# I Pit companies who won't ship to a USPS PO Box **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 1, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793 "2012-06-01T17:27:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/81 "2012-06-05T18:27:57Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > This is what the pit is for. The only reason to say this shit is because you are an immoral shithead whose brain is too poorly formed to deal with people in general, and in which case I would suggest you leave this fucking message board. > > I do know that I don’t remember your name, so there’s no fucking way you contributed anything of value to this board. Either start doing so or go away. You are the type of person who keeps me from recommending this messageboard to anyone. > > And, believe me, the only reason I’m raining in my invective is because the only appropriate words for you are forbidden. I would suggest you leave this fucking message board. You have contributed nothing of value to this board. All you do is bitch and whine like a little whiny bitch. Stop being a pussy shithead and start actually conrtibuting something or go the fuck away. And knowing that people like **Horseface** keeps you from suggesting this website to other people makes him/her way more valuable than you as a poster. Being a whiny bitch you are probably friends, (if you have any, have you even left your parents basement in the last couple of years) with other whiny bitches and we have enough of those as it is. So you don’t recognize the username. Big fucking deal. Who the fuck are you? You’re not the gatekeeper of this fucking place and if you were I’d never visit here. Jesus fucking an elephant in a tool shed get the fuck over yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/82 "2012-06-05T18:33:44Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I have to go to the UPS place during their business hours. The Post Office boxes are available to me 24/7. This includes the large package delivery boxes. So if something doesn’t fit in my regular PO box, the PO worker puts a key to a large delivery box in my PO box. And I can pick up my package when it’s convenient for ME, without standing in line. > > Now, I’ll grant you, I wouldn’t want perishables to be put in my PO box. However, I don’t want perishables to sit in a truck for two or three days, while the UPS guy plays “Gonna put sticky notes on the door and not ring the doorbell” with me. I’m likely to get a delivery to my PO box in a shorter period of time than a package from UPS, simply because when the package is in my PO box, I can pick it up immediately. If the package is on the UPS truck, I can’t pick it up until the UPS guy has done his game of putting sticky notes on my door, while avoiding me. You have a crappy UPS driver. I’d strongly suggest you call UPS and lodge a complaint against him. They do take those complaints seriously. I believe the number is 1-800-PICK-UPS off the top of my head. Wiki says that have almost 400,000 employees and you’re saying they’re a bad company because the _one_ you deal with isn’t very good. That’s like saying a neighborhood is bad because you once saw someone cross the street without looking first. (Errr, that’s a bad analogy. I’m just saying you can’t judge such a large corporation based on your interaction with one person). I’ve dealt with many drivers over the years. Some are boneheaded morons, some are really good guys/girls. Call and complain each time. Hell, you seem to know it’s going to happen, next time you have a delivery coming pull your phone out and record him rolling up to your house and coming from his truck with an Info Notice instead of a package and email it to them. Tell them it’s the X time it’s happened and that your sick of having to go down to the UPS place each time you have a delivery because the driver doesn’t even attempt to deliver it. I bet if you call them it’ll stop in short order. They can’t have this kind of thing happening because they know people will switch over to FedEx and USPS…just look at this thread. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/83 "2012-06-05T19:24:14Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > This is what the pit is for. The only reason to say this shit is because you are an immoral shithead whose brain is too poorly formed to deal with people in general, and in which case I would suggest you leave this fucking message board. > > I do know that I don’t remember your name, so there’s no fucking way you contributed anything of value to this board. Either start doing so or go away. You are the type of person who keeps me from recommending this messageboard to anyone. > > And, believe me, the only reason I’m raining in my invective is because the only appropriate words for you are forbidden. > [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > I would suggest you leave this fucking message board. You have contributed nothing of value to this board. All you do is bitch and whine like a little whiny bitch. Stop being a pussy shithead and start actually conrtibuting something or go the fuck away. > > And knowing that people like **Horseface** keeps you from suggesting this website to other people makes him/her way more valuable than you as a poster. Being a whiny bitch you are probably friends, (if you have any, have you even left your parents basement in the last couple of years) with other whiny bitches and we have enough of those as it is. > > So you don’t recognize the username. Big fucking deal. Who the fuck are you? You’re not the gatekeeper of this fucking place and if you were I’d never visit here. Jesus fucking an elephant in a tool shed get the fuck over yourself. I can think of TWO people who could really use an ice cream cone… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/84 "2012-06-05T21:52:06Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > . . . I haven’t had any horrible issues with UPS and no one else has had any good ones…or we’re all suffering from confirmation bias. The confirmation bias of not reading the posts in this thread? I said, above, that I have had excellent service from UPS in the vast majority of all of my interactions with them. Your distortion of this to “no one else has had any good ones” is a grotesquerie of dishonesty. This is the Pit, so, sucks boo, and fiddle-dee-dee. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/85 "2012-06-06T02:39:48Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You have a crappy UPS driver. I’d strongly suggest you call UPS and lodge a complaint against him. They do take those complaints seriously. I believe the number is 1-800-PICK-UPS off the top of my head. Wiki says that have almost 400,000 employees and you’re saying they’re a bad company because the _one_ you deal with isn’t very good. … > Call and complain each time. Hell, you seem to know it’s going to happen, next time you have a delivery coming pull your phone out and record him rolling up to your house and coming from his truck with an Info Notice instead of a package and email it to them. Tell them it’s the X time it’s happened and that your sick of having to go down to the UPS place each time you have a delivery because the driver doesn’t even attempt to deliver it. I bet if you call them it’ll stop in short order. They can’t have this kind of thing happening because they know people will switch over to FedEx and USPS…just look at this thread. I have had 4 UPS drivers over the last few years. of those , three were as Lynn and others have described. The toll free number has no connection at all or way to report a bad driver, who are in a entirely different division. In fact, they don;t even know who our driver is, or his manager, or that manager’s manager. I found out exactly how useless the toll-free number was, and I even tracked down and talked directly to the local dispatch HQ. Useless. I even wrote a letter to the CEO. His reply was basically “fuck you”. He stated that UPS considered a " delivery attempt" to be all that they were required to do, and they he didn’t care if they lost my business as i wasn’t paying them anyway. And in fact he is correct. UPS used to care about whether or not a package is delivered. No longer. Now all you pay for is a ‘delivery attempt’ not a actual delivery. Read your contract, you’ll see I am correct. Now it’s true that if the driver actually lied about stopping then IF you got ahold of the local manager it might do something. But again, the toll-free number can;t do anything about it, they don’t even have a way of reporting it. UPS has taken the rather sound business decision of sucking up to the actual people who directly pay for their services . They don;t give a fuck about the dude at home- they don;t pay for UPS directly. UPS does care about B2B deliveries as that other business may well be a UPS client. But the dude sitting at home rarely ships anything, thus UPS doesn;t care about them. UPS will cheerfully suck _your_ ass while fucking _mine_- after all you pay them, I dont. That’s their business model, and it has been for a few years. Yes, slowly the end retail client complaints will hurt UPS, but UPS is counting on (and this thread proves them right) that the extra services they give the business customer) will cause that business to use UPS anyway. Like you implied, the fact that your business has a cash-flow problem and UPS will extend you credit is more important than the fact that some retail clients are unhappy. And of course, not all retail clients are unhappy. Some drivers are good (in some neighborhoods the Xmas bonus can be quite nice), some dudes spend all day at home anyway, etc. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/86 "2012-06-06T03:27:53Z")
I had a box of perishable medication delivered by UPS. Since I do live in a reasonable neighborhood, I had it delivered no-signature-required. However, the POS medical company (who had shipped it to the correct address before), decided that 2400 131st St (not my real address) didn’t look like a “real” address, so instead they changed it to 24 Hundred 100 31 St Street. (In whose world does that look more like an address? But it sounded right when they read it over the phone.) UPS couldn’t read the address, which I don’t blame them for. But they decided that the right thing to do was to dump $4000 worth of perishable medication at 2408 31st Ave., because that was their best guess about where it was supposed to go (note that the number, the street number, and the street name are all wrong!). Thank god the guy looked me up in the phone book (something that didn’t occur to UPS) and called me to let me know he had my package. I called up the prescription company and read them the riot act about changing the address. They said I had signed the “drop it off” option, and I told them that while I understood that that was accepting the risk that someone would steal it off my doorstep, I didn’t think it included the risk that they would deliver it to a different address just for the hell of it. Wonder of wonders, the customer service rep actually agreed with me at that point - I hope she then called UPS and passed on the pain. The next time I called to refill the prescription, I told the very nice man on the phone, “I’m not saying that _you_ are stupid, but I’ve had trouble with this, so I am going to spell my whole address for you. It is two-four-zero-zero-space-one-three-seven-T-H-space…” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/87 "2012-06-06T05:01:04Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Having said that…having to go and get your package from the UPS place isn’t all that much different from getting it from your PO Box and having it sit outside all day because UPS left it there (can’t win can they) isn’t any different from USPS leaving by your front door all day. Um… yes there is a difference. You see, my PO Box is close enough that if I don’t feel like taking my car I can bike there in 15 minutes or less. It is located so that it is close to places like the grocery store, laundry, and gas station so I can combine a trip there with my other typical errands. Also, I’ve never had to wait in line to get into my PO Box, and the longest wait I had at the post office for a package too big to fit in my box was about a half an hour. The UPS depot is _in another freakin’ city_ and a 40 minute drive away, and if I’m _lucky_ I’ll only be 30th in line and maybe I’ll get out of there in an hour. Yes, getting a package from the UPS depot _is very different_ from going to my PO Box and getting it there. I also have it on notice with the post office to NOT leave packages by my door, so they leave a note and I can go and pick it up from the conveniently-located branch near me, with only a few minutes wait at most. Unlike going to the UPS place, which is not convenient and does want to work with me. Seriously, UPS is soooo craptastick for me. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/88 "2012-06-06T07:06:54Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You have a crappy UPS driver. I’d strongly suggest you call UPS and lodge a complaint against him. They do take those complaints seriously. I believe the number is 1-800-PICK-UPS off the top of my head. Wiki says that have almost 400,000 employees and you’re saying they’re a bad company because the _one_ you deal with isn’t very good. That’s like saying a neighborhood is bad because you once saw someone cross the street without looking first. (Errr, that’s a bad analogy. I’m just saying you can’t judge such a large corporation based on your interaction with one person). I’ve dealt with many drivers over the years. Some are boneheaded morons, some are really good guys/girls. > Call and complain each time. Hell, you seem to know it’s going to happen, next time you have a delivery coming pull your phone out and record him rolling up to your house and coming from his truck with an Info Notice instead of a package and email it to them. Tell them it’s the X time it’s happened and that your sick of having to go down to the UPS place each time you have a delivery because the driver doesn’t even attempt to deliver it. I bet if you call them it’ll stop in short order. They can’t have this kind of thing happening because they know people will switch over to FedEx and USPS…just look at this thread. I very, very much doubt that I’ve had the same driver over 24 years. I also doubt that this driver moved from Las Vegas to Fort Worth at exactly the same time I did, and managed to get assigned to my route. I would venture to say that in fact, I’ve had a series of different drivers, and all of them work in the same manner…that is, that they are in the business of delivering notes, not packages. If this was ONE driver during a short period of time, then I’d agree that I probably had a bad driver. But the procedure seems to be that EVERY driver in two cities over a period of over two decades will leave a note on the door, instead of making an attempt to get the package signed for. I’m going to guess that this is because the drivers have to make a delivery attempt for all of their packages, and leaving the note counts as an attempt. I don’t know if this practice is an official policy, or just the way drivers have to cope with their workload…but it’s one reason why I don’t want to have stuffed shipped to me via UPS. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/89 "2012-06-06T11:43:09Z")
Can you explain this $11 address correction nonsense? Wouldn’t your shipping software alert/correct bad addresses before the label is printed? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/90 "2012-06-06T12:57:02Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I I’m going to guess that this is because the drivers have to make a delivery attempt for all of their packages, and leaving the note counts as an attempt. I don’t know if this practice is an official policy, … You are correct, a 'delivery attempt" counts, and this was confirmed in the letter from the CEO of UPS. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/91 "2012-06-06T13:00:25Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Um… yes there is a difference. > > You see, my PO Box is close enough that if I don’t feel like taking my car I can bike there in 15 minutes or less. It is located so that it is close to places like the grocery store, laundry, and gas station so I can combine a trip there with my other typical errands. Also, I’ve never had to wait in line to get into my PO Box, and the longest wait I had at the post office for a package too big to fit in my box was about a half an hour. > > The UPS depot is _in another freakin’ city_ and a 40 minute drive away, and if I’m _lucky_ I’ll only be 30th in line and maybe I’ll get out of there in an hour. > > Yes, getting a package from the UPS depot _is very different_ from going to my PO Box and getting it there. > > I also have it on notice with the post office to NOT leave packages by my door, so they leave a note and I can go and pick it up from the conveniently-located branch near me, with only a few minutes wait at most. Unlike going to the UPS place, which is not convenient and does want to work with me. > > . Seconded. I can walk to my PO, the wait is 10 minutes. The UPS depot is only 10 minutes away for me, but I can verify the hour wait. Now there is a UPS “store” even closer than the USPS, but they charge $8 to allow me to pick it up there. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/92 "2012-06-06T13:07:16Z")
I just wish companies would tell you how they ship before you pull the trigger on the address you put in. I usually ship to where I work since most things come UPS or FedX. Works great. But if it’s USPS, I would like it to go to my PO Box. Since we don’t get mail delivery, if they ship USPS to the physical address of work, it (usually) ends up in the work PO Box. And while the work mail person understands, I would rather not give them more to do. It can be a real problem around the holidays. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793/93 "2012-06-07T03:49:49Z")
> [@John\_Bredin](#): > > With all due respect, the UPS “we deliver post-it notes, not packages” kabuki dance that ends with the customer having to drive to the UPS depot wouldn’t manifest as a **reliability** problem. I just want to say I love this expression, and have stolen 'elaborate “_Kabuki dance_” as the way to describe the UPS guy and the “we deliver notices, not packages” dance. from wiki "The kabuki stage features a projection called a hanamichi (花道; literally, flower path), a walkway which extends into the audience and via _which dramatic entrances and exits are made."_ Perfect! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-companies-who-wont-ship-to-a-usps-po-box/623793.md?page=4)