My friend is trying to set up an online store and will need a legal mailing address, both to incorporate the company and to use as a return address on shipments. She doesn’t want to use her home address because her online store will sell some things you don’t want your friends to find out about (perfectly legal things, mind you ).
A P.O. box will not work because it would not be acceptable to the government and to Web site hosting services.
She knows she could rent an office in an industrial park somewhere and use that address, but she’d rather not pay rent on a whole office just for a mail drop.
Is there a safe and cheap (and legal) way to get just a mailing address for a company?
(I guess this could be illegal in some locations. It is against board rules to ask for advice on breaking the law. If this is illegal where you live, please don’t answer.)
UPS store (formerly mailboxes,etc) are usually the best bet - you can usually get the mail via something like “John Smith, 123 Fake St #1542, New York, NY 10078” or whatever and not trigger the checks for post office boxes. When I had one the preferred format was “123 Fake St PMB 1542” but at least then they were franchises and you were their customer and dealing with the owner, so any address format they could figure out they were ok with at the one I used.
The “PMB” in the address was a postal service requirement. They will allow a #.
Originally, Maiboxes, etc. would give you a “suite”: 123 Main Street, Suite 1240. That hasn’t been allowed in over a decade. If you tried to use it, the PO might return mail as “no such address.”
I used an independent mailing/shipping place similar to Mailboxes, etc. They rented out mailboxes and the address appeared as if it were an apartment number: 123 Main St. #456, City, State, Zip.
They also did faxing, photocopying, sold office supplies, boxes, shipped, notary service…
I’ve used a PO box for decades and only run into very limited (usually anal) institutions that demanded a physical address. Using a residence address for those very few (usually government and financial) needs but insisting they use your box as the mailing address is not hard.
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