US Post Office

It was extremely crowded and disorganized. I sent a package a week ago and it’s been lost. I’m never going back.

Merrifield Post Office — what a bad job! The Vienna, Va Post Office directed me to Merrifield to hand-​cancel wedding invitations — to keep them from being mangled by the machine.
Merrifield would not let me hand-​cancel myself (as some post offices will)– but said they would do it later themselves. [Could not promise the folks «downstairs» would avoid putting them through the machine, but they would give it a shot.]
Turned out they did not even try. Got my copy of the invitation in the mail. Envelope is damaged, dirty, and some of ink has been rubbed off the address. (Still readable in my case, but I worry about the other envelopes…)
Nothing else I received in the mail looks this bad.

Worst post office in the country. Possibly worst post office ever. On two separate occasions First Class Mail was either lost or the status didnt change from arrived at destination. Meanwhile no delivery of regular mail either. On this last occasion, package currently shows departed USPS destination facility since fuckin yesterday, really? so my stuff is supposedly sitting in one of those ugly ass delivery cars?.. Since yesterday at 3:00! if you want your first class mail delivered on time you better not think about holding your breath for that my friendly citizens or else you will fuckin die. Especially if your package is medication! This place needs to be banned from delivering mail. But nobody will give a shit about the complaints, or the irrate customers, or the potty mouth reviews, they will carry on with this piss poor service until… well, we’re all fucked folks.

I usually don’t have an issue with this post office, but today I went to use a self-​service kiosk only to
find the 24 hour door blocked from construction. Is the other door open? Nope. It’s locked with a «sorry for the inconvenience» sign posted. Yes I realize today is a federal holiday, but seriously WTF? And ppl were climbing over the construction barriers to get inside!!! Sigh…

My experience was pretty good. My husband & I had to renew passports for our 3 children (all under 16). We went on a Friday (¹⁰⁄₉) when school was out. I got to Merrifield post office by myself around 8:45AM and there was small line forming outside door — only about 10 to 12 people (then more came in behind me). Doors opened at 9AM and everyone in line was allowed to get a ticket from machine. You need to get tickets for number of passports you want new or renewed. We were numbers 12, 13 and 14. I called my husband to bring the kids (and also asked him to bring some folding chairs– in case we needed those but did not) and then we waited about 45 minutes to hour for numbers to be called. You do need check, cash or debit card (NO CREDIT CARDS!!) to pay passport fee which is paid separately to State Department (and I had to write 3 separate checks) and then the photo fees (if needed) and other service fees to post office can be paid by credit card (ours totaled over $ 100). Whole process took about hour and half.

My mom & I arrived here around 4:15am & were the first ones there. We both needed to get our passports and she had come alone the week before and tickets were all gone (I believe they only give out 125 – 130 tickets). After half an hour or so a few more people arrived, then around 7:00am it got packed with people who brought their foldable chairs and blankets. Let me tell you, COME PREPARED. It was early in the morning so it was chilly and after sitting in that for a few hours you feel it. The passport office doesn’t open until 9:00am, but we wanted to get done and jet out of there as fast as we could.
Once we got our tickets (#1 & #2) we were helped a minute after by a lovely associate named Chumming, she made the process painless and was very nice (we asked tons of questions).
I definitely recommend arriving as early as possible and to be prepared to wait hours, there isn’t a public restroom onsite so don’t consume tons of liquid! Dress appropriately and bring something to do, it gets boring after a while.

Alright people if you like waiting in lines this is the place to be. This is the only passport place I found that takes walk ins day of. So I recommend coming early or you’ll wait can be between 2 to 4 hours guarantee.
So I came here to get my passport since I lost mine awhile back. Wish I didn’t so I didn’t have to do this process. So you need to be really early to finish quick and get out. I got here roughly a little before 6 am on a Wednesday morning and was the fourth in line. I brought a lawn chair and a book to kill time. Only bathroom available is at gas station so make sure you use the bathroom elsewhere if you don’t prefer going there. A line starts to build closer to 7 am. Doors do not open until 9 am in which each person will receive a numbered ticket. You must get a ticket for each person getting their passport done! If you lose ticket your shit out of luck.
Inside a man told us what to expect and how the whole process will happen. Good to know for anyone going THEY DO NOT TAKE CREDIT CARDS as a form of payment. You must pay with either CASH, CHECK, or DEBIT CARD. I paid with cash. The process for me took roughly 10 to 15 minutes. I had already typed up paperwork to hand in and did passport photos elsewhere. I believe the person who helped me name was CHUNMING. She was polite and made sure I had all the necessary signed documents needed for completion. I paid roughly $ 138.75 which includes post office fee of $ 25.00 and a state fee roughly about $ 110.75. I did not expedite my passport. I’m not sure what the price difference is for that.
So when doors opened at 9 I was finished close to 930. When I left the main passport room, it was filled and almost the whole post office lobby next to it. No matter what you do if you come early you’ll be in a line, but later on you’ll be in a longer line. I recommend coming early to be in and out. I was thankful it wasn’t rainy or to sunny. Please check weather before doing this Incase of rain or bad weather. There isn’t any spots to retreat under if bad weather occurs.
All in all, I’ll make sure I won’t lose my passport again and have to repeat this process.