Misses Dash?

Queens address dashes aren’t a pain because the post office needs them (they don’t — their machines ignore them) or call center people from outside the area misunderstand you (I think they generally get what you’re trying to say) but rather because hardware stores don’t stock them:

But the real problem comes when you want to replace the dash, said [a Middle Village resident]. Recently, [she] arrived at her home and the dash was missing from her front door.

“I ran to two hardware stores and they don’t carry it anymore,” she said, noting that a Home Depot vendor saved the day when he custom-made one for her.

“If you want to buy a dash in Queens you really have to put some elbow grease into finding one,” she added.