US Post Office

This location has THE WORST delivery of packages! I already filed a complaint a month ago when 3 different pkg deliveries were NOT left at front door, but instead were in my driveway, to get run over. Thought they’d taken care of it, knew who to speak to, but NOOOOO. It happened again yesterday! Except the put in directly in front of garage doors (past the front door) in the driveway to get run over AGAIN!!! On phone with them again!

The process to get a passport here is ridiculous.
When you walk in, you see a big sign that says, «Passports are By Appointment Only!» When you call the Far West post office, no one answers.
When I ran into the problem of not being able to get a passport because I didn’t have an appointment, I said, «How do you make an appointment, you guys don’t answer your phones?!» The nice lady at the desk said, «You have to come in to make the appointment.»
I walked out and refused to oblige them in this ridiculous, inefficient process. Apparently the guy who processes passports shows up at noon most days anyway, and his next available appointment, as of yesterday (Oct 7) was Oct 27.
No thank you. I’d rather sneak into other countries than go through this mess ;)

This is a simple post office. Nothing fancy. But, out of all the post offices I have been to in my life, the people here have always been friendly, and actually looked like they enjoy their jobs. I usually just by pass the line and use the self service kiosk to mail my packages. The self service kiosk is open ²⁴⁄₇ which makes it very convenient to use.

I have mailed from here several times with no problems. These have been priority mail items and I would wait until I could hand it to a clerk and have it checked in. The lady behind the counter that I have dealt with each time has been friendly. I did have to wait quite a bit one time as someone new to the USA, who spoke no English was trying to mail something to Asia. As I have had to do this same thing, but in other countries, I just chilled. When I realized what she was trying to do I offered to help as the customer spoke some German. All in all, everything was taken care of, thanks all around, and a visitor went away with a positive memory of Austin. I did notice one lady in line who was sighing and rolling her eyes the whole time. Tacky.

Awful customer service. I was patronized for waiting in line to drop off prepaid postage. I do that because it will be scanned in and that affects eBay shipment tracking. When I just drop them off the tracking will show the «acceptance» as much later than when I dropped them off. This isn’t USPS’ fault, but I have every right to wait in line and personally drop my packages off. I don’t need condescension for doing so.
I was also berated for asking for a receipt. I was told that USPS absolutely doesn’t do that. I said that’s fine but I absolutely did get one last week from another USPS office. I wasn’t trying to get the employee to give me a receipt after her explanation, but I was disputing her assertion that no USPS offices give them for prepaid packages.
It’s rude and unnecessary.

Okay, I’m going to be the good guy here and say a few things about this Post Office and the team working here.
Today I had an appointment with Peter Alvarez in the passport office. My appointment was at 1:15 and I arrived at 10 minutes to 1:00 completely prepared with all the correct documents (except my checkbook, which is important to the story) and he was able to see me at 1:00. He is clearly very busy and has a line of people waiting to ask questions. It’s almost impossible to call and get an answer because Peter is always with someone. The angry people waiting complained about the «no answer» phone calls but would be the very people to complain if he stopped to answer a phone during their appointment.
He was fast, efficient, and friendly. My carelessness of forgetting my checkbook required that we get money orders from one of the desk people. A woman standing in line «barked» at Peter, «are you just asking a question or cutting in line?» He’s an employee for crying out loud. He handled it very well much better than I would have.
I was in and out of the place in less than 20 minutes. Great job!

The employees behind the counter were extremely rude to all the customers. They refused to be even remotely helpful.

I came in at exactly 2:27 on a saturday, just to pick up a package. The employee behind the desk said they were closed and he couldn’t help me. No one else in line, not like I was making a huge request, just find my package, if normally takes about 2 minutes for the entire process. I work in retail and understand how frustrating it can be when a customer comes in right at close, but saying you can’t help someone before business hours are over is pretty bad, in my opinion.

It’s a post office… but at least the employees don’t act like they hate YOU at this one. Now, they were all openly griping about the policies and issues going on at their workplace, but I at least did not feel like they were going to throw something at me!
If you need a passport, this is the place. Their passport guy even takes appointments, and he is very friendly and helpful.

Why is there only one counter person assisting customers when it is evident that there is a long line snaking through the post office? I have been waiting for 15 minutes and the line has barely moved. There are other postal employees walking around, «pretending» to be busy, and I’m sure they are aware that we have other stuff to do besides wait in this damn line…
I really have no sympathy for the postal industry when they are claiming they are going bankrupt. I’m just surprised they haven’t gone bankrupt sooner

This store is a good example of why USPS as a whole needs to be dissolved and replaced by private industry.

I expect government workers to not be the most cheerful people, but this place takes the cake. The man who dealt with me was extremely rude and not at all helpful. The only saving grace was the supervisor who I eventually dealt with was able to help me without being a dick about it.

Hit or miss for the most part. When I first moved to the neighborhood several years ago, I would have given this a higher rating. The lines moved much more quickly and the staff was really friendly. I was so happy because other post offices were far worse. Going to the post office wasn’t a bad experience and didn’t take much time.
There are a handful of people who work here who are nice and helpful. However, for the most part it just seems like they are overworked and despondent now. Regardless of when I go, there are always too few people at the counter and no one to answer the doorbell at the pick up window. Also, about half the time the machine isn’t working properly or out of stamps. Please, post office, you were once so good! I want to go there.

Decent enough. Nothing good or bad about this post office location. It gets the job done if you live in Northwest Hills.

Lunch time on the day after Christmas and there’s one employee working. It’s run by the government. Aside from that, the employee was very friendly and efficient.

I’ve been to at least 5 of Austin’s post offices and I really wanted to take the time to comment on the best ones. This one has incredible service! The people who work there are kind, patient and devoid of sarcasm. I have watched while these «angels» have helped the most clueless senior citizens and foreign students with their needs without batting an eye. When I’m having a stressful day and know I cannot deal with the Westlake branch attitudes, I drive out of my way to Far west for solid, respectful service.
Thank you!

So all this and it turned out the package was sittung in the local branch. No delivery note ended up at our place (a locked mailbox so not a lost sticker on the the door). My wife ended up just going to the local branch and asking… they were about to send it back.
So they didn’t lose but they sure couldn’t find or help. Still won’t be sending US mail anymore…

What do you expect… a government operation can never achieve 5 stars. That would defy all the laws of Unilocaling. This location is convenient but is always crazy busy. If you need to mail a package, be prepared to wait a solid 15 minutes. Parking can get cray cray sometimes as well.

While the employees here are nicer than your average government workers, the self serve kiosk is never fully functional, it’s always out of something or unable to perform certain tasks.
In addition, I needed to turn in my passport application and called to make an appointment. I was told it would be a month before they could see me. A month.
So I went to the District Clerk’s office where no appointment is necessary and was in and out in 10 minutes.

I tried to get a passport renewal back in February and the post office closer to home tried pulling me in for April. Searching farther, I found the friendly postal people on Far West. Their passport services are above par, professional and very efficient.
When a customer banged on the locked passport office door insistently, the postman calmly opened the door, spoke to her outside the office and gave her forms and an appointment on the spot. He was very patient and friendly which helped the woman calm down, take her appointment and leave quietly.
Needless to say, the passport arrived alot faster than expected. I love people who have good work ethic and the very nice passport man (I think it’s Brad, but I could be wrong) had it down to a science. I went back there today for a package mailing and the line moved quickly. I usually use the machine b/​c I’m masochistic in that way, but if you feel like smiling, hit the line and you’ll get friendly service at the counter.