Mail delivery in Greenpoint and Williamsburg from the U.S. Postal Service came under scrutiny last summer for reported missing and late mail in the 11211, 11222, and 11249 zip codes, leading to local politicians speaking out.
As the collective mail delivery woes led to outrage, Assemblyman Joe Lentol requested that the USPS Inspector General “conduct a thorough audit of mail delivery and its efficiency in North Brooklyn,” and last week the IG released the local mail audit results.
“It is my hope that this is the beginning of significant improvement in mail delivery for North Brooklyn,” Lentol wrote in response to the IG audit results that verified community complaints:
“We identified undelivered and delayed mail at the Williamsburg Station and delayed mail at the Greenpoint Station. Postal Service policy states that all types of First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express are scheduled (committed) for delivery or processing on the day of receipt at the post office. Customers rely on timely and consistent mail delivery service. When mail is delayed, there is an increased risk of customer dissatisfaction, which may adversely affect the Postal Service brand.”
The report highlights an August 2019 visit to the Williamsburg Station where the inspector discovered “tubs full of undelivered and returnable mail at various places throughout the unit dating back to 2016,” among many other discoveries.
Pick-up scheduling is also an issue in Williamsburg:
“We also determined that packages were not available to be picked up by customers as scheduled. During our visit on August 27, 2019, we observed containers of packages on the workroom floor adjacent to the “Notice Left” shelf that should have been available to customers but instead were waiting for the clerks to perform an unnecessary “Available for Pick-up” scan. The manager explained that these packages required an “Available for Pick-up” scan the next morning to let customers know the packages were in the post office and available for pick-up. However, there is no need to perform this scan at the unit because the carrier would have performed an “Attempted Notice Left” scan during the delivery attempt and left a notice indicating when the package would be available for the customer to pick up the following day. We further observed a sign in the lobby notifying customers that packages, which had been attempted for delivery on August 21 and 22 would not be available for customer pick-up until August 24, 2019. These packages should have been available for pickup the next day after the attempted deliveries.”
The findings at the Greenpoint post office also confirmed that there’s a lot of room for improvement. And once again, we suggest you read the full report, but here’s a preview of the Greenpoint audit:
“We identified 92 pieces of Certified Mail and one piece of international mail that were not returned to the sender according to the “Notice Left and Return Guidelines”.16 The mailpieces were held between two and 47 days beyond their authorized retention periods.”
Ok, this has documented what every north brooklyn person knows, the mail service is horrible.
What is gonna be done about it besides lip service?
The post office in Greenpoint is terrible. One time they somehow lost my package in the office when they left a notice on my door to pick it up. It took them over a month to find it and redeliver it. When they did eventually redeliver it out of nowhere, they left the package with someone in a different apartment. You can’t trust strangers with your belongings but luckily these people were nice enough to give me my package.
Another time I missed a delivery they left a notice to pick it up the next day. I took off work to pick it up and when I went, they said to go back home because it was going to be redelivered. Ok so time to play the waiting game again. Hours past with me sitting around at home waiting and suddenly I get a notification on my phone saying that I just missed the delivery again. Nobody buzzed my apartment. They didn’t even leave it with my super whose office is in the lobby and will usually accept packages for us and hold them if we’re not home. Meanwhile I took the day off to sit home to get my package, and these carriers completely lie about attempting to deliver packages because they’re too lazy to walk up to the door.
Delayed mail is one thing. I know two people who had their mail/mailed objects stolen thru that office and at least one employee was nabbed for theft.
I had a mailed checked stolen after being picked up by their office and the PO head called me after I complained to the national post office and they said there is nothing they can do and to call the 94pct who pretty much told me there is nothing they can do and it is a post office problem.
The check was fraudulently cashed and Chase and TD bank who were involved pretty much told me that will give the thief better service than me and it is tough luck that the check was fraudulently cashed.
Never send a check thru the PO if you can and if you do make sure it is for a small amount since they and the banks will treat the thief better than you.