PO Box vs Street address--Rant

[hoppy]

I have wondered if I could put the post office's street address on my package mail where I have a po box. would that make the package company happy? (maybe instead of my box number I could put suite#-- sounds so much more glamourous,

)
(my suite is 6" x 4")

 

[Tuffoldhen]

We are going thru the same thing !! I feel your pain! It's as if I wrote the thread! lol The day before yesterday and yesterday I dealt with an ebay seller that was trying to go through FedEx and UPS to get box shipped to me! What a mess!!! We use all 3 sources to get packages delivered to us and it has become a hassel with UPS and FedEx when dealing with a catalog company. We are on a rural route but have always gone into town for our mail.

 

[Nana2KJS]

Quote:
Some companies do that. They put our office address on the top and then have the customer address below for us to deliver. One lady actually RETURNED her packages to us and complained that they weren't hers!

Sometimes I just think that happy never happens!

 

[debilorrah]

I have everything I order delivered to wrok. Solves alot of my problems.

 

[Nana2KJS]

Except when "work" has a PO box!

Like I said - no one is every really satisfied - too many variables all the way around.

 

[Judy]

When I moved out in the country about 4 years ago, I switched from many years of PO Box to a mailbox. Twice vandals have knocked down the boxes, and the wrong mail goes in the box every couple of weeks. Once my neighbor brought my bank statement to me. It has become obvious that the regular carrier does his job well but the relief carriers, well.... The road graders (dirt road) get closer and closer, and there is nothing there to anchor them to, so you have to hang onto the box to close it. We buried the thing way over 3 feet with concrete, but even so.... And they will likely never pave it because it would be a one way road then. (Of course, two cars have no trouble going by each other.)

Since my rural address is a plain old street address, I've had no trouble with Amazon and the like, no matter who delivers. This is convenient. But I miss the security of that locked box, and expect to see a trend back to them. I won't mail my bills or anything of importance in my mailbox, I wait and take them to the PO.

Anyway, what the OP is talking about is certainly a problem for others, and ridiculous; guess we need more software people who live rurally.

 

[annaraven]

Quote:
Suite number was what I was going to suggest. In fact, some companies that provide po boxes allow you to do that. It would probably work just fine too!

 

[Mrs MIA]

I've run into this too. Being in rural Alaska, we HAVE a street address, but we do not have mail delivery to the house. The PO Box is the only address we use for mailing and billing. I recently tried to get a Paypal debit card for my account, but because they won't deliver it to my PO box (the credit card companies don't care, why should they?) I can't get one.

And more and more I'm finding that vendors will not ship to a PO Box. Like Farmtek. And if they do, they want to charge overnight prices when they can send it priority mail flat rate. I've gotten around this on items that I desperately need by having them shipped to my parents in the lower 48, (or Miss Prissy even did it for me once with egg cartons.com!) and saved a bundle even with double shipping. It's a pita. But there is NO WAY I'm putting a box out on the road... the boxes that ARE out there get mowed down by the plow trucks every year, and there's always the stolen mail thing. Nope. I'll do without before giving up the PO Box...

 

[woodmort]

Aaah It appears we're not alone. In response this is what we've done. All our credit cards have both addresses on them so we only have two or three rejections per year because the information doesn't match up. We alway try to sneak the PO box number on the address in some way--generally as Box # on the same line as the street address. Have long conversations with customer service on some etrade sites until they agree to put the box number someplace in the address. BTW, my girl at the PO told me they will deliver to the first address under your name. We have a written agreement with the carrier to leave all large packages at the PO regardless of the address--this ticks my DW off because her Amazon orders are late but that's life.

One advantage: when the USPS does away with Saturday delivery they still will have the PO lobby open on Sat. so we still will be able to pick up mail.

joebryant--it's a shorter walk from the car to the lobby of the PO than it is from the house to the mailbox.

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Walk? Moi?
If God had wanted me to walk, he wouldn't have given me a car.