Do you know why I got myself a PO box? Mail theft at my apartment is rampant. If you order a…read morepackage, expect it to get stolen. One time I ordered something for same-day delivery, and even though I got there, an hour and a half after it was delivered, that package was already gone. Yikes.
Hence, I thought I'll them shipped to a government building where it should be pretty safe. Now, I do want to mention, Amazon *can* deliver to a Locker or a Whole Foods, but not everything. Further, anything sent to me my non-Amazon can't go in a locker or Whole Foods.
Now, while items delivered to the PO box would be held in relative safety, me getting it is another story. At the start, I found that packages weren't getting to me, with the clerk telling me that if there's no yellow slip in the PO box, then it hasn't been processed yet. Turns out, no. When the PO box was rented, cardboard was not removed from the back of it, which apparently signified that that said PO box was unoccupied. After lots of frustration, we finally figured out that, "oh, wait a minute, that cardboard shouldn't be there!"
Okay, well now we removed it. I think it should be on the up and up from here, right? Not really. Not too long ago, I had a package that was shown as delivered and I came two days and some hours later to pick it up. I look in my PO box, and there's nothing. No package, no yellow slip, nada. I go to the clerk who tells me that after it arrives in the building, it takes two to three days to get processed. Really? After mail is delivered to the post office, it has to take an additional couple of days to get sub-delivered to the very same post office? Sure, it's a big building, but that doesn't make sense.
Two more things about this location that have me pulling my fair out:
1. While to be fair, during my visits it wasn't super busy, there's usually only one or two people working behind the counter.
2. This post office allegedly has their street addressing service. That means that your PO box comes with a real street address you can use in additional to the standard "PO Box 1234 Chicago, Illinois." However, all but one of the staff seemed to have no idea what I'm talking about and what that address would be, even though I later saw it on a poster in the PO box area.
Finally, if there is one area where I want to give them some points, it's that their hours are truly fantastic. They are open seven days a week, and on working days until midnight. This is perfect for me to be able to pick up my PO box items after work, even if I have to work a little bit late or if I need to mail something on a Sunday. Oh yes, and I almost forgot.
The US Postal Service is kind of like Google... you can't really avoid it, unless you're going to send Christmas cards by FedEx. Just so, whether it's personally or where my job touches postal matters, it seems severe delays are as rampant as theft at my building.