More problems found with USPS surveys and community meetings about threatened post offices

The U.S. Postal Service a few weeks ago started implementing POstPlan, its restructuring by closure or reduction of hours at hundreds of post office across the U.S., mostly in rural areas. As ordered by the Postal Regulatory Commission, USPS is scheduling public meetings about offices that have no postmaster right now, but as Steve Hutkins of Save the Post Office reported last week, community surveys were only mailed to post-office boxes and meetings were planned during work hours. Hutkins has now uncovered more issues with the plan's implementation.

The PRC told USPS that some of its survey questions were confusing and might mislead customers. Three of four options on the survey regarding the customers' preference are about closing the post office, and the PRC said customers might not understand that. The USPS didn't revise the survey, opting to explain the survey question in an accompanying letter instead. Hutkins reports that "people are not getting the fact that three of the options involve closing the post office," as reported by newspapers in Virginia, where several offices in the Tidewater region will be affected by POstPlan. Many other news reports have been paraphrasing the survey without clarifying the options, Hutkins writes.

Community preference from at least two rural offices -- in Waters, Mich., and an unnamed one in Eastern Kentucky -- has been ignored, Hutkins reports. The hours at both were reduced before POstPlan began, but they were still included in the plan list. Surveys have been sent to customers, and community meetings planned anyway. The community meeting at the Malden, Wash., office is scheduled to be  held in the post office lobby, a 629-square-foot space, Hutkins reports. In Jonesville, Tex., a lobby meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at noon -- the middle of Election Day. (Read more)