United States Postal Service

This specific post office completely closes to take lunch at 12:45-1:45. Which is inconvenient because most people with 9-5 jobs use their lunch break to run to the post office. Since post offices close after 5 and closed on the weekends, it is beyond me that this establishment is given permission to shut down at the worst time possible.

The two ladies at this post office were friendly and helpful. They advised on packaging to use and I had a good experience. I have had my fair share of bad experiences at different post offices, and I wanted to make my good experience noted.

Such a nice change to meet a polite postal worker, thank you Sue!

There is only street parking and the post office locks its doors at least 15 minutes before closing time (though I've been able to sneak in through the exit only doors before). I would highly recommend arriving before 4pm, otherwise it is difficult to fight for international district street parking (all metered) and lines get long.nnStaff working inside are pretty knowledgeable and move the line at a reasonable pace. It does get held up sometimes by people who aren't aware how to get tape/packaging/other processes work.nnMy main complaint (though specific) is that it's incredibly frustrating to live in a zip code where packages that need to be redelivered are kept here. There is some break in the system, where if you schedule a redelivery by either calling usps or entering an online request it will not go through this location's system. You need to physically pick up with your paper slip, redelivery requests do not work.

When you visit a government agency office (e.g. USPS, DMV, Tax/license office, etc), your experiences will not likely be pleasant most of the times. Job security of these offices don’t reward clerks for providing good customer service and customer obsession is something that you will find in the bottom of their priority list, below keeping their lunch time and closing time on time.nnFortunately, in Seattle, most of the experiences that I have had in government agencies have been very pleasant with the exception of this USPS branch. Their priority boxes shelf are unorganized, and they give you frowned upon look when a customer asks for a glue or a tape. Obviously, they are not required to provide those materials to the customers, but compared to USPS offices in downtown Seattle or Bellevue, their customer service is non-existance.nnMore importantly, when 8 to 10 people are waiting in line to send a package, and the line forms all the way back to the outside of the office, they still allocate only 1 clerk to handle shipping in some cases, and seldom 2. There is no sense of urgency, and it can take from 2minutes to well above 10 minutes to handle each customer. The end result is that you will have to wait in line 30~40 minutes just to send one package out to your family, friends or to IRS. Considering that the minimum hourly wage in Seattle is above $15/hr today, lost opportunity cost of all these 10 customers wasting their time waiting to send a package can be significant, but it is hard to realize that.nnU.S. Postal service workers are known for having dignity and respect, but it is difficult to give desk clerks in this branch much credits. If you lower your expectations before visiting this USPS office, your experience could be better, so I recommend you doing that. Or, you can simply visit another USPS offices in different locations for better experience.