US Stamps

Are lengthy service wait times in some post offices out of control?

Jan 14, 2025, 11 AM
A stock photograph of a post office lobby in the United States. Photograph courtesy of the United States Postal Service.

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

Wait times for service vary greatly from post office to post office across the United States. In the towns closest to the offices of Amos Media Co. in Ohio, it seems that the post office wait times are generally less than five minutes.

Sometimes the wait is slightly longer during the latter half of the day closer to closing time, but generally not that bad.

For window service, most of the time there are two clerks at the larger post offices, or at least a supervisor who can do a lobby sweep to take care of any requests that don’t require a clerk, such as parcel pickup or to look up tracking numbers.

On the flip side, I recently had the experience at a large postal station in Key West, Fla., where customers had to wait in line more than 30 minutes for counter service. While the post office had multiple stations available for clerks, only one service window was staffed when I went in.

The clerk was very efficient and attentive to each customer, despite appearing to be completely alone in the station.

I was mailing postcards to friends and wanted to have the Key West hand cancel applied. I was successful, but it took 30 minutes of my day standing in line at that post office to complete the task.

While in line, in front of me I had to wait on a customer mailing an international parcel, another sending a large insured package including a return, a third mailing a Priority Mail flat-rate box, another making a money order purchase, and finally one customer wondering where his package was (spoiler alert ... it was out for delivery that morning). These transactions all took quite some time.

Could improvements be made? Certainly. But I also recognize there could be some factors beyond the norm that might have caused there to be just one clerk on duty there. Plus Key West isn’t exactly one of the most affordable places to live or get to in the United States. So available staffing could definitely be a major factor.

What service and wait time experiences have Linn’s readers had in their post offices? We’d be interested hearing about them and sharing some in a future Letters to Linn’s column. Please email jbigalke@amosmedia.com.

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