RED HOOK — Rude staff, lost packages and wrongly delivered mail are a constant source of frustration for customers who’ve had it with their neighborhood post office, locals say.
The Red Hook post office, located on Clinton Street, is “the worst” some locals and Yelp reviewers said they have experienced.
Roxanne Migliacci and Justin Uliano, a couple who have lived in Carroll Gardens for almost two years, said four packages they expected have gone missing this summer.
“Just like you have water and electricity, you get your mail,” said Migliacci, who, like Uliano, is a public school teacher on Long Island.
Packages set to be delivered through the United States Postal Service are often marked “delivered” on the package’s tracking page but are never received, they said.
“It was always, always the postal service,” said Uliano, adding that FedEx and UPS packages arrive on time.
Uliano received an email dated Aug. 27 from Aida Febles, a customer service supervisor at the Red Hook post office, after he contacted them about an elusive package from Amazon.
“Although, you report the item was never received by you, our records show that this item was scanned “delivered” on August 16, 2013 at 5:17 pm.,” according to the email shared with DNAinfo New York.
“An apology is no substitute for good service, but I want to offer one on behalf of the Postal Service,” Febles continued. “The loss of any piece of mail is as disappointing to us as it is to you.”
The couple also regularly receives mail addressed to others in the neighborhood, including checks, Netflix DVDs, bills and even a shipment of fresh pears, which they personally delivered to residents of their building, and even to people at more distant addresses.
“Nobody is holding our post office accountable,” said Migliacci, who said she has also faced rudeness from the staff.
“Postal officials are taking immediate action and they are monitoring employee performance to ensure it is at the highest level of courteous and professional service to customers,” Connie Chirichello, a spokeswoman for the USPS, said in an email.
“Postal officials make every effort to ensure service makes a positive first impression and an exceptional lasting one too," she said. “To address these concerns, delivery personnel have been alerted to take more care in making every attempt to deliver packages."
Delivery notices are left when no one is available to receive mail that is too large to be left in a mailbox or in a safe location, she continued.
Customers are encouraged to report concerns about service “so that postal officials may take immediate corrective measures to avoid [reoccurrence],” she said.
The Red Hook post office serves zip code 11231, which includes Red Hook, Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Waterfront District, manager Bakare Abayomi said.
People have also voiced gripes about the post office in Yelp reviews.
User Rebar M. called the post office "filthy" and said a box sent from there arrived dirty, torn and inside a trash bag, she wrote on Aug. 27.
Some items included in the box full of clothes turned up missing, she added.
“To top this all, the underwear [were] mysteriously missing (bras and panties)," the reviewer wrote.
Betsy Bee, a Carroll Gardens resident, told DNAinfo New York that she has problems with the post office on a daily basis.
“Some days (Mondays especially, it seems), mail simply does not arrive,” she said, adding that there is a windfall of mail later in the week.
Migliacci said grappling with the Red Hook post office is wearing on her patience.
“I was at the point where I was going to go postal,” she said.
