West End postmaster stamps out his service

JAMAICA BEACH — Post office customers will have to buy their stamps at a new place today — in a van parked behind city hall — because contract postmaster Quinton Biggs said he no longer can afford to subsidize his deal with the U.S. Postal Service.

He closed his in-store sales unit for good at noon Saturday after losing “about $50,000” on its operation.

Meanwhile, Dionne Montague, of the Postal Service’s Houston district, which covers Galveston County, said the district is advertising for a new contractor to take on the city’s postal sales service, and the change would not affect standard mail deliveries to homes, businesses and cluster boxes.

Biggs told The Daily News on Friday he has lost “about $1,500 a month” since taking on the contract at his 16708 San Luis Pass business services and computer repair store in August 2007.

Before opening, he said he wanted the contract to attract more customers to his business, which is hidden from the main street by a gas station.

Since then, his in-store contract postal unit has supplied a box number address service, sold stamps and accepted packages on behalf of the postal service.

But he said Friday the contract has cost him so much that, on March 24 this year, he gave the service 120 days’ notice of termination unless he could be allowed to operate on terms that would at least allow him to break even.

Negotiations began in earnest in June, but Biggs said the service would not allow him a better rate.

“I won the contract in 2007 by bidding for 15 percent of the unit’s total profit,” he said.

“I now reckon it would take between 28 and 30 percent to break even, but I am not allowed to earn more than I do now.”

Another contributing factor in Biggs’ decision to quit was a limit in the number of stamps he could sell any one customer.

“I could not sell to anyone who wanted more than the limit because I had to sign an affidavit that I would not split the sale into amounts below the limit,” he said.

“So grocery stores and other customers that buy big quantities had to go into Galveston for their stamps.

“I wasn’t getting any more walk-ins, and so the contract unit was losing me a lot of money. I’d love to keep it open, but I simply cannot afford to do so. I just hope it doesn’t affect my main business.”

Biggs said that, during his negotiations, postal officials had asked him not to tell anyone his service could be closing.

“I understand that,” he said. “But I do think the customers should have been given at least a month’s notice so they could make change of address arrangements.”

Last week, a letter in which Galveston Postmaster George Henley explained the change in service was placed in the boxes of customers who have a post office box address at Compu-Place.

The letter said standard mail deliveries to homes, businesses and cluster boxes will be unaffected by the contract unit’s closure, but anyone requiring a post office box service will have to apply for a new address at either the main or Bob Lyons post offices in Galveston.

Customers receiving post office box mail at their home or business address also will need to complete an application for their service to continue.

Post office staff manning the “Post Office on Wheels” van at 16628 San Luis Pass will sell stamps, accept packages and change of address applications but will not be able to accept Express Mail Service packages. Henley’s letter said that service, too, will require a trip to Galveston.

The mobile unit’s weekly hours will be noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

For services outside those hours or to arrange continuation of their post office box service, customers will have to travel to the Bob Lyons station, 5826 Broadway, in Galveston, or Galveston Main Post Office, 601 25th St.