Every year, you always hear about "extended hours" at the Post Office.If you're a procrastinator, or someone who loves the excitement of waiting til the last minute to take of stuff, you will know first hand of these "extended hours".
In the years before they even invented Tele-file, I had had my tax return done for weeks, but for some reason, never got around to putting a stamp on it and sticking it in the mail.
I was living in Philly, so at around ten forty-five at night, I got in my car, and stopped at the big post office across from 30th Street Station, where they were open til midnight. The place was busy, in fact MUCH BUSIER than it'd be in the middle of a regular work day, and even had tables set up with extra forms laying around so people could do their taxes right there.
And yes, there really were people doing their taxes at 11PM on April 15th right there at the post office!
So today, even though I had taken care of my taxes last month, I was curious which places around here had extended hours.
I went to their site...
clicked on the link...
...started looking in my immediate area...
AND FOUND NOTHING!
I couldn't believe it. So, I started plugging in addresses to really big post offices & sorting facilities where I knew there just had to be extended hours...
AND STILL NOTHING!
And maybe I'm crazy.
Maybe I don't know how to use an online search tool.
Who knows.
But here is exactly what I saw for some of the area's bigger post offices, and I even included a huge location in NYC and the very facility I went to in Center City:
Does anyone know of a Post Office that definitely DOES have these extended hours tonight?
Sure would be helpful for the Post Office to actually provide this information on their website, right?!
I think it's about time the USPS stop hemming & hawing about how business is down, and talks of raising price of stamps, or cutting back on Saturday hours. Because clearly they don't need the business TODAY.
So if you still have to send out your taxes today -- you'd best be getting it done by lunchtime!!!
well if your Turbo Tax you can E-file
ReplyDeletebut anyway, it says here to call the #. for one day i dont think they would bother to include this on their site otherwise,too much trouble?
link to page
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usps.com/news/facts/lfu_041502.htm
Hey - thanks Sandy. Actually I did call -- and the hours on their site ARE their actual "late hours". By "late", apparently they mean "later than usual" -- and that's only happening at very very very few locations.
ReplyDeleteI even checked out the Post Office across the street from the IRS building in DC, no dice (although, duh, if you were across the street from the IRS, you probably wouldn't bother using the mail, right?!)
I just hope everybody's taken care of their business in time, bc you're not gonna get backup from your friendly pals at the Post Office tonite!
Sorry, but I gotta stick up for the Postal Workers on this one. It's not their problem that people waited so long to mail their returns that they need to find a post office open at midnight. Like April 15 is supposed to come at a different time every year ... hey late-filers ... you've only know about this tax deadline for 364 days!
ReplyDeleteI think in the past the Post Office has stayed open just as a courtesy, but they're certainly under no obligation to do so.
And who 'mails' their returns, anyway? Ever hear of this new-fangled thing called 'the computer'?