The Post Office at 770 Columbus Avenue near 95th Street, which said it could not send packages until after the New Year because of a broken elevator, is back in the package business.
“It’s a holiday miracle!” wrote Tsadik Kaplan, our original tipster.
Our story sparked CBS to run its own piece on the Post Office two days later (though that station oddly marked it as an “exclusive”).
Photo by Laura LaRose.
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I went to that post office a few days ago to buy Forever stamps. Since the line at the counter was long, I used the postal machine, and bought 20 stamps. To my surprise, the machine spit out 20 Santa stamps. There’s no choice. I spoke to a postal clerk and said that these stamps do not represent my religious identification and asked to swap with other Forever stamps. She replied that all sales are final. Seems to me that when the machine gives you no choice, the Forever stamps should be generic. If you stamps for a specific holiday, get them at the counter where you have a wide selection.
Glenn, please contact the ACLU immediately.
Talk about First World problems! Lol, this complaint seems like it came straight from The Onion.
What religion does Santa identify with?
Doesn’t help you this time, but one option is to choose “other value” for the stamps, and then punch on $0.50 and get a bunch of them.
Of course these will be actual valuation and not “forever”, so make sure to use them quickly.
That is awful Glenn. I am so sorry you had to go through that trauma.
I laughed out loud at this comment, seriously UWS will complain about everything.
Suppose the situation was slightly different and you were the stamp purchaser. And suppose you got a stamp with a religious figure on it and you were not a member of the faith/church that this figure represented. Would you be OK putting that stamp on mail to your friends and family (who might take offense)?
Would you feel like your money was wasted? Would you feel like you had a right to exchange the stamps?
Those machines are filled by humans who pay NO attention for the most part to what they are doing (from what I’ve seen at our area post offices, with notable exceptions).
There was no reasonable expectation to get a santa stamp for the plain flag forever stamp. Somebody clearly goofed at the post office.
When you get bad service, you complain. This was bad and stupid service and not service at all and if there are tons of rules and regulations that won’t allow a customer to make a swap in this situation, then that is just plain ridiculous.
A place is either customer centric and focused or not. There are a few great employees in post offices but they are the minority. Most have terrible attitude and could care less about helping customers.
When you pay for a service and you don’t get it and it complicates your life, you can complain. That’s life. People would not complain if there was not a reason.
And it’s no one else’s business what others find problematic. (I can think of numerous scenarios where this is even more problematic. As in purchasing for your boss, a friend or someone who specifically would NOT want this kind of stamp.)
This could have been so easily solved if people focused on HELPING and common sense and not rules.
What if the flag stamps don’t represent my country affiliation?
The term “forever stamps” is offensive to me as I do not believe in the concept of “forever”. It should be “foreseeable future” stamps. Not only am I triggered, I am woke and I will march.
Oh god. I’m Jewish and will use Kwanzaa stamps. Who cares.
If Post Office workers had to fix every complaint from every customer, they’d never get anything else done. Tell your congressional representative to increase the USPS budget so they can hire enough people to do a good job.
An additional complicating factor is that Santa-stamped letters are delivered down the chimney
Very funny—thanks!
Do they rip open letters & packages at the 770 Columbus station like they do at Cathedral Station on 104th?
To iterate, Amazing. Amusing. But saddening. What? There were to be no holiday packages for the wee ones from the U.W.S.? . . . The U.S. Postal Dis-service is working hard (especially in three major cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) to put itself out of business. The Postmistress General Meagan Brennan in Washington, D.C., is an example of the Peter Principal (q.v.): she’s risen to the level of her incompetence. A career employee, she does nothing but approve others’ work–no initiative on her own part. What would you expect flows down from the top, then? . . . True, the electronic spectrum (esp. E-mail) and private delivery companies have severely impacted the U.S. mail, but the little guys–their core customers–are being hurt, and we number in the millions. . . Call your Congress Members’ offices (Nadler: 212-367-7350 / Espaillat: 212-663-3900). Call the newly-appointed Marcellina DelPizzo, acting Manhattan Postmistress’s office (212-330-3615), call the area’s “uber” Postmistress Lorraine Castellano (212-330-3600). Complain, complain, complain–but will it do us any good? . . Call Ms Vera, manager of Cathedral Station (212-662-0355)–it’s her sub-station and remit. . . BTW, once when the elevator was out for an inordinate time at the two-story Ansonia Station (10023) and complaints fell on deaf ears, I made a Freedom of Information Act request for the contract between the U.S.P.S and the elevator company. The elevator was fixed pronto in less than a week (rather than give me a copy of the contract?). . . Isn’t it sad that it has come to “everyone” saying that his/her local branch post office is “the worst.” . . Thank you. E.& o.e.