Problems Continue at Inwood Post Office as New Manager Works to Improve Service
On a recent weekend afternoon, a dozen customers stood in line for service from the three windows open at the Inwood post office.
“It can take up to almost 20 and 25 minutes,” said Armanio Vasquez, who lives in Inwood. “They should be able to attend the people faster.”
Problems continue at the USPS Inwood branch, voted one of the worst in New York City, as its new manager works to improve service.
In the past couple of years, the Inwood station at 90 Vermilyea Ave. has received complaints about long waiting lines and undelivered, misplaced, or lost mail and packages. Customers say there has been little improvement.
In July, DNAinfo New York asked readers on its Neighborhood Square platform and on its Facebook page to vote for the worst U.S. post offices in the city. The Inwood branch made the final five out of 102 post offices listed in the poll.
“The in-location experience is fairly well documented. Long lines, uninterested staff, rude management, intentionally confusing checkout and queuing,” Lou Moran, 49, an Inwood resident who voted, said in a Facebook message to The Uptowner.
But as frustrating as visiting the station might be, stolen and lost mail is an even bigger issue.
“This happens ALL THE TIME,” Maggie Clarke, 63, wrote on the Calling for Inwood Post Office Improvement Facebook group page. “I actually lost four other packages in the last year and a half. I expected it’s because they just drop the packages in the hall and run.”
In December, a paycheck was stolen from the mailbox of Mount Washington Presbyterian Church, shutting down the church’s bank account for three months.
“It was a nightmare,” said Lavonne Beardmore, the church’s business manager. “We struggled months to get our nonprofit state reinstated.”
Mail theft in Inwood has caught the attention of the USPS. “We’re aware of the issue,” said Donna Harris, a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. She said an investigation is underway. “We’re looking into this. We try to do everything possible.”
One way to prevent thefts is to secure mailboxes with a better designed slot. Many USPS mailboxes in the area now have flatter and narrower slots so that thieves can no longer pull the door down to remove mail, said Silvestre Sandoval, manager of the Inwood branch.
Sandoval said he has asked Inwood landlords to install key-keepers outside residential buildings so that mail carriers can use a key only they carry to open buildings’ key-keepers, gain access and leave packages and mail inside. About half the 150 landlords he approached have installed these small boxes in front of their buildings.
Video demonstrating key keeper device (Kawala Xie)
Sandoval pointed out that most neighborhood buildings have no doorman. That forces many customers to come in and deal with long lines if they’re not home to receive deliveries.
Long line at Inwood Station (Photo by Kawala Xie)
Meanwhile, complaints keep coming in.
Neilson Johnson, a mail deliverer in the area for nearly four years, said the biggest complaints he gets from customers is that they have to go to the post office to pick up packages when they are not at home and miss a delivery. But he said it was not a valid complaint.
“You can’t deliver something when no one is there,” said Johnson. “It’s frustrating for the customers because they think that, ‘Oh, nobody tries.’”
Johnson said he will not leave his deliveries on the street. If a package requires a signature and the recipient is not home, he will try again the next day.
But customers say that postal workers never ring their doorbells and make other delivery attempts.
“We have seen mail delivery people dropping off slips with no packages,” Moran said via Facebook Messenger. Or, the Mail Delivery Failure Notice is “not seen anymore,” a customer wrote on the Calling for Inwood Post Office Improvement Facebook group, which started two years ago and has 143 members.
Misplaced packages are also a problem, Moran said. “Having to deliver mail to neighbors and other buildings is also an annoyance that happens at least two times a week. Sometimes the addresses aren’t even similar,” he wrote.
Not all postal workers do their job, Johnson agreed. “They should be giving 100 percent of their service. I know I make 100 percent. I give it my best.”
Sandoval said he has worked to solve the station’s problems since he became manager a year ago. His first act was to answer open complaints.
“It’s a challenge to begin with,” he said.
He joined the Facebook page and invited customers to call his cell phone with their concerns. The station opens at 9 a.m., but Sandoval comes in as early as 6 a.m. so customers can drop off packages on their way to work.
Moran said he once filed a complaint about misdeliveries. He got a call from Sandoval who “promised to fix the situation” and he “started getting packages regularly.”
The Inwood station plans to host a “meet and greet” with customers before Thanksgiving. It also asks residents to fill out USPS Customer Experience Questionnaires, which appear at the bottom of receipts for postal purchases. Customers may also call 1-800-410-7420 or visit https://postalexperience.com/Pos.
