Post Offices: Even Slow in Park Slope

I forgot to say-Times Plaza is 11217,on Flatbush near Atlantic.

My local post office,Times Plaza station, is the worst post office I have ever seen.They almost always have long lines and often only one agent,as the other agents stay in the back.I'm not alone in this opinion, ask anyone in this Zip code.

Who is in charge of the performance or lack thereof at local post offices?

Oscar Rivera in Spanish Harlem

HOURS and HOURS for ANYTHING

Hire people just to get them off the dole and then give them a union that makes it impossible to have anyone fired even if they're caught stealing. WHY in the world would such people bother doing a good job OR treating people with decency?

Whoops, that's 165th, NEAR Broadway. I think it's on St. Nick.

I think mine wins. It's the Audubon station at 165th and Broadway in Manhattan. Long, long lines (people getting cashier's checks at the start of each month)--and postal workers getting in screaming and physical fights behind the glass. Now that another uptown post office has closed and merged with this one, the lines will be twice as long.

The best I have visited is the Cooper Station at 11th and 4th Ave. There used to be a guy with a big afro working there who was especially nice. I go out of my way to mail packages there. Oh, I see comment 5 has already given Cooper some props.

Yeah, 23rd St. on the east side has staff who are helpful with good attitudes. A little slow, but nice.

Nannystate's comment #2 is super funny.

I'm comparing too very different times, but that station on 9th street in Park Slope is just about the worst I've been at in NYC. Soo slow and messed up. But I haven't been there in 15+ years. My other "local" stations (10021 finance station, 10024 and now 10026) have been better, though sometimes the first two were slow. But that was when they were packed with patrons. The station on 9th Street just crawled no matter what, and the staff seemed really negative.

The postmaster of this PO was quoted in the local press a few years ago, as justification for their lousy service, as saying, "People in Park Slope get too many magazines".

Unlike poster 4., my letter carrier was happy not to deliver my mail when it was on hold, but then didn't deliver it (as I had requested) at the conclusion of my vacation, or until I made two complaints. By then I owed a penalty of $19. on a credit card bill I didn't have an independent recollection of.

There are certain hours when they also accept passport applications--pity the fool who stands on line then.

My poor solution is to bring my packages to the downtown Brooklyn PO (where they have the automated scales/label machines) and to have packages delivered to work, where I know there will be someplace to accept them.

(For awhile there was also regular theft of my Netflix DVDs, but that hasn't happened in awhile.)

Any PO serving Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens and President street areas are the Sadist's pleasure,just horrible as they hate the people that live there& Mail vanishes.

The best PO on 23rd street in NYC aka The Madison Sq.Station even with long lines ,the folks that work there are happy to help.

I don't know about the WORST but this was my post office for some six years, and it was definitely the worst I've ever experienced. I was always seized with dread whenever I got a slip in my mailbox telling me there was a package to be picked up at this Kafkaesque time toilet. Terrible lines, slothful "workers," and a miserable atmosphere of futility permeates the hellhole. Never again!

A few years ago the post office on 33rd street off Broadway installed those fancy stamp machines and things were looking up. A few months later, the machines were gone and gigantic lines returned. The Post office just sucks

I was at the 9th St post office last Saturday and the postal worker called me "weak" when I wouldn't tell the people behind me (who were speaking furiously in another language) that I was the last in time. I hate this post office.

The one on Atlantic Avenue near 3rd Avenue (11217) has had news stories done on it it's so bad. They don't leave pink slips for packages so you have no idea if you've gotten a package. If you're expecting a package and don't have a pink slip, you can't just go there and give them your address and have them look for it. Get this, they told me that I needed to have the number on the pink slip I didn't receive in order for them to find the package because they stopped organizing them by address, but now organize them by some sort of tracking number. When I pointed out that not only did it not make sense, it made life difficult for the customer, the woman said, "But it's easier for us!"

I had the whole "pink slip" problem happen at that post office. Also, when I realized someone had sent me something, and I went to check, they told me that if it had been there for more than 2 weeks, they send it back. Lo and behold, I could see my package through the window and had to beg for them to check the address to see if it was mine.

In the end, I got the package, but they lost my business! Oh wait, no they didn't.

Worst post office ever!

@robingee: I believe that tape was made at the Windsor Terrace p.o.

Van Brunt is my local PO. I never buy stamps or mail packages there, because the window personnel (particularly one fairly useless woman) are helpless. I do, however, have to pick up registered mail and parcels there and am pleased to say that after eighteen years in the neighborhood, the people who staff the "yellow slip" window know me by name and are always courteous and helpful. Unfortunately, the business hours at that branch were recently cut back, so you can't pick up a package before 9 AM, making it impossible to work a trip to the branch into my work schedule.

Park Slope also has a branch on Seventh Ave. between Second and Third St. That branch used to be the worst I've ever seen: a mess, staffed by arrogant, oppositional workers. However, something changed there about a year ago and now all the clerks are cheerful, friendly, helpful and fast.

Lesson: in Park Slope, buy your stamps and mail your packages at the Seventh Ave. branch. Use the Van Brunt branch only to pick up packages and registered or certified mail.

And ppl still want universal healthcare run by the govt? Let the USPS be an example to all those ppl of somethig govt run.

No one is proposing to replace our existing hospitals and doctor's offices with government-run ones.

Some car dealers refused to participate in Cash for Clunkers because the govt was taking forever to honor the rebates. Doctors in private practice and hospitals are business. Business require cash flow to run. If claims are paid in USPS/Cash for Clunker style speed, doctors and hospitals will honor private insurance first. But the number of ppl (47mm) who will probably have the public option will cause an administrative headache for doctors and hospitals.

Don't know where you go for medical care, but almost all care providers go through major frustration to get paid. Medicare actually does a better job than many private firms. Private firms (HMOs,PPOs, EPOs, ect.) expect about 6% of denied or ignored private practice claims won't be resubmitted nor contested as part of standard operating policy.

You mean like Medicare?

Bush Terminal in Brooklyn on 3rd Ave and 33rd Street blows pretty hard too.

Hey where's that video someone posted once with the guy yelling at the Brooklyn post office clerk? If anyone can find it, report it, that was hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv-tf7boDQU

I've been to 5 in the city:

UES (3rd ave around 90th?), and it was decent enough. Relatively efficient.

Canal St in north Tribeca, and it can be slow, but it's a beautiful building, so waiting is not so bad. Sometimes it seems only 1 person works there.

Cooper Station on Lafayette: This place is a well-oiled machine. Even when the line is 50-people deep, you're in and out way faster than you'd expect. If you need relatively fast service, go here.

Red Hook: This station is better than you'd expect, but it's depressing and disgusting inside. Even when there's 3 people in front of you, it can take a half-hour or more. Fortunately, there's almost never anyone in line; I literally saw a woman smoking crack (or at least from a crack pipe) next to this place a few years back. When I moved, it took at least 20 calls to get them to start forwarding my mail; I eventually had to call the USPS 800-number and complain to get my mail forwarded.

The 11217 station on Flatbush (I think this serves part of North Park Slope?): This is the absolute worst post office I've been to anywhere in my entire life. The people are rude, the service is insanely slow, and it smells like urine. I used to have nightmares thinking about having to go to this place. I can't imagine the 9th street station is worse than this one, but who knows. Getting mail forwarded from this station was even worse than the Red Hook one.

the place to go is the church st. station, at vesey. a bunch of automated machines, lots of windows, and the rush times are very predictable since it's downtown

Typical. I actually had one mail clerk tell me that they take care of businesses first because "Interest is accruing" INTEREST IS ACCRUING!

This is one of the worst post offices I've ever used. There's always a line and the workers are nasty. Just check out the Brooklynian boards if you want to hear some bad stories. I lived in Park Slope for 4 years and every time I went on vacation, I'd put in a "hold mail" request and it was always ignored. I'd always come home to piles of mail in my building's vestibule. It took them forever to start forwarding mail to my new address.

y'all haven't seen anything until you visit the post office in jersey city heights. minimum 30 minute wait no matter the time of day. discourteous service guaranteed.

Isn't "discourteous service" part of the USPS oath??

i would hazard a guess the clinton hill 11205 post office on myrtle avenue beats this office by a long shot for being the slowest, laziest post office in brooklyn!

I love that place. I called to ask about a package and the woman who answered the phone tried to talk me into having phone sex. Seriously.

Did she hold the receiver next to her "Flat Rate Box"?