Some Hopping Mad About Stamps : 3-Cent Plan Not Worth 2 Cents to Those in Line

Mike Martin sat fuming Wednesday in the crowded lobby of a post office in Santa Ana.

For three days, he said, he had been trying to purchase 3-cent stamps to go along with the 22-cent stamps he had stockpiled before the U.S. Postal Service on Sunday raised the price of mailing a first-class letter to 25 cents. And for three days he had run into obstacles.

On Monday, Martin showed up at a post office in Irvine at 5:30 p.m.--only to discover that the normal closing time of 6:30 p.m. had been cut back to 5 p.m. On Tuesday, he returned to find that the same post office had run out of 3-cent stamps.

On Wednesday, the 42-year-old Martin went to another post office at 3101 Sunflower Ave. in Santa Ana. He finally got his stamps, but only after sitting in the lobby for about 30 minutes.

“It doesn’t show much planning,” Martin, a self-employed graphics businessman, said with an angry glare. “It doesn’t show very much regard for the public.”

Martin was not the only person upset with the Postal Service because of inconveniences in the wake of the latest increase in postage rates. Long lines for 3-cent stamps have been reported every day since Monday in post offices throughout Southern California.

Officials said post offices in Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties have sold 28 million 3-cent stamps in the past week, and that more stamps are being rushed in to alleviate shortages.

“We’ve received 2 million new 3-cent (stamps) just for this division,” said Joseph Breckenridge, spokesman for the Postal Service’s Santa Ana division, which covers most of Orange County. “Many of our vending machines, which are normally filled once a day, are having to be filled five to six times a day.”

Officials said 10 special distribution centers across the country are being used to rush 200 million extra 3-cent stamps to local post offices to relieve unanticipated shortages. An emergency shipment arrived at noon Wednesday at the distribution center in San Diego, which serves Southern California.

Breckenridge said lobby crowds have slacked off by as much as a third at many post offices in the area, although some still were reporting “quite . . . a surge.”

Compounding the difficulty for postal customers is the new closing hour of 5 p.m. for window service. The restricted hours were instituted after Congress in December ordered the Postal Service to trim $1.24 billion from its budget over the next two years.

Breckenridge said customers could avoid the inconvenience of waiting in line if they adopted any of these alternatives:

- Use the vending machines in post offices and retail stores to buy the first-class “E” stamps, which are in abundant supply. The stamps are the equivalent of a 25-cent stamp.

- Order stamps by mail. The postage-free form to mail for stamps is available through the post office or a postal carrier. The turnaround time for getting stamps back ranges from three to five days.

- Order stamps by telephone. To order, dial 1-800-STAMP-24 and request a minimum of $12.50 in stamps by charging them to a credit card. There is a $2 surcharge, and the stamps should arrive within five business days, Breckenridge said.

Some postal customers said Wednesday that they wouldn’t mind the price increases and reduced lobby hours if only postage service were better. But most complained that it has deteriorated.

Lilia Powell, for example, who stood in line at the post office on Sunflower, said she received two letters Tuesday inviting her to events that occurred in March. Powell, 38, a housewife and community volunteer, said she had stood in line for 20 minutes Wednesday to purchase the 3-cent stamps necessary for her remaining roll of 25 22-cent stamps.

Karen Ferberdino, 28, an accountant from Costa Mesa, stood in the same line to purchase 3-cent stamps for her $20 roll of 22-cent stamps.

“It can’t get too much higher or no one will be able to afford to mail letters,” Ferberdino said.

Breckenridge said postage rates would probably not go up again for at least another three years, and perhaps even longer. He said the current postal administration is committed to keeping increases to a minimum.

That news is little consolation to people such as Vanessa Yassine, 26, a Santa Ana housewife who had the misfortune of buying a 100-stamp roll of 22-cent stamps one day before the 3-cent increase was announced four weeks ago.

“I was upset,” Yassine said, holding a wad of 3-cent stamps that she had stood in line to purchase at the Sunflower post office. “I had to get my mom to baby sit my 7-month-old boy just so I could come down and do this.”

Times staff writer Bob Pool contributed to this report.