Santa Monica Postal Services — Attraction in Santa Monica

I’ll start off by saying that I have an idea as to why this place has such good reviews. From my personal experience, he asked me how I had heard about his business and I told him I was referred by a random person who said they took good passport photos. He then asked, before providing any sort of service, if I could write a review for his business. He proceeded to ask for my phone, personally went through my google maps to get to my reviews, found his business, tapped “5-stars” and said “here, write whatever you want,” and handed me back my phone. I’m not saying he doesn’t provide great services to many people, but perhaps he’s a bit pushy about reviews (as he physically went into my phone himself). I now feel compelled to edit my original review as there seems to be alarming behavior by the owner towards his customers. After my first-and-only visit to his shop, I wrote a FOUR-star review, simply noting that the price of the passport photos were relatively expensive. Did I ever say it wasn’t worth it? No, but I felt some people may like to know how much their (well-taken) passport photos would cost them. It was a review that I thought was standard, fair, and innocent. Here was my original review, verbatim: “They take wonderful passport photos!! But are just a little on the expensive end ($40)” It’s important to note that regarding the price I paid, he did ask me if I was “struggling” financially, and that he’s willing to help people out if that were the case, I’m assuming by offering a discount. I politely responded with “I’m okay.” I said this because, am I “struggling?” I don’t think I could completely and fairly make that claim. Concurrently: do I think that $40 for passport photos is expensive? Indeed! Another important thing: my passport photo was absolutely very good! He responded to my original review with a lengthy statement, which was quite unhinged; it was a pretty intense response to what I thought was a rather kind review, having only given a heads-up on pricing. Again, my 4-star review was originally as shown above, without any extractions. When writing a review as a customer, it’s no different than stating how much a meal would cost, on-average, at a restaurant. After seeing his response, I went on to read his other reviews. It seems there was another woman who also wrote a less-than-perfect review, and the business owner’s response to her review was MUCH worse, including name-calling, insults, as well as deflections and excuses in response to her claims that he made inappropriate remarks towards her and made her feel uncomfortable while she was in his shop. Check out his 1-star reviews and his responses to them. There are claims of verbal abuse, racist comments, and much more. I would never be writing this, nor would I have looked through his previous reviews, had he not responded in such a rude way. Come to find out, his response to me was much less crazy and harsh than the way he’s spoken to other customers. Quite frankly, it’s harassment, of your own customers. I also would not be mentioning how he was constantly calling me “mama,” “baby”, and “gorgeous” the entire time I was in his shop, which I didn’t appreciate. I’d now conclude he’s not entirely innocent in his behavior, but rather combative, inappropriate, and unsettling. While there, I waited patiently as he was juggling a man who was returning to his store after receiving keys that were copied for him and “wouldn’t even fit into the keyhole” because they were so thick, and also juggling someone who came in to buy stamps, and was shocked at the price of $20 per package of stamps (so he walked out without buying any). So, I was understanding as to why he couldn’t exactly stay on task of helping me. I have worked in customer service for years and would never note something like that unless I had serious reason to. This is all to say that it’s a shame that people get away with this kind of behavior, especially as a business owner, and even rewarded with great reviews. I’m ALL for small businesses, but not when you harass and insult...

Update after owner's response:

Wow. I was initially going to leave my review as-is and move on, but after reading the owner’s unhinged, trashy response filled with personal attacks and mockery, I feel it’s important to clarify a few things:

1. I’m sorry if there was any misunderstanding about the phone call. I did not know you were on hold with the IRS. That said, you never communicated that clearly. I stood waiting in silence while you stayed on the line for several minutes. It didn’t need to be a big deal, but instead of apologizing or offering a polite explanation, you followed up with sarcasm and hostility.

You absolutely did touch my arm, uninvited, and it made me extremely uncomfortable. You asked about my tattoos. You did not say anything about “ink poisoning” or try to be informative in any way. That claim is completely fabricated and frankly, delusional.

I was charged around $40 to ship two tiny packages, one of which was returned to me marked “insufficient postage.” So no, your so-called discount doesn’t mean much when I paid for something that didn’t even make it to its destination.

And finally, your response says everything anyone needs to know about this business. Instead of addressing concerns like a professional, you lashed out with name-calling, insults, and weird jokes about "Drama Queen Awards" and “living in La La Land.” It's wildly inappropriate and completely unacceptable behavior for someone running a customer-facing business.

I stand by my review. I was disrespected in person and then disrespected again in writing. If you’re considering using this store, I strongly suggest reading the owner’s response. It really tells you everything you need to know.

I don't know if I just got one employee that was off, but for the life of me I don't understand why these reviews are 4.8 stars.

When I walked in the guy was on a personal call (I believe) and stayed on the phone for like 10 minutes while I was waiting.

He was super vague in his questions and gestures and low key got upset with me because HE was not paying attention to the packages.

He also put his hand on my arm and asked about my tattoos. No thanks, I don't need to be touched like that by a stranger.

To top it all off, I just got a package returned to me today for insufficient postage after spending $40 on shipping for two packages that were tiny and barely weighed anything.

It's a rip off, the guy was rude and creepy, and you can't even depend on your package actually showing up. Thumbs down from me. Will not be returning and will be telling friends/family not to take their...

OWNER IS RUDE AND CREEPY! I've never felt more uncomfortable in a retail experience before. I went in to ship a package and instead got an earful (unprompted) from the owner about the current state of our country, LA, the unhoused, etc. I just smiled, nodded and kept steering the conversation back to my package.

Ultimately I wasn't able to ship my package because I had a pre-printed label for a return and he couldn't accept the label I had. No worries I was fine going somewhere else, it's not the reason I'm leaving a 1 star review - but then he started ranting again, this time about pre-paid labels and how they're hurting small businesses like his. He really made ME feel like shit for trying to ship something with a pre-paid return label from a different service , and when I told him I have no idea how pre-paid shipping labels work, he pointed at me and said pretty soon he'll be out of business because of people like me. I did nothing wrong, wasn't confrontational, it just seemed like he was in the mood to argue.

2 Days later, my wife goes in to purchase packaging and ship an item, and he was incredibly rude to her as well, making fun of her for not knowing what size of box to use for her package and again ranting about random 'issues with LA'. His body language became erratic and he started talking about his 'hall of shame' on the wall, she started to legitimately feel unsafe being alone with him in the store and left as soon as she paid. We moved here recently from the mid-west, we have thick skin and are not confrontational people - we were actually really excited to have a shipping service so close to our home. Instead we both felt like garbage after interacting with the owner.

I fully expect Dimitri, the owner, to double down on this review and claim we're 'crazy' or something - seems to be his tactic. I have not motive here, just hope he sees this and takes stock in how he interacts with new customers,...