Vendors won't ship to your PO Box? Here's how to solve that.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

My primary mailing address is my PO Box at a US Post Office. Any mail or packages I receive are safe from thieves, and if anything is bigger than my usual box, the post office simply puts the oversized item(s) into a larger, locked postal box for me.

But I have run into problems sometime with vendors who will not ship to a PO Box. That's frustrating.

Recently, I found out the way around this. If you have a PO Box, go to your local post office and fill out a short form, authorizing this.

If you are trying to have something sent to you, but they don't ship to PO Boxes, now you can simply have it sent to :
"John Doe
100 Main St, #n
Anytown, TX 75xxx"

Where "100 Main St." is actually your post office's street address, and "n" = your box number.
Alternatively, you may either use "#n" or "Unit n".
Don't put in any text that ID's this as the post office.

Easy, peasey, Japanesey.

SIA

[G40yes]

This works for me. I use “Unit NNN”, which may appear like an apartment number. It is then treated as a valid address for both mail and packages.

[RoyGBiv]

I use STE 123 (for po box 123).

EX
423 Main St, STE 123
Anytown, TX 76345

[flechero]

Are you guys having to do this in cases where UPS or Fedex is the carrier or are there vendors who actually ship USPS that won't accept the address?

[ScottDLS]

My question isn't about shipping but about retrieving: how did you make peace with having to disarm to get your mail? (I don't know I could)

Now if FedEx would start renting out boxes, that would be awesome (they are neither posted nor a federal building).

UPS stores rent out mailboxes and will accept both postal and private shipper (Fedex, DHL, UPS) packages and hold them for you. None that I've seen are posted. Main package facilities are sometimes 30.06 posted, but not the stores that rent boxes.

[clarionite]

My question isn't about shipping but about retrieving: how did you make peace with having to disarm to get your mail? (I don't know I could)

Now if FedEx would start renting out boxes, that would be awesome (they are neither posted nor a federal building).

UPS stores rent out mailboxes and will accept both postal and private shipper (Fedex, DHL, UPS) packages and hold them for you. None that I've seen are posted. Main package facilities are sometimes 30.06 posted, but not the stores that rent boxes.

I have a box at the UPS store, and use the address of the store, and ste xxx for my box number.
It works great, except for some sites that apparently use some kind of USPS scrubbing software for their addresses when entered. It sometimes wants to strip it off.

[narcissist]

I can see how this could be used if it's a must, but your not supose to carry in the post office. So I'll keep getting my mail at my address and packages also.

[Lynyrd]

My question isn't about shipping but about retrieving: how did you make peace with having to disarm to get your mail? (I don't know I could)

Now if FedEx would start renting out boxes, that would be awesome (they are neither posted nor a federal building).

A search of Texas3006.com shows 49 FedEx locations that are posted. If your local one isn't, you are lucky. The closet one to me is posted 30.06/30.07.

[ScottDLS]

A search of Texas3006.com shows 49 FedEx locations that are posted.

Out of how many total? Just curious statistically what percentage is posted.

If your local one isn't, you are lucky. The closet one to me is posted 30.06/30.07.

I think our main hub is posted too. But the corner office is a small FedEx/Kinkos store and has no signs (for now). So yes, I think we are lucky.
Though the UPS store not far away isn't posted either. So I wonder if the difference is in the size/purpose of the building. Not sure, don't have enough information to make a conclusion, merely a guess.
Sorry to hear your branch is posted. Any chance you can talk to the manager?

The local ones are primarily franchises. Mine isn't posted, though my private box is at UPS Store (also not posted).

[rdcrags]

This is hard to follow, and some people, including my son, refuse to believe it. But here goes: We had a second home in a resort area. We had a box at the U.S. post office. They also delivered to street addresses, but not in my area. I would order a replacement part over the phone. I would be told that they use only Fedex. I would ask them to include my US mail box number on the outside of the box. They would say that company policy does not allow them to do that. Only the regular Fedex label. I would tell them that there was a 50-50 chance the package would be returned to sender, and they would say that they don’t care. Here is what would happen: The Fedex delivery office in the area had an agreement with the local US post office. If the Fedex truck driver felt like it for any reason, he could dump his load at the US post office, and they would deliver the packages for him. If the address on the label happened to be one that US post office does not deliver to, like mine, US post office would hold the package for 3 days and then return it to sender.
The workers at the US post office told me that, even though they could cross check to note their P.O. box number for me, they are not paid to do that, so no go. I was told that I could show up every day, get in line, and ask if there was a package to my street address, to catch the package before it is returned to sender. One of the employees actually told me that if I could be there while the Fedex truck was unloading, I could watch for my package, and they would let me have it. Mindless! I had two kinds of replacements parts returned to senders during one stay there. Oh, yes. I stopped at the Fedex office and asked an employee how I could solve my problem. He swore that their drivers never dumped their load at the US post office. So there.