Back in April, South Orange Village President Sheena Collum put a call out on Nextdoor West Montrose announcing that, “based on many of the concerns about the Post Office,” the town had set up a meeting to speak with the regional manager of the United States Postal Service on April 21.
Collum reported that more than 70 residents responded, either via Nextdoor or email.
A typical complaint cited sporadic mail service (“There are days when we receive nothing and then we seem to get it all at once,” wrote one resident from Upper Wyoming). Other South Orange residents complimented the service provided by their regular mail carriers but said problems arose when subs filled in.
Still others asked that there either be more agents or stamp vending machines at the post office in order to alleviate long lines. Some residents asked for more parking at the post office.
Although the U.S. Post Office responded in a letter dated July 1 to Collum (see below) outlining steps that have been taken to improve service, customers posting on Nextdoor say that little has changed.
“Has there been any response from the Post Office?” one South Orange posted on Nextdoor on July 1, the date of the letter. “Nothing has changed on our end – days without mail and today we received a stack of our neighbor’s mail.”
Others talked about mail gone missing, poor subs, and the supervisor always being out when they called. Two posters said that service was great.
“We continue to follow up on residents’ concerns that have been sent to me via email,” wrote Collum on Nextdoor on July 20. “Please note the contact numbers in this letter when you’re experiencing difficulties – all these issues are logged and the supervisors from local all the way on up have access to these reports and are responsible to address them. When we sat down with the regional office they had very detailed reports on issues that were brought to their attention and noted that the hundreds of comments we provided them weren’t submitted to them through their channels and said it was the first they were hearing of so many issues. So right now, I know this continues to be an issue for some but it’s a work in progress and hopefully everyone will start seeing improvements.”
In the letter dated July 1, Northern New Jersey District Manager for the USPS Steven Hernandez wrote that the postal service had reviewed delivery operations and “initiated additional quality checks to ensure accurate and timely delivery to every one of the 6,448 street and 794 post office box deliveries in town,” created a log to document customer feedback at the local level, and “reexamined customer service/retail lobby operations” at the South Orange Post Office.
Contact information for customers to give feedback to South Orange Officer-in-Charge Walitah Ali or a supervisor at the South Orange Post Office is as follows: The direct South Orange Post Office number is 973-762-2872 (Ms. Ali or a supervisor should be able to be reached at this number); the Northern New Jersey District Customer Service Hotline is 732-819-3260; and the toll-free USPS Customer Care Center is 800-ASK-USPS (800-275-8777).
Customers can also email USPS by clicking on “Contact Us” at the bottom of the USPS.com homepage and following the prompts.
Collum has also posted the letter to Nextdoor West Montrose to seek further feedback from residents to see if any of these measure actually have improved service.
Collum can be contacted via email here.
