How to recieve a package without revealing my location?

General Questions
#1

Without getting too much into details, I do multimedia freelance type stuff. I’ve got a client who is not the most “professional” of people I’ve dealt with. But the pay is good and the work is easy. If I am to work on a current project for him, he would have to mail me a tape, but I’d prefer not to give out my address (a colleague who worked with him in the past had a bad experience).
So, is there a way around this? I believe both UPS and FedEx offer the option of picking up the package from their distribution place, and I am pretty close to both of them. But can you actually have them mailed there?
The only other option I have thought of would be to get a P.O. Box and have it shipped via USPS. But P.O. Boxes cost money.

Anyone have any better ideas?

#2

Ahhaha. How legal is it?

Otherwise get a trusted friend to act as a go-between and/or get the PO Box for you.

#3

Mail Boxes, Inc., a PO box (I got one in Denver for $19/year) or ask your post office about ‘poste restante’ services.

-Tcat

#4

General delivery in your name at any American post office.

#5

FedEx offers Hold at FedEx Location service.

You could also have the package sent General Delivery to a nearby post office and go pick it up there.

But even if you are able to get the tape without revealing your physical address, how will the client send you other business mail, particularly payments?

#6

Maybe you could try something like this:
Your name
c/o General Delivery
North Attleboro MA, 02760

#7

handy takes over 6 hours simply to repeat what Zenster suggested. Very helpful.

#8

But it added to his post count, and that’s all that matters to him.
At least this one is (AFAIK) accurate, which is better than usual.

#9

Meanwhile, Early Out, Random, and Bill H. make posts with absolutely no useful content at all, placed for the sole purpose of damaging others.

#10

If you live near the Canada-U.S. border, there are a number of agencies that will take in a package for a fairly reasonable fee. They’re generally designed for Canadian businesses who want to take in mail and packages without having to charge their customers international postal rates, but they will do work for individuals as well. The one I’m familiar with is a firm called “U.S. Address,” on Witmer Road, Town of Niagara, NY.

'Course, if you don’t live near the Canadian (or Mexican, I suppose) border, this bit of information is as useless as some of the rest of this thread, too!

#11

Wrong. As has been said innumerable times before, facile answers from people who don’t know what they are talking about can be harmful. Warning those readers who may be new, and therefore unfamiliar with a particular poster who places no value on accuracy, is a useful purpose. (Especially where dozens of requests to the post-count padder to refrain seem to have no effect.) Pit threads do no good, as he doesn’t read them, and GQ readers (especially newbies) can’t be expected to keep up with every pit thread.

And how do our responses damage handy? He knows that much/most of what he writes is nonsense. His errors have been pointed out to him hundreds of times. He clearly doesn’t care, as he never apologizes, and doesn’t change his behavior.

See, for example, Bricker’s plea in a recent thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=214535&highlight=handy

#12

Meanwhile, Bill H. – who clearly has far too much spare time on his hands – measures the postings and discovers that of 21 inches of responses, Random has taken up 8 inches or approximately 40%, adding zero value (or even reference) to the subject at hand. And why? To whine about a poster he apparently doesn’t like, when ironically said poster gave a correct, useful and polite answer to the original question.

Look: I have no patience for people who spew with no knowledge, and I won’t name names, but there are plenty out there. But far worse are the the little control nazis, who point out grammar flaws or spelling flaws or other absolutely irrelevant characteristics. But all this pales in comparison to the control-nazis who don’t even have an issue to control, but feel they need to hog the bandwidth to dump their personal little diatribes. “Hey! this guy did something rotten yesterday! Don’t listen to his good advice today! oh and Look at me!”

#13

Yeah, look at me. 800 posts in 4 years, although I read this board nearly every day. You’re right. I sure waste bandwidth.

And you know what? If you discount 30-40 posts from this past Spring setting up a Doper event, I bet in 75% of them, I gave professional, accurate information on issues that I actually know something about. At least 15 of those posts were to correct handy’s latest spewings. Sometimes that involved actual research to confirm what I planned to say.

Too bad that’s a concept foreign to handy and his fans. Fortunately, most people who post to GQ are different. (And hundreds here contribute far more than I do.) But I think a lot of us would be happier if less of our time was spent cleaning up messes.

And yes, he appears to have been right this time, which I suppose is worth something, even though another poster had already said exactly the same thing. If you read my first response, you will note that I gave him credit for the (apparently) correct answer. (Stopped clock truism, I suspect.) Unfortunately, correct answers from him are so rare, it was worthy of comment.

#14

I would join those suggesting the “hold at FedEx terminal” option.

A private mail box service would work too, and they are not horribly expensive – it can also be a good way to have a more “professional” sounding address (they’re often on major streets and at least till recently you could add somthing impressive sounding like “Suite 140” as the box number).

However . . . I recently had occasion to rent one, and was assured that you now must use “mail box number 140” or “PMB 140” (and nothing else). Also, they are now quite demanding (at least mine was) about securing extensive documentation (your driver’s license, etc.) and knowing what names you’ll receive mail under (mine said you could only use your own name or a pre-designated d/b/a). They attributed this to govt-instituted security rules (I suppose the 9/11 jackasses and similar types were users of PMBs), though I’m not sure I accept to PMB co. as an authority on what the law actually requires (or that such regulation would in fact appreciably diminish terror – all else being equal, the shady types engaging in these antics are more likely to have convincing fake ID than is Joe Freelancer). I’d imagine some of these changes are not welcome for PMB users who – for whatever dubioius, but not terroristic, reason, were drawn to the service precisely because of the layer of anonymity it provides).

In a similar vein – I wonder whether various P.O.s have stopped allowing, or have restricted, poste restante or general delivery service. I’ve never known anyone to use these services (except maybe while backpacking around Europe) – do they work reliably? If so, wouldn’t the P.O. also have a disincentive to offer a free service that provides many of the same benefits as their for-fee P.O.B.s?

#15

It does seem like a losing proposition for them, but according to this item on their website, the USPS still offers general delivery service.

#16

“handy takes over 6 hours simply to repeat what Zenster suggested.”

Wow, what a zinger. It only took me 2 minutes. Look, if you didn’t notice the OP wants an anon package. But if you looked really carefully at what I typed, don’t you wonder how I knew the most possible city & zip code of the company? I could have given the most probable street address too & a map right to the door. Whats the point of using c/o GD to get a box when the address for the company is right on the net? Duh.

There is alot more to what I type, you just have to look more carefully, think of it as a brain teaser, Early Out.

#17

Those wishing to take issue with another poster’s pattern of posts in general will do so only in the BBQ Pit forum or via private e-mail. That the poster in question does not read the BBQ Pit is immaterial. GQ is still not the place for it.

As for protecting newbies from wrong answers, well, taking issue with the factual content of a GQ post in the same GQ thread is of course acceptable, even encouraged. If there is reason to believe a post is factually incorrect, then a pattern of factually incorrect posts on the same subject may reasonably be brought into play in that same GQ thread. Since there is no issue with the factual content of the post in this thread, there is no call to bring up such a pattern here.

The remainder of this thread will be devoted to answering the factual question asked by codeloss.

bibliophage
moderator GQ

#18

You could do the Hannibal Lecter thing and hire a remailing service. It’s definitely not a better idea, though, because I understand they can be somewhat costly.

#19

Here’s an interesting discussion of the intersection of privacy rights and security concerns relating to anonymous mailing addresses.

Although the OP’s concerns are probably best served by one of the Fed-Ex or UPS services already described, if one has extreme security concerns for a legitimate purpose, and cost is not a major issue, I suggest working through an attorney, as lawyers can (and must) legally refuse to disclose client secrets.

In response to Bibliophage: I apologize, and will comply with the rule that you set forth. In other words, in GQ, I will only discuss handy inaccuracies in the threads in which they occur. In saying that, I want to make it clear that I am not undertaking to address all of his errors here. As much as I value accuracy in the SDMB, I unfortunately don’t have that much time.

#20

Have you thought of having it delivered to your lawyers office?
Perhaps that would convey the message"Hey pal don’t mess with me".