistent in their awfulness. I will give them that. Good riddance.
ReplyDeleteThis branch is on a hellmouth. I think it was built on an ancient Native American burial ground. The comment you highlighted says this branch is "hell on earth." How much more evidence do you need? Hellmouth.
ReplyDelete@Ken - from what I recall reading, there are no loading docks in Duane Reade, and no way to put them in, so the postal powers that be did not think package pickup was feasible for that location, I really think it is just going to be stamps and letters. I hope I am wrong, and I also hope that whatever services they provide, it is not with the same loser staff.
ReplyDeleteThey need to hire the PR guy from the biscuit boys to have this P.O. a five-star Yelp reviews. And maybe they can also ask the friends of the biscuit boys and hire some acteurs to line-up and cry while waiting at this P.O. to give it a buzz. Oh, wait, they don't have to, since there's always a line and people on the verge of tears while waiting here. This joint must be goood then.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Gojira. I was at the meeting in April and misremembered that about package pick-ups. The new location will just be for retail services like stamps and PO boxes. Large parcel services will operate out of the F.D.R. Station at 54th/3rd.
ReplyDeleteThe union rep at the meeting told me that it was a done deal and is part of an ongoing attempt to privatize the post office.
Duane Reade? 23rd Street? As much as I hate the 14th Street PO, I think this is a strong case of "The devil you know..."
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I will be happy to go even as far as 23rd street if I can actually get my packages without having it be like entering the gates of hell. It will probably be a shorter outing going to 23rd street and back than it would be waiting on 14th.
ReplyDeleteI have timed them before when they take your delivery slip and then go in the back to retrieve your package. It once took 14 minutes. There was one window open, and no other human being appeared in the interim, so the line just kept growing. I have always suspected they take a coffee break every time they go to the back to get a package.
I have wanted to go postal (ho ho) every time I'm on that damn package line, which is worse than ever. Now I know to bring a book. If this PO were staying open I'm pretty sure we'd soon be seeing people with lawn chairs.
ReplyDelete@Ken - 54th Street?!? Are you kidding? That is simply ludicrous! Argh!
ReplyDeleteI remember some guy who had been away for a month asking for his mail, which he had requested (big mistake) be held. The clerk kept insisting, without making any apparent effort to actually get his mail or see if there was any, that he had no mail. The guy got increasingly agitated--"I've been away for a *month*. There must be something--junk mail, anything!" And the clerk just standing there, nope, no mail, no mail...
ReplyDeleteI'm done with the USPS as far as I can be.
ReplyDeleteI've been a long supporter of the postal service, they get a stupid raw deal from idealog republicans and dumb suburbanites, but I'm not going to defend these people any more (and I was even a contract mailman back in college)
I'm done with the rudeness, the unhelpfulness, the deliberate, insulate slowness, the trash all over the post office that nobody ever cleans up. There were 60 people in line today at the cooper square PO at 1030 and the same 3 (out of 18) windows open as for any other day of the year.
I'm sorry, but I'm not going to wait 2+ hours to mail a motherfucking package. And the kicker is that it is so goddamned expensive to mail stuff overseas. A 4.5 lb package will cost me over $65 to mail because they discontinued regular airmail and everything over 4lbs goes "express" now - except it takes the same time to get there as it did for $20 two years ago.
Fuck them all with their attitude and laziness and mismanagement. I'm sure there are some good and helpful people working in the USPS, but the whole system is now so dysfunctional it just needs to go away. NZ and Argentina both privatized their post offices and it was a shitshow in both cases and costs went up - but at least they function now.
Let's just focus on that - postal service and cell phone service is now better in Ushuaia, Patagonia than it is in Manhattan, USA. What a bloody shame
I was alerted to the fact that I missed the package delivery at home on Sunday because nobody home. (Everybody home.) Tracked the package and said WE ARE HOME for 12/9. The USPS site said it was scheduled for redelivery for 12/9. Post man just showed up in our building to deliver mail @7:30pm. Package? Pink slip? Anything? He actually laughed. Said his transfer was just approved. To Alabama.
ReplyDelete