Post offices stamp out stamp machines

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Customers weary of post office lines suspect the loss of venerable stamp machines contributes to their waits although the Postal Service says newer services should be taking up the slack.

On the outside the Postal Service's Steve Schiff Station in northeast Albuquerque seems the center of commerce as dozens of customers fight traffic just to get in the parking lot.

Yet inside customers pass empty walls and empty spaces.

“It looks to me like they're actually going out of business,” postal customer Carole Hartman said. Since the Postal Service pulled two stamp machines from a corner of the building this spring, Schiff Station seemed busier, she added.

“The line has been really bad every day,” Hartman added. “And its not Christmas time, so I don't get it.”

When customer Jay Thomas was asked if the lack of vending machines made for longer lines, he responded, “They can't possibly make them shorter, can they?”

For the Postal Service, the issue is keeping up with technology.

“The equipment was old and antiquated, and we couldn't find the replacement parts,” Postal Service spokeswoman Barbara Wood said. “They were getting to the point where they would break down so much that we have to send people out several times a day.”

The Postal Service said the yanking of these old, outdated machines, doesn't have to translate to longer lines for customer service.

In their place, computer-driven automated machine prints stamps and sells postage. However it only takes credit cards.

The Postal Service also says people don't have to go to the post office to get stamps anymore. They can go online or to banks and supermarkets.

“You've got to have the vending machines; to me it's a part of service,” Hartman said adding there needs to be something for those who want to buy one or two stamps and not have to wait in line.

But she conceded the machines spent as much time out of order as they did dispensing stamps.

The Postal Service also chose not to buy new vending machines claiming they're too expensive, especially for a business that posted a $2 billion loss last year.