I have something that I would like to ship to a friend in another state. It can’t be sent to his house, and he can’t accept deliveries at his work. I called UPS and they said that it can be shipped to and held at a UPS distribution facility, but the nearest one is too far away for that to be an option. I called one of those mailbox places and they said they could only accept deliveries if the recipient actually has a mailbox there. That won’t work since it’s just a one-time thing.
Seems to me that there has to be a business (maybe a hotel or something) that can accept a one-time delivery, perhaps for a small fee, that someone can then go pick up. Any ideas?
Does your friend have any friends who work in places where they can accept deliveries? Does he have any regular places he does business (dry cleaner? coffee shop?) where he’s chatted with the people who work there in the past?
I don’t know if there is anyplace that is going to assume the liability involved for a small fee in a one time transaction. Reread your OP. It sounds like you are trying to ship drugs or other contraband. Why didn’t you mention what you wanted to ship? Why can’t it be sent to his house?
Did you call Fedex? The last time I received a package via Fedex, they offered the option of holding it at the local Fedex office, which included their distribution center, the Fedex Office location (formerly Kinkos) and the Fedex Ship office.
Edited to add that they call the service “Hold at FedEx Location.”
Greyhound or Megabus should be able to work with you. Most cross-country busses fill their cargo areas with stuff that people are shipping. From what I’ve heard, for bigger items (like TVs) it tends to be quite a bit cheaper then UPS). You just have to arrange for your friend to pick it up at another Greyhound (or whatever service you use) depot on his end. I assume it might take a bit longer as well.
ETA, I just checked Greyhound.com. A 50 pound box, 2 feet wide on it’s longest side, from Milwaukee to Orlando would be $60 and take less then 2 days (much faster then UPS).
A more reasonable 15#, 10 inches is $31. More expensive then UPS, but if it’s your only option, it’s a pretty good deal.
USPS Priority Mail now has free Hold For Pickup service. They will hold your package at the recipient’s Post Office for up to 15 days. To get this service, you must create a shipping label at their web site and request it while creating the label. (Unlike General Delivery which is usually only available at a central Post Office, Hold For Pickup is available at most Post Offices.)
As has already been mentioned, both FedEx Ground and FedEx Express have free Hold at FedEx Location service at most FedEx Kinko’s stores. Click here and then click on “Delivery Options” then “Hold at FedEx Location.”
Just to add that General Delivery consistently has a ZIP+4 extension oif -9999 at all post offices; just get from your friend or look up the nearest post office and add that to its five-digit ZIP code. Other useful one-size-fits-all ZIP+4 numbers are Postmaster, -9998, and generic Rural Route numbers (RR1 is -9801, RR2 -9802, etc.). Box numbers on rural routes are sequenced along the route in -9xxx series, but if all you know is that it’s on RR2 Smallville IA, the -9802 works. In general PO Boxes have ZIP+4 codes of five-digit ZIP followed by the PO box number with leading zeroes as needed to produce a four-digit number, but this is not always the case.
I don’t know about suspicious. In other shipping-related threads many long-time members have posted about being unable to accept deliveries at their residence because A) they’re never home when deliveries are made, and B) anything left outside would be stolen before they get home.
For the many people who don’t work in an office, accepting deliveries at work is problematic. I sure can’t have the airport accept deliveries for me; but that’s where I work. I bet the same is true for folks that work in big factories, or mow lawns, or drive trucks, or work on military bases or other secure facilities, etc.
Given the security associated with Fedex / UPS, the risks of shipping contraband have very little to do with the delivery phase, and a lot more to do with the acceptance and enroute phases.
My guess (like yours, I’m sure) is that he’s sending something to his friend, who’s probably in high school and for that reason this item probably needs to arrive under the radar. Therefore we can’t have mom or the boss intercepting the package and he can’t disappear for an hour in the middle of the day to go to a UPS place to pick something up.
Either way, the OP isn’t discussing doing anything wrong or illegal so I don’t think there’s any reason for mod intervention. Maybe it’s the friend’s mom’s birthday present that the OP had shipped to his house (for safekeeping) and now they’re just trying to figure out how to get it to said friend’s house.
Then ColdMustard needs to come back here (it’s been 24 hours. WTF have they been?:dubious:) and give at least a half-way believable explanation. Maybe it’s just the cop in me, but as it reads the OP sounds very suspicious.
Maybe the cop in you should be reminded of the presumption of innocence. There are any number of plausible (and perfectly legal) explanations for ColdMustard’s query, and he is under no obligation whatsoever to explain himself.
In fact, I’m surprised that people are freaking out. I don’t know very many people who can accept a package at home as they likely won’t be there when the delivery is made. Since that means it will just be left behind, if it’s anything valuable, they probably wouldn’t want to do that.
And, yes, I agree that the OP should just use the USPS service. Surely at one point in 30 days, your friend can get in during the open hours. Hopefully there’s still a post office nearby (as a lot of those have been closing). But there’s probably one closer than the UPS office.
I’m not the government, and I don’t have to presume anyone’s innocence. That post either intentionally or accidently sounds like someone trying to send weed via UPS, and he’s actually setting himself to get busted. I don’t care if he wants to do it, but if anyone thinks the OP is not suspicious please PM me so you can get in on the ground floor of a wonderful no-risk investment opportunity.
Of course it would help if you posted the location of where you want the package delivered, for driving to Ryden’s might be a little out of your friend’s way.
Wow, I didn’t all get that he was trying to ship marijuana. I thought that the OP was reported because someone thought he was shilling for a business (although the OP mentioned nothing aside from UPS and had no links). And given that nothing illegal was mentioned in the OP, I don’t see what the moderators have to act on.
I didn’t report him. I tried to clue him in, but not too hard, because he should get a lesson in asking questions or trying to ship weed. Maybe I wouldn’t be thinking this at all if I never had a pair of teenage boys.
There are tons of places that do this, usually places that do packing and shipping for UPS, Fedex, etc. - tons of people aren’t home to sign for deliveries and/or can’t get deliveries at work during business hours. Try a nearby UPS Authorized Shipping Center, or pretty much any place that’s an authorized shipper for one of the big companies.
