Playa Postal Center

I came here to have 17 file boxes shredded. Shawn, the employee behind the counter, went through the seemingly endless process of weighing each box (he wound up with a $ 20 tip-​good attitude!). But due to a misunderstanding on my end, 11 of those boxes were to be shipped, not shredded. I was able to recover them from the shop at opening time the following morning as they had not yet been picked up by the contracted shredding service.
However, I have repeatedly tried to contact the owner re: a partial refund (I am more then willing to accommodate the cost of Shawn’s time and labor) but, despite having Shawn later tell me by phone that «she» would call me, I have heard nothing but specious reasons for her unavailability.
I fear this is going to result in a small claims action, a nuisance indeed, but for which I have time to pursue. The One Star is right now for the apparent «the hell with him» attitude of the owner who is seemingly indifferent to customer service and issue resolution.

Never again will I use this postal center. I gave them a package to ship to Los Angeles, that already had a label. They somehow sent it to Massachusetts and charged me for the wrong address! Now I am out $ 75 dollars because they sent my package to the wrong location.

UPDATE: I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH– IF YOU WANT A LEGITIMATE POST OFFICE IN THIS TOWN, IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH SEVERE CONVENIENCE INFLATION– DO NOT SHIP HERE!!! They are causing the post office to offer less and less service due to less demand! Because the post office was closed today, on a SATURDAY, I was left with no choice but to ship with this terrible «business». If I’m paying for convenience, then I have a very hard time understanding why I had to wait behind a couple who had the one working person pack 3 packages for them. NO ONE in the line was happy about this, but since this is the only option in town, we are left with no option but to wait. To add further insult, they again charged me $ 10 over true postage. I have previously shipped with the exact same specifications at USPS, and was charged $ 7, but at Playa Postal? You guessed it– $ 17!!! I guess in the future if I ship here (read: when pigs fly, when hell freezes over, when I can actually grow money from trees), I will just bring all my crap and have them pack my box like the inconsiderate couple before me, get my extra $ 10’s worth.
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After living in the neighborhood for a year, I can attest to how much of a rip off this place is. I live a 5 minute walk from here, and 15 min walk from USPS, and will gladly walk the 10 extra minutes down the hill. I have had many experiences with this place and have truly experienced the various ways they overcharge, with one of the most ridiculous and insulting ways being their shipping.
For example, the guy with the man-​bun has lied to my face before and said that everywhere charges extra for tracking. Right, go to USPS and tell them you don’t want tracking so you can have a cheaper rate, and they will tell you it makes no difference in their rate.
But the bigger issue lies ahead.
I went to go mail a 5lb box and asked for the lowest rate available. He replied that the cheapest option is USPS at $ 28 and something cents. Very suspicious, I politely declined and went down the hill. $ 18.75 at USPS with my tracking included. It’s very interesting that that there is a $ 10 difference with a walk 10 minutes longer (or 2 minute drive).
It’s very upsetting for users on here to say support small business, bc a business like this is not what that message is about, and makes small biz look bad. This place is blatantly disrespectful to the residents of the neighborhood, and goes beyond charging for convenience. Instead, support USPS, which will improve it’s service in this neighborhood with our demand directed towards them instead of Playa Postal.

I had the absolute best experience with this business! The help and customer service I received from the owner was above and beyond! I needed a letter upgraded to be able to track that someone had just regular mailed :/​and she found the letter, upgraded it and at a Great price! The peace of mind and relief of knowing my irreplaceable document I needed in an extreme rush was in this woman’s thoughtful and caring hands and the assurance my package was on its way tomorrow Fedex with tracking instead of on some USPS stoned donkey will allow me to finally stop worrying :) thank you so much to the wonderful owner and courteous staff at Playa Postal Center!

Definitely not the most organized-​looking postal center, but the two individuals behind the counter definitely get the job done. The front is where all the mailboxes are, with two counters for writing, prepping envelopes/​boxes, etc. Again, not very organized, but I don’t use that area myself.
You can drop off USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL packages here; plenty of packaging is available – just remember that most things they hand you to use, you have to pay a small fee for, which isn’t unusual for a postal center.
Usually, after you give all the address information, the guy behind the counter will enter all that, and then ask you what type of shipping you want to do, and will also recommend the cheapest/​best option for your item.
There’s a $ 0.50 charge for credit card transactions less than $ 10. Parking lot is shared with surrounding shops in the little strip mall area. The postal center sign is kind of easy to miss, but it’s situated right next to the pizza place.

Went there just to print one black and white page. Was told to just pull it up on the computer they had there. They then charged me 3 dollars because i used the computer. Ridiculous, 3 bucks to print one piece of paper.

I needed to send some fragile items to Northern California and I remembered how helpful this place was when I needed a notary.
This place is like the Swiss Army knife of stores. They have cards, calendars, PO boxes, gifts, all type of packing materials and notary & passport photo services. The staff is very helpful.
It got pretty crowded so I let other people cut in front of me since I needed my items packed and boxed. A large amount of locals came in and were familiar with them. That is always a good sign. Shawn packed up my shipment. Told me the options (costs & tracking) of using UPS over USPS.
A nice convenient place to ship out packages especially if you dont like waiting in line at the post office.

Ive had a P.O. Box here for a while and it is a great place. They offer a lot of services and are professional friendly people.

It’s very slow here, but the staff are awesome and hey, how convenient is it to have a notary here? If the place were run faster, which I don’t know how, it would be four stars.

The woman who seems to be the owner is nice but she is SUPER SLOW. There were three costumers ahead of me and I had to wait about forty minutes. She took her dog and gave it to her son, came back tried helping the first customer, went back and brought the dog, asked her son to help her and he was even more confused !!! If I’ve known I had to wait that long I would have never gone there.

Excellent customer service with tolerance for absurd customers (yours TRUELY) and outstanding attention to detail. These are my go to guys. I trust them and adore them as well, a VERY rare combo!

They’re open when the USPS at the bottom of the hill is closed. Convenient location for those living at the top of the hill in PDR.

Support your local business… especially if they provide great service with a smile.
They do a great job, are conveniently located and are an excellent option when you just can’t bear to face the lone, overworked postal employee in town (poor guy).

No complaints at all. I rent a Box from them, price is competitive. I have shipped off-​season and at Christmas and never had a problem aside from a ten minute wait at Christmas… I suppose that is acceptable :-)

LOVE this place! Always helpful, wonderful and accommodating. Shawn is the BEST — and so appreciated for always helping with any issue, including gift wrapping, business related expenses and how to save — and helping with those heavy Amazon boxes, as needed. The owners are great — going out of their way to assist and help with every shipping need.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Crissy F’s review. I gave this postal center several tries because of the convenience, but each time I feel like I’ve been ripped off and there is no way to tell how much you’ll pay or how things are being priced.
I just went in to send a package to a friend in Florida. She had just sent me a heavier, bigger package and paid $ 12.50. There is no justification for why I paid over $ 17 on a smaller box that was significantly lighter in weight.
I went in and specifically asked for the cheapest way to ship. When I mentioned the above and situation their responses were shady. She said without tracking it was a couple dollars cheaper. Did I ask for tracking? No. Did I ask for the cheapest shipping? Yes.
Feel ripped off everytime I’ve come in to mail anything. And why would anyone mail anything if every single time you ship your light as air package costs way more than what’s inside.
Parking: Easy. Private little strip mall lot.

I hate the phrase «support small businesses» because it fails to differentiate between GOOD small businesses and ones that are just okay or terrible. Why I’m supposed to blindly support any small business, regardless of goodness, is beyond me. But I will support good small businesses over chains any day.
However, this is not one of those small businesses. And it is also the reason I sometimes have to resort to Kinko’s or some big chain, because at least there I always know what i am getting. There’s no hidden charges, no mysteries.
I feel at this postal center there have been a few eyebrow raising moments for me which make me reconsider coming here:
Here are the main reasons I have raised an eyebrow and subsequently given this place two stars:
1 — Very overpriced. I understand they are small, but c’mon, you’re going to go out of business if you charge such a giant markup on mailing services because people will just deal with the USPS nearby instead. At least you know what you are getting at the USPS store price wise.
2– Trust is an issue. Sometimes I say «Send it the slowest, least expensive way possible» and the price they come back with is astronomical based on the package. And then after some prodding, I’ll discover that they did not quote me the slowest, quickest way possible, that there was a cheaper price they failed to mention. Not cool.
3 — The small business vibe isn’t present. At Kinko’s, I know they will charge me for tape to tape up a box. I know this, because they are Kinko’s. However, at a small business, like other postal centers I’ve been to, they extend courtesies as a thank you for supporting their small business. And in exchange, you pay a little more for their services. It’s a good exchange. For instance, usually local postal centers have a giant thing of packing tape and use it when needed on the boxes of its patrons. However, I went in here once with a few boxes and I suddenly noticed I had forgotten to tape up one. The box was like 5″ x 5″ and probably needed one strip of tape. Keep in mind I was spending over $ 100 to ship several packages in the end which they had already rang up. When I asked if they had a piece of tape for the one small package I forgot to tape up, I was directed to the for sale tape on the wall. For one tiny package? And I’m spending so much money there? C’mon. Then, to make matters worse, when I got the receipt back, they charged me FIVE DOLLARS for a crappy roll of 95cent U-​line tape. (I saw the price on Uline’s website). Total ripoff and just not good customer service. It’s like, why would I go here if they are going to treat me like what a big chain postal center would treat me AND also overcharge me? Doesn’t make sense. Also — not entirely friendly. Not rude per say, but just neutral, they give you the stuff and it’s done; it’s not like, a mom and pop vibe in there at all.
2 Stars instead of 1 because they do offer a lot of services in one location and they are not really friendly or rude, just neutral which is fine. (Even if they are silently ripping you off). It’s in a good location with lots of other services nearby. Also, they sell cute stuff in the shop like purses and trinkets which are also kind of unique.
But yeah, I’ll definitely have to think twice about coming here in the future.

This place is OK. I first came here to get a passport picture taken a few months ago. I called to ensure that this was a service they provided and then drove up the hill. I waited in line for 10 minutes and then they told me they were all out of film. (They couldn’t have told me that when I was on the phone with them previously?)
The most recent encounter I have had with them was yesterday when I specifically left work early to get a legal document notarized. Their hours are from 10am-​6pm so instead of going before work I had to leave work early to get there before they closed. I walked in right before 6 and the guy said that the notary is only there from 1 – 5. Basically just because they are open does not mean that they offer all the services listed during those times.
I ended up looking around and finding another place down the street to take care of my post-​office and notary needs.
If you are driving by the place and they are open I’m sure you could buy some stamps and print some documents — but I wouldn’t count on it.

I came here during a weekday in hopes of avoiding the rude customer service the post office serves up. Negative! This place has incompetent employees and is extremely overpriced. I came in with a small package to mail to Mexico. Nothing too complicated. I didn’t want a tracking number or anything special. I just wanted to mail a package!
2 people were working and they were helping customers when I arrived. After a 15 – 20 minute wait, someone finally helped me and had great difficulty figuring out how to mail a package to Mexico. To top it off, it cost me over $ 40! That’s over 3 times as much as the post office costs.
I’m all for supporting small businesses but not this one. I do not see any advantage to coming here — the employees are not friendly, costs are at least double, and it isn’t any faster or more efficient than the post office.

*** In this recession, support small biz. ***
Our future economic recovery is new biz.
The economy has been in the crapper …
corporations downsizing to reduce costs,
others close entirely and move overseas,
bankruptcies are at a record high volume.
Yet the Playa Postal Center re-​opens in a
slow part of town «under new management».
How can I not at least try not to support that?
I came for passort photos, and left w/​more.
Passport pics were only $ 11, took 10mins.
Then I realized I need copies of tax ret’ns.
No problem. Oh, I needed stamps too …
again no problem. They had that as well.
It is a 1-​stop shop for document services.
Like everything in Playa, this place is chilled.
Services are done in a «relaxed fashion». ;)
There is no line, maybe 1 or 2 customers.
*** Support the economy, use small biz. ***