UPTOWN — Apparently, residents have a lot to say about the Uptown post office — and none of it is favorable.
Packages go missing or they're marked as delivered when they haven't been. Carriers stop delivering altogether or boxes and envelopes are found dumped in snow outside. And that's just a small sample of the complaints posted Tuesday on the Facebook page of local community blog Uptown Update, where residents were worked into a frenzy sharing their gripes.
One woman told the blog that she hasn't been receiving mail since April 9. When she went to file a complaint, a post office worker supposedly blew her off.
These complaints aren't new. The Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky tackled the issue back in 1992 in his article titled "Postal problem: Is the Uptown branch failing to deliver?"
Even Jonathan Franzen, a nationally-known author, has criticized the Uptown post office. In his 2002 book "How To Be Alone: Essays," he writes:
Many of the problems at a station like Uptown — rampant absenteeism, rapid turnover of employees, poor morale — are aggravated by its distance from the black South Side neighborhoods where more postal workers live. Workers with tenure quickly transfer to more convenient neighborhoods. The same is true of supervisors and managers, who have been known to refer to Uptown as Siberia. The result is a perpetually inexperienced North Side workforce.
Mina Bloom discusses what post office officials say about the claims:
In response, Muhamad Azamuddin, who has worked as the customer service supervisor at the Uptown post office for almost a decade, said: "It's all in the business."
He largely defended the Uptown post office, saying it has "very good programs" and "doesn't have those types of problems."
The biggest customer service problem Azamuddin encounters is when a tracking number says a package has been "delivered" but it has only been sent to the FedEx or UPS warehouse.
As for carriers dumping packages outside or failing to deliver altogether, Azamuddin blamed the types of residential buildings in the neighborhoods. He said the doors to those towers are sometimes locked, forcing carriers to leave a note, which can anger customers.
So, what do you think? Is the Uptown post office as bad as people say it is? Let us know in the comments.
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