Poor Post Office Service
A copy of the following letter was received by the Gazette.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
14th District New York
1651 Third Avenue
Suite 311
New York, NY 10128-3679
Dear Congresswoman Maloney:

After having experienced what I am about to describe below, [April 22] at the local Post Office, I went to the nearby offices of New York City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. to register a complaint. They informed me that this was not their responsibility, but rather falls within your responsibility to address. At my insistence they called your office yesterday to register this complaint on my behalf. Your office responded by suggesting that I write this letter to you.

For the 4th time within a month, I had occasion to go transact some business that required direct contact with the window workers at the Woolsey Station Post Office on 31st Street near 23rd Avenue in Astoria Queens. I had almost the identical experience on each occasion. There were long lines (I would say in excess of 25 people on each occasion) with more people coming onto the line than the amount being serviced and leaving within the same time frame. Each time there were usually just 1, or at most 2, postal workers available to attend to the customers on line. The waiting time on line was excruciatingly long. Yesterday, in particular, it took more than an hour to arrange and pay for 1 Express Mail package to be sent out from the time I walked into the Post Office until the time I left.

I want to let you know that on each of these occasions there were many people becoming exasperated by the long wait times and many were sharing their experiences that collectively indicated that this particular station seems to have a chronic problem with understaffing. Most of these people who voiced complaints seemed to be regular post office customers who distinguished the occasional long wait at a normal post office because of the particular needs of the customers who were ahead on line from the chronic lack of staff available to handle what seems to be a regular volume of traffic at the Woolsey Station.

At one point I was so exasperated that I stepped off the line to knock on the door to the back room (where we could all hear voices of postal workers) to try to get some more help out front at the window bays. At first there was no response, but I persisted until someone came out to the windows to ask what I was knocking about. She was clearly able to see the long lines and she still had to ask why I was knocking. When I asked her for help attending to customers, she responded (with a great degree of insolence at being bothered I suppose) by indicating that she didn't have a uniform on and therefore could not help anyone on line. You can just imagine how the crowd on line responded to that remark.

At that point, one of the (now) 2 workers at the window said something to her and then yelled out to us that this girl would be taking receipts for packages to be picked up at the far left window. The girl retrieved packages for 3 customers who went to that bay and then she disappeared.

The 3 previous occasions that I mentioned were rife with similar experiences. I think that there is something really wrong with the way this post office station is being run and I hope that you will use your good offices to resolve this as soon as possible on behalf of your constituents.
Sincerely,
Mitchell J. Blas
Astoria