Back to 11238

After my irritating experience at 11205, I hoofed it back to 11238 in the hopes of renting my PO Box. The line was surprisingly short, and the woman at the window was surprisingly friendly. However, she told me that I also needed to provide a current utility bill as proof of address. I don't recall the application mentioning that -- only that I needed two forms of ID. I guess a valid NYS driver's license AND a US passport are not enough to rent a PO Box.

Problem is, no one mentioned that to me at 11205 (why would they?), and I shred all of my bills as soon as I pay them. So, I walked back home to see what I could scrounge up. Take note that I am a 15-min walk away, so after 45 minutes of walking to and from the PO, I return with the following: a year-old mortgage statement, a current credit card bill, a current IRA statement and my cell phone contract. I get a significantly less-friendly window attendant and she tries to deny me. ALL this proof of ID and address is not good enough. Plus, do not forget that THE APPLICATION DOES NOT STATE THAT YOU NEED TO PROVIDE A CURRENT UTILITY BILL:

The nicer woman tells Meanie that she can accept the mortgage statement, but Meanie gets mad because the statement is a year old. Never mind that the other "unacceptable" statements are current and show the same address that's on my mortgage statement. Maybe this is one of the ways the post offices "do things differently." Finally, Nicey convinces Meanie to let me have the box because she feels bad that no one told me about the utility thing and doesn't want me to have to go back and forth again. Then Meanie mumbles about me under her breath while she fills out the paperwork and bitches about a customer who had to come back four times the day before because of things that were the customer's fault, and NOT Meanie's fault. Really? I find that hard to believe.

As a side note, PO Boxes at 11205 are $37/mo, while they're just $31/mo at 11238. Wtf?

So. I've had enough, especially after hearing all of your stories. I am going to contact this local politician everyone keeps talking about and see if we can actually DO something about this. Would anyone be willing to type up a description of the bad experiences they've had at either or both of these POs? I'd like to get a whole packet of complaints together.

(You can also rent a box at the Mail store on Myrtle, but they're 3x as much as the USPS boxes- FYI.)

On one slightly positive note, I did see supplies available at one of the crappy counters at Adelphi Station. However, look at what the supply bin looks like!!

All cracked and taped together.  Are they kidding us with this?