Postal policy causes pickup predicament in Glenwood Landing

Unexpected combination changes and unclear communication have caused customer frustration at the Glenwood Landing Post Office in January. While residents claim they are dealing with policy changes, the U.S. Postal Service says nothing has changed.

Glenwood Landing residents are provided with no-fee post office boxes because they do not get mail delivered to their homes. The hamlet has not historically had mail delivery to homes because it has had fewer than 750 delivery addresses per route, the number required by the USPS for home mail delivery.

Anyone in the United States who qualifies for a no-fee P.O. box is required by the USPS to complete an annual verification to retain it. According to a statement from Amy Gibbs, USPS spokeswoman for Long Island and Queens, the verification must be completed in person at the post office.

To complete the verification, residents are required to fill out forms provided by the post office and show photo identification as well as ID that proves their address qualifies them for a free P.O. box. Glenwood Landing residents are required to show these forms of identification to validate their Glenwood Landing address.

Gibbs wrote in the same statement that this is not a new policy. However, Glenwood Landing residents claim that the process is more extensive this year.

“We’ve never,” she said, “had to jump through so many hoops.”

Residents have been given a deadline of Jan. 31 to complete the verification.

Gibbs wrote in the statement that residents must prove their address, but residents claim that they are being asked to prove “home ownership.” Edquist said the post office used this language when she went to fill out the paperwork and show ID. Among the documents listed on the USPS website as acceptable secondary forms of identification is car registration. Edquist said her car registration was not accepted at the Glenwood Landing Post Office.

Also, among the acceptable secondary forms of identification are mortgage documents, deed of trust and a homeowners insurance policy. Residents say these have been accepted. The USPS website says that not all primary forms of photo identification may be accepted to prove an address, in which case secondary identification is necessary. However, it does not say that secondary forms may be turned away. Gibbs did not comment on the alleged discrepancy.

“The Postal Service,” Gibbs wrote in the statement. “regrets any miscommunication surrounding the verification process.” She added that notices were being placed in Glenwood Landing residents’ P.O. boxes requiring verification.

Edquist and Rob Roper, a long-time Glenwood Landing resident, both said that the combinations to their P.O. boxes had been changed without their knowledge before completing address verification. They claimed they had the same combinations for many years prior.

After filling out the paperwork they were sent to prove their address, Roper and his wife found themselves locked out of their P.O. box shortly after the turn of the new year.

“We’ve got the same PO Box and same combination,” Roper said. “And I’m putting the combination in and I’m having a brain fart thinking, ‘what am I doing? How would I forget this combination sequence?’”

He added that it would have been “more acceptable” if customers had been given notice.

Edquist said she only found out about the policy implementation by talking to other residents and seeing posts on Facebook. She pointed out that people may struggle to remember their new combinations.

“I feel bad for people who really kind of can’t get it in their heads now, and it’s too late,” she said. “They’ve changed everyone’s combination, so they’re not going to change them back.”

The Glenwood Landing Post Office got a new Postmaster, Jennifer Gounis, in November. It is unclear if this change is the cause of the policy implementation.

Packages remaining unsorted and not ready for pickup is another recent complaint. Roper said he was unable to get a package after finding a parcel card in his P.O. box notifying him it was ready.
“You go inside and, ‘oh, no, we have we haven’t sorted it out yet’,” he said. “So why is there a card in my box?”

Gibbs wrote in a statement that package sorting may be delayed if customers do not include their P.O. box number with their address.
Roper added that the whole situation is “frustrating and aggravating.”

Congressman Tom Suozzi received complaints from constituents and is working with the Glen Head Glenwood Landing Civic Council to resolve the issues. Suozzi sent a letter to the postmaster general on Jan. 13 detailing the difficulties Glenwood Landing residents are having and requesting steps to help residents regain access to their mail, improve communication and employ policy mandating better treatment of customers.

Suozzi, in an interview, described the situation at the Glenwood Landing Post Office as “poor customer service.” George Pombar, head of the Glen Head Glenwood Landing Civic Council, has been in contact with many residents. He said that the policy has been “poorly implemented.”

Pombar also said that communication from the post office remains unclear.

The only other community in Nassau County without mail delivery to residents’ homes is Point Lookout.

Edquist said that she would prefer home mail delivery.

“If we were in rural Nebraska, I understand,” she said. “But it’s kind of stupid that everyone around us gets mail delivery but we don’t.” She added that she thinks switching to a mail delivery system may alleviate some of the problems the community is currently having.

While Suozzi said he remains focused on solving the recent post office issues, having Glenwood Landing switch to mail delivery is something he would be “happy to explore.”