Post Office

The BBQ Pit
1

Hi,
I don’t normally post in the BBQ Pit, so I’m sorry if this isn’t the place, or the tone, or the topic. But I’m pretty upset.

How long should it take you to get stamps at the Post Office? I don’t mean from the time you decide to get in your car and go get them, I mean from the time you walk in the front door?

They used to have a machine in the lobby. You can walk up to it, insert bills, coins, or even a credit card, tell it what stamps you want, and it vends it. Just like a … stamp vending machine!

For some reason, they took it out of there.

So now, when I need to go buy stamps, I have to stand in line. Behind other people who have NO FUCKING CLUE what they are doing in a Post Office. Some lady stuck the large postage labels to the wrong side of her envelopes, and the counter person spent 10 minutes helping her remove them and put them on the correct sides of the envelopes. Why wasn’t the lady told to go and prepare her postal packages properly and then bring them back? Some other lady was shocked to find out that she has to put postage on her envelopes or they won’t just get there. At least FIVE people decided to cut in line and ask questions - they were eventually shoved to the back of the line, but they caused a delay.

When I first arrived, there were four people behind the counter seeing customers. By the time they saw me, 3 of them went on break and weren’t replaced by other personnel. This is all at 2:30-3:00pm, not “right before closing.”

Then, in the parking lot, there’s some guy sitting there blocking a ton of other cars, with his reverse lights on, for no reason that I can see. Two of us are sitting there honking and honking at him, but he keeps sitting there. So … we had to drive in ways that blocked other cars in order to move around him and get out of the parking lot. Off in his own world I guess.

It took me 30 minutes to buy stamps.

So - why did the P.O. take out the machine?
Why are people such goddamned idiots when it comes to dealing with their own postage?
What can I do to have a better experience next time?

2

I have no idea why the Post Office you used removed their stamp vending machines. Where is it?

Most supermarkets in Southern California sell postage stamps. And every post office I’ve been in for the past several years has a numbered ticket system, like they used to have at the butcher shop (back when they still had butcher shops).

And Mail Boxes Etcetera was bought out by UPS several years ago, but I think they still sell stamps (you know, if you want to buy just one or maybe two, instead of a package of twenty).

Also, you might want to call 1-800-ASK-USPS to find a P.O. near you that still has stamp vending machines.

ETA: I also don’t know why people are such goddamned idiots when it comes to dealing with their own postage.

3

Chatsworth, CA. Devonshire and Owensmouth. Google Maps location of it. I find it interesting that you can give reviews on anything on Google Maps, and that people have given reviews to this Post Office. RAVE reviews, no less.

Honestly, the staff that works at this particular P.O. is very, extremely professional, so the workers deserve the rating. My flame is more about the removal of the stamp vending machine, and the seemingly massively incompetent customers.

This was a trip for one book. I got two books because it will reduce how often I must return. I guess the long line and asinine situation was good for one selling point - I was so incensed I doubled my purchase so I could return half as often. I wouldn’t buy books anywhere else as they tend to be marked up, but you’re right, a 4 minute wait in a grocery store line far beats 30 minutes in a Post Office line.

The next closest ones are on Reseda or on Roscoe, both of which have abyssal traffic. The one I went to is literally walking distance, or in today’s case, on my way home from work. It would have taken more gas, and about the same time, to go to another P.O. with a vending machine.

So far, I see no good solution to the dilemma. I guess it just sucks and I’m venting. Although, I’m always willing to listen to more suggestions, so keep suggesting, thanks!

4

I buy my stamps online. On the plus side, I like browsing for the most unusual or random stamp subjects I can find. It annoys me to no end, though, that they charge you for postage for shipping the stamps. That should be a bonus for having the wherewithal to buy your stamps from the web site rather than adding more human traffic to their post offices. The rate is regular postage, so it’s not that much, it’s the principle of the thing that bothers me.

Anyway, yes, I agree with your rant. I stopped by my post office today because I needed stamps and happened to be passing by … and turned around and left because it was chock full o’ the usual customers who seem to be having their very first post office experience because nothing else would explain why no one had any idea how to fill out any forms (what is this … pen … you speak of?) nor any comprehension of the signs that said “form one line” so instead they kept trying to rush the service windows like some bizarro geriatric, slow-motion version of Altamont.

5

See, markups on postage bother me all around. When I go to the UPS store, not only do they charge me outrageous rates that you don’t pay if all you have is a free account, but they mark THOSE rates up because I went to the UPS Store instead of the UPS Center. It’s like double-penetration rape.

The fact that you have to pay for your stamps to be delivered … stamps which you bought from the post office, who is already going to be delivering things to you today … and they don’t have to pick them up from another customer … is just dumb. They should probably give you some kind of a discount because you’re making them have less human traffic, as you said, in order to encourage you to order in a non-human-traffic method. It also bothers me that Ticketmaster charges you to print your own tickets, but will mail them to you for free. But that’s another thread.

I’d already been waiting the whole weekend to get stamps and couldn’t wait. Besides, when I return later the line will probably be worse :slight_smile:

6

I buy stamps at the grocery store or the Hallmark store when I buy cards.

My few post office experiences were sufficient to make me avoid them like the plague. People drink cans of Dumbass before walking in the door.

If I have to mail a package I go to UPS. Screw the USPS.

7

I wish I knew. I was just grumbling about this today. I send maybe three or four pieces of mail a year, and two of those are my federal and state tax returns. I used to be able to go into the PO lobby, toss a dollar into the machine, and get a couple stamps with no fuss. But it got taken out (lacking any other input I’m assuming vandalism or it was too costly to keep up), and I’ll be damned if I buy a book of stamps when the price of postage will go up by next year anyway.* So I had to stand in line today, taking 20 minutes, so I could pay the patient lady 84 cents to send two pieces of mail.

  • I realize I could buy those Forever stamps, but I don’t really want to pay a premium or buy in bulk regardless. It’s just too inefficient for my needs.
8

The Post Office near me in Van Nuys also removed their stamp vending machine, much to my dismay.

9

Last time I checked, the stamp vending machines were being phased out in favor of the Automated Postal Centers (APC). The APCs sell stamps, but can also do things like weigh and mail your packages, put insurance or delivery confirmation on your mail, etc.

The APCs are a godsend to people like me who work during normal USPS hours.

APCs can do nearly everything a clerk can do, so long as you know what you want done. They can’t, however, explain things to you patiently like the clerk does, so the slow-witted tend to avoid them. This, in my opinion, is a win-win situation.

10

My mailman delivers stamps. Put your money (or check) in a special envelope for this purpose in the mailbox, and it will be exchanged for stamps, often the same time the mail is picked up.

11

I was surprised this someone didn’t post this sooner. Same with me. Postage free envelope, stamps delivered within one or two days. Win/win.

12

USPS started removing the old and broken ones two years ago and moving the low-traffic working machines to high-traffic areas but now all of them are being removed by the end of the year. link

I used to be able to go get them on my lunch break but ours disappeared a few months ago. Bastids!

13

When my post office removed the stamp vending machines, they put up a sign explaining (honest) that it was for the convenience of the public, seeing as the machines broke so often.
First of all, our machines didn’t break all that much, and I’d rather go in knowing the machines might be broken and I might have to wait 30 minutes instead of no machines at all and definitely having to wait 30 minutes.

14

The vending machines may well be phased out by the Automated Postal Centers, but they sure as fuck are not being REPLACED by Automated Postal Centers. I now have no vending machine and no Automated Postal Center. WTF???

15

Since we started using online bill pay, our stamp use has been cut considerably. I think we even have some 37-cent stamps lying around…what is it up to now, 44 cents? We bought some of the Forever stamps and use them for the odd card or note.

16

The stamp vending machines were a means of putting dollar coins into circulation, so of course they had to be stopped.

17

One odd thing about the USPS: around here, at least, the sales registers are set up with the most absurd possible system. These people are great when I have a stack of complex mailings (business reasons) but it also takes the same time to… by a book of stamps.

18

The post office on campus had a vending machine as of last November. Is it no longer there or did you just not think of that possibility? (and I totally can understand why you wouldn’t have.)

19

No, I’m talking about the post office at work.

20

I bought a book of Forever stamps in March last year, and I think I might need to get another one in March next year. I think it’d be less efficient to have to go buy one or two whenever you need 'em. Nor do you pay a premium; they’re the same price as whatever first-class is at the time you buy them.