Citing numerous complaints, Congresswoman asks for audit of Red Hook post office

October 2, 2014 By Matthew Taub Special to Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn Brief

The Red Hook post office.

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Red Hook residents have had enough — and now a Congresswoman is on their side.

“I am writing you regarding the Red Hook Post Office located at 615 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, New York,” begins a letter from Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez to the Honorable David Williams, the Post Office’s Inspector General. “Given recent problems at this location, I am asking that your office conduct an audit of the accuracy and timeliness of the mail delivery process.”

Complaints from residents were recently chronicled by DNAInfo, which reported that “rude staff, lost packages and wrongly delivered mail are a constant source of frustration for customers.” The article also referred to the branch’s abysmal ratings on the web site Yelp.

In her letter, Congresswoman Velazquez cited these multiple instances of inadequate service and unprofessional conduct, “which when taken together denote a troubling pattern.” The conduct, brought to her attention by troubled residents, includes “mail delivered to wrong addresses, missing packages, parcels that were damaged and/or missing items and weekdays without any mail delivery at all.”

“Yesterday I received a pile of mail from August, including time sensitive material such as checks, cards, and credit cards, and even unwanted time-sensitive material in the form of primary election mailers,” wrote local resident Gary Reilly on his blog First and Court. “I called the bank two weeks ago to complain about a missing card. It showed up yesterday — and it wasn’t the bank’s fault.”

When residents sought redress for these sorts of occurrences, “unprofessional treatment by staff” only compounded the problem, Velazquez claimed.

“The excessive frequency and sheer volume of complaints regarding mail delivery related to the Red Hook Post Office dictate that immediate intervention is warranted,” her letter concluded.