Former postal inspector slams Peachtree City Post Office, Congressman Ferguson

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The non-functioning mailbox in front of the Peachtree City Post Office — useless since October 2020. Photo/Bill Posey.

The Peachtree City Post Office is irresponsible, has a Customer No Service policy, and shows lack of judgment in many of its daily mailing responsibilities. Its daily operating plan needs to be thrown in the trash can.

The Peachtree City Post Office is currently under review by the Manager, Customer Relations, Georgia District to determine the reopening of the collection box located in the parking lot of the Peachtree City Post Office.

The collection box commonly referred to as a snorkel box was place into an out-of-service condition and closed in October 2020 due to vandalism of the box and stolen mail.

This type of mailbox is located throughout the United States and is used so that postal customers, especially those with limited mobility, do not have to exit their vehicle to mail a letter. The closing of the mailbox has resulted in an extreme inconvenience to the citizens of Peachtree City and should be re-opened immediately.

This collection box is one of two drive-up boxes in our city and was put into an “Out Of Service” status without notification or explanation to the public. Notification is required before closing a collection box.

The Postal Inspection Service is the Investigative Arm for the Postal Service. In October 2020 the Inspectors and the Peachtree City Police Department investigated the vandalism and theft of mail. The inspectors’ recommendation to local management was to repair the box and open it during daylight hours and close the box when the office is closed.

The current review by the Manager, Customer Relations was a result of a congressional inquiry I filed on November 5, 2021. My complaint was filed with Congressman Drew Ferguson’s Office.

My complaint was assigned to a district staff member who forwarded my complaint to the Georgia District Office for their review and recommendation.

Now let me say my complaint against the Post Office was investigated by the Post Office. My written complaint (inquiry) was forwarded to the Georgia District Office without any demand, direction, or input from Congressman Ferguson’s office. How independent is that?

My complaint was renamed by Congressman Ferguson’s office to a Congressional Inquiry. I was informed that there is no such thing as a Congressional Complaint, it is an Inquiry. The Manager, Customer Relations issued her reply on January 24, 2022, stating “…the reopening of this collection box is currently under review, and will be closed until further notice….”

It seems as though the Manager, Customer Relations is saying maybe Peachtree City is so full of crime and vandalism that we may not deserve a drive-through mailbox that could be subject to mail theft and vandalism.

This box has been closed since October 2020 and postal customers have been forced to enter the office just to mail a letter. I ask myself what was the Post Office doing during the fourteen months that the box has been out-of-service and closed to the public. Now the Georgia District, Manager needs more time to review before the box can be re-opened.

The closing of the mailbox has resulted in extreme inconvenience to our citizens and should be re-opened immediately. I look forward to working with Congressman Ferguson until the collection box is open to the citizens of Peachtree City.

Billy Posey

Peachtree City, Ga.

[Editor’s note: Posey, a retired USPS inspector, delivered this information to the Peachtree City Council Feb.3.]

9 COMMENTS

  1. Why is there no accountability? Probably Because it’s a federal agency with union representation that won’t rock the boat to get the problems identified and fixed, including firing personnel if necessary. If the PTC PO was a private business it would be out of business. Ironically the dissatisfied citizens DO go elsewhere to a private business, CardSmart, when they can.

  2. Worked for the PTC post office for over 30 years and they continually had problems with theft out in the parking lot and never did anything about it. From mail theft to personal cars broken into or damaged. They promised to get security cameras in the parking areas front and back but this never happened. The biggest problem I see with the PTC post office is that they need to have its own postmaster. The whole time I worked there it seemed that our office was treated like stepchildren.
    We hardly ever saw the postmaster and the postmaster only came to our office when there were problems just to let us know that if things didn’t change that they would start to fire people.
    Then we would not see the postmaster again until the next time something went wrong.
    The reason you probably will never see a Postmaster here is that the postmaster in Fayetteville gets paid a hire level pay and will fight to not give up that pay while doing nothing to benefit the PTC post office or the citizens of PTC. If you want change in the PTC Post office flood the congressmen with complaints until they get tired of hearing from us. The post office hates when the congressman get involved!

  3. As Mike pointed out, it’s a poorly run business within a poorly run enterprise. Some of the worst customer service I’ve ever received has been inside that post office.It’s always sad when people take no pride in their work.

  4. Our post office has been horribly managed for years! Ms. Leta George, our postmaster, is eloquent with words and useless on action.

    I’ve watched them lock the door at 6 minutes to five with a full lobby and actually leave the service counter to usher a customer out who came in the out door being rude doing it.

    I’ve worked with congressman Ferguson’s office for years, he has a specific staffer assigned to the issue who is disgusted with it, and they seem to have little pull.

    Until we get a postmaster who cares we are sunk.

  5. Good Letter Bill and not a day too early. The Peachtree City post office is incomprehensibly horrid. You may remember a few years ago, congressional action was required to get them to correct several simple housekeeping duties that made the building an eye sore for the city. Those tasks included replacing the tattered US Flag that was flying not so proudly above the building, replacing the bulb in the spotlight that illuminated the flag at night (if the flag remains raised past sunset then it is supposed to have a light shining upon it), cutting the grass and trimming the bushes as the building looked abandoned is was so overgrown with weeds, and cutting back the vines from the city name and zip code that adorns the face of the building: It was illegible.
    What is worse than all that is the local postal services inability to deliver mail on time to the correct address. I know of three people who had additional fines levied by one of the local courts because their notice of hearing never arrived. I have watched the delivery person drive up to my mailbox and put in a yellow slip for a package that needed signature and drive off, stating that he came to the door and no one was home. I have had to physically go over to the post office and go back into their package area and retrieve Christmas presents that the postal service didn’t seem to have any plans to deliver any time soon. I knew they were there because Amazon told me they were. I have talked to Amazon management requesting any packages destined to arrive by USPS to be cancelled or held until the next order when the weight would dictate another delivery option. Amazon stated that overall the USPS does a good job for them but that in 30269 they have an unusual amount of problems.
    I have been in line at the local hub and watched while one of the two counter persons put “Next Clerk” sign in front of their station and walked out for a lunch break with a line of people out the door. In the last two weeks I have had two sets of prints sent to me in a 9 x 12 envelope that clearly stated DO NOT BEND on the outside -yet the delivery person folded the envelope nearly in half to fit it into the mailbox.
    On a larger scale, this is an institution that loses $15 million dollars A DAY. For what? Turn it over to the private sector and let the market determine which of these services should remain then price it so it is a profitable business.

  6. I agree of the workings of this post office. I recently moved north, when I went to my local post office to mail something back home, I was late sending it and joked with post office worker that I would blame it on the post office down there. He asked which post office?” I said “Peachtree City, Ga’s post office” he replied “oh yea, they’re the worst and are the top complaints we hear about” now, what does that tell you? 700-800 miles north of y’all and they know how bad the Peachtree City post office is and always has been! 🤦🏼‍♀️