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

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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