I Pit companies who won't ship to a USPS PO Box

The BBQ Pit
1

Vendor: OK, that’ll be $114.95, and how will you be paying for that?

AHunter3: AmEx.

Vendor: I see you have one on file ending in 1005?

AHunter3: Yes, that one please.

Vendor: OK so all we need now is a shipping address.

AHunter3: 555 West 180th Street, PO Box 94, New York…

Vendor: I’m sorry, sir, we can’t ship to a PO box.

AHunter3: Sure you can. The US Postal Service now supports ‘street addressing’ and my post office is one location that does that. You can ship via FedEx or UPS or whatever and the postal service will sign for it so it’s just like any other delivery address.

Vendor: We really can’t ship to a PO Box. Is there some other address we can ship to?

AHunter3: Umm, like my physical home address? What happens to my parcel if I’m not there at the time the delivery truck comes?

Vendor: Uh, … well, … isn’t there anyone else there who could sign for it?

AHunter3: My friendly neighbors would be happy enough to sign for any package for anyone in the buiding, but they aren’t so reliable about notifying me that they did so. Also, I have some concerns about the package of sex toys and the shipment of uncut diamonds, even though the other folks in the building are pretty nice people. Also, one time I had a box shipped to me and they just tossed it next to my closed door there in my hallway. Also, one time I had a box shipped to me and came home to find a note on the front door about how they’d missed me and would try twice more before returning my shipment to freaking Australia. Oh, and once there was a note saying I could come get my paired 24 inch display monitors by riding the damn bus 94 blocks to the shipment warehouse and then back with them balanced on my lap.

Vendor: Uh… you don’t have an office, or a friend, or anything?

AHunter3: I work from home. Yes, I could impose on my friends, I suppose. Isn’t there a problem if you can only ship to people who have friends who have street addresses or live in buildings with a doorman? Why can’t you just ship it to the address I gave you? The post office SET IT UP that way with a regular street address so that non-postal-service shippers could use THAT. Why won’t you use it?

Vendor: Well, I can put it in but my computer recognizes it as a PO Box and is replacing the address with just ‘PO Box 94’.

AHunter3: Yeesh. Well input it as “555 West 180th Street, #94”, don’t use “PO Box”.

“This is a message for AHunter3, the address you gave us has been determined to be a PO Box and your shipment has been cancelled. Please contact us with a different ship-to location, we’re available monday thru friday at 555-1212 thank you”
:smack:

2

Hell, back a few years ago, I received packages at my PO box all the time, no problems. I’d check my box, find a key in it, and go to the front of the PO, which had large receiving boxes. The key would have a number on it, I’d find the receiving box with the matching number, insert key, open large box, and take out my package. The key would stay in the lock until one of the postal workers got it. And I could get my packages at 3 AM, if I wanted to.

There’s really no good reason that I can think of that a company can’t ship to a PO box. None. Unless they are trying to rip off the customer by claiming that they shipped the item and somehow it disappeared before the person got home that day.

3

I think you’re misreading the OP. Their issue isn’t with a USPS package getting delivered to the box, but a Fedex or UPS package-- something traditionally that can only go to a street address because it needs to be signed for. Apparently, USPS is now offering the option of having them sign for these things at your PO Box.

4

I think that the issue is that the company in question will use Fedex or UPS, but won’t use USPS for some reason. In which case I’d be tempted to do business with another company, especially if I had some neighbors with a history of signing for my packages but not delivering those packages to me.

5

You seem pretty PO’d.

6

As someone who ships using Fedex all the time, I can tell you Fedex will return any package I send out going to a PO box. However, if you want it delivered to your home, the sender should be able to indicate “deliver without signature”, so they can just drop it off at your residence without you having to go out of your way to pick it up. I suppose it sucks if you feel you absolutely have to have it in hand from the delivery guy, but I imagine (pure conjecture) they adopted the practice because they had too many problems with recipients claiming their packages went missing when they were delivered to PO boxes. And if you work from home, chances are you’d be around when it was delivered anyway, right? Unless the driver in your area comes in the evening. Basically, it’s going to be inconvenient for either you or Fedex/UPS, and since they’re the ones doing the delivering, they’re going to make sure it’s not them.

7

Big gripe with me too. We don’t have postal service, so everyone must have a PO Box. On top of that, it’s a gamble to try to route Fed-x or UPS to my house, we live in the sticks. I don’t dare do it in the winter time.

What I hate is websites that don’t tell you how they ship. If it’s not USPS, I can get it at work. If it is USPS I have to get it at my PO Box (since there is no mail delivery).

8

I’m really not sure that’s what it is, since the OP described a new service by USPS that solves the issue. Perhaps they can pop back in and clarify.

9

And actually, UPS and FedEx sometimes contract out the last half of the delivery to USPS. So something that is ordered and shipped initially via FedEx may show up in my mailbox anyway.

10

If your post office really allows FedEx and UPS shipments to it, tell the vendor it is an apartment or suite number instead of a PO Box.

11

You’re doing it wrong. :smiley:

Actually, we work from home too. Myself and Mrs. Devil, the Dudeling and his Nanny can be here and if it’s a substitute driver, chances are he won’t bother to knock (house is in a very rural area so we figure they assume no one’s home). So even with all of us here, we don’t know anything until someone sees the slip. I’m glad they’ve moved away from the default signature requirements.

Isn’t USPS’s acceptance of FedEx/UPS shipments to a PO box a fairly new thing? If so, it will take a while for systems and procedures to update. They did serve a very useful purpose, though, nothing like not noticing they wouldn’t deliver to a PO box after the fact.

12

Yeah, he’s on the verge of going… uh, let’s say “bonkers.”

13

Case in point:

MacMall, a catalogue vendor that sells Macs and related hardware/software, cheerfully shipped me a pair of MacBook Pros, to the “street address” version of my PO Box. They used FedEx.

They neglected to include the iLife installation CDs for the operating system that those MacBook Pros originally shipped with, because they had subsequently been upgraded to OS version 10.7 (a midseason change for that model). I’d bought them with the intent of running 10.6 on them. Called Apple Computer and had them ship me the missing iLife CDs along with the original OS 10.6 installation DVD. Never arrived. I called back and found that their ordering department had cancelled the shipment when it came up in the computer as being a post office and therefore recognizably a PO Box.

[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird]
However, if you want it delivered to your home, the sender should be able to indicate “deliver without signature”, so they can just drop it off at your residence
[/quote]

Did you miss the part about how I’m in a freaking city apartment building and don’t particularly want FedEx or UPS to leave my shipments with a random neighbor or in the damn hallway?

14

Hear hear! I have pitted UPS for this; the bastards will accept a package addressed to my P.O. Box…then look me up in a directory somewhere, and physically deliver the package to my apartment.

This denies me the two major benefits of having a PO Box in the first place: security and privacy. Suppose my dear old mum answers the door, and receives my package of Japanese tentacle-rape porno! Lots of laughs in the old town tonight!

At very least, they ought to refuse to accept such packages into their system in the first place, knowing they can’t deliver them as addressed. I call it fraud.

(In the past, when I lived way out in the sticks, UPS would deliver my packages to my uncle, who lived in town. How dare they? Sons of bitches!)

15

I’d prefer a lot of my online orders just get sent USPS from the beginning. True, you don’t get trackability with the basic service, but I don’t even want that many times. And it’s a lot cheaper, so I don’t end up paying more for shipping than the item itself costs.

Not to mention that they serve every valid address in the country, unlike UPS and FedEx.

16

Most of the country lives in apartments in cities, many of which you wouldn’t be able to drop off a package at the actual apartment door even if you wanted to. And some huge percentage of this urban majority doesn’t have a stay-at-home spouse or office where packages can be delivered. So why isn’t there more market demand for things like what your USPS office does, or package receiving centers?

17

Some companies, such as Griot’s Garage, will ship via USPS if you call and ask them to do so. This saved me a lot of money in Alaska back when the only option for UPS, et al, was to air ship. Most of the time, the shipping was more than the item cost. What really jacked me up was that when UPS and FedEx finally started doing ground ship to AK, companies still insisted that it wasn’t possible and that they had to air ship. One person told me that they didn’t do it because it was a customs problem when the truck went into Canada. :rolleyes: Fucking idiots.

18

Not only is it new, it only applies to post offices that offer enhanced services.

It will take time for something like this to make it’s way through the various address validation databases and API’s as well as internal software that checks for address exceptions etc.

19

Fedex and UPS will both allow you to use one of their retail locations as a shipping address, so that you can go pick up the package in person at your convenience. Even if it is shipped to your house, you can ask them to redirect it to a retail location (at least, for Fedex you can).

The reason many companies will not deal with USPS is that they are absolutely terrible to deal with if you have any kind of customer service problem.

20

Then ship USPS. It’s cheaper.