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How does Ebay ship to Post Office Boxes? You don't...
I live on an Indian Reservation, which has only Post Office Boxes with our local zip code (82514). We do have physical addresses, however, my physical address is in another zip code (82520). You want to see the worst and most confusing Christmas packaging delivery system area in the United States, go to any Indian Reservation where the federal government is upholding their trust responsibility to tribes, not happening and no one is going to fix this problem...
9 comments
clintoglic-0
OP2 years agoSo, I am guessing that this will be a dilemma for some time to come out here in the frontier. I came to the realization, why order online when it never works out. Sad thing is, almost everyone here in my area is in the same fretful situation. Around here, the post office for many of us, is about 10 miles away. With gas prices the way they are, going back and forth to the post office eats up all of the good deal savings you thought you were getting. Next thing you know, you get no package, and you spent over $25 dollars in fuel.
You could have just went to town and paid the higher price at the local store, and saved yourself money, and gas...
UGLY SITUATION
mr_lincoln
Mentor2 years ago@clintoglic-0 I agree and it is not just Reservations but many rural areas in the US ... some Post Offices are just a single shack operated by one person and I am sure some of those have no scanning or limited scanning capabilities. We experienced that in our area a number of years ago ... small town Post Offices had no bar code scanning ...
shipscript
·2 years ago@clintoglic-0
Yes, living in the boondocks comes with challenges. But frontiers are what make "frontiersmen" so resilient.
Our Post Office is the size of a small walk-in closet, and its letter boxes are all the smallest size. Thus, we started with a caller box because there was no way our mail would fit in one of those tiny stagecoach era letter boxes. Our "virtual" PO Box is a tub the clerk pulls down from the top shelf of his cubicle, as he tiptoes around boxes stacked at his feet. We can only collect our mail during the part-time hours he is there. Sometimes, I'll just phone and ask if we have enough mail to warrant the drive. In the past few years, due to the tiny size of the PO and the increase in mail-order packages, parcel lockers were added outside the door of the building. I mention this to give you some ideas to discuss with the postal service in your area.
I can understand the post office wanting to charge storage for a package not sent through the USPS system. Is the post office a private contractor station or is it run by USPS employees? USPS tried to offload our post office to contractor status, but no one wanted to run it. You might also look into that aspect with some of your community.
clintoglic-0
OP2 years agoI will look into the private contractor station idea. Thank You...
clintoglic-0
OP2 years agoIt would be nice to utilize the post office's address and post office box number as a suite number. When you order items that are huge, and items that are small, all in the same order, you never know how it will be sent by shippers. So, the post office this last time was going to charge me a fee for the larger items to be left there.
mr_lincoln
Mentor2 years agoHi @clintoglic-0
Each Seller selects whether or not they will ship to Post Office boxes in their Shipping Preferences > Exclude locations you ship to (pic below). Sadly, when I first started Selling some members said NOT to ship to PO Boxes and also Alaska and Hawaii ... and I was like "why not?". Unchecked boxes mean I ship there so you can see for my account I ship to PO Boxes, Alaska & Hawaii but not to many international destinations.
shipscript
·2 years ago@clintoglic-0
I'll meet your wager and raise you one.
When we moved to our paradise on the coast, our address was Start Rt Bx 25. But it wasn't until 2 months later, when our car plates failed to arrive, that we found our post office was returning all of our mail because we had not personally introduced ourselves to the postmistress.
When we finally tired of replacing our streetside mailbox after the yahoos played Friday night whack-a-mole with their trucks, we got a PO Box. But then we needed a UPS delivery address since the mailbox was gone from the street, and we used the mile marker number on the highway, which conformed to the address numbering scheme, like 1000 Hwy 1.
But, years later, USPS decided to standardize addresses and we could not use the Hwy number, and had to use the "name" of the Hwy. Everyone knows that Hwy 1 is the Coast Hwy that runs from Canada to Mexico, and is sometimes called the Pacific Coast Hwy, but here it is called "Cabrillo Hwy". Go figure.
When we installed telephone service, our property landed on the divide between two exchanges. Our building was in the party-line rotary-dial exchange, while we needed touchtone for our PBX system, so we leaned over the other way a little bit and gave the phone company the address of a telephone pole that was accessible to our property and that was in the better exchange.
But, these past two years, the phone company has abandoned all copper maintenance and our phone service is constantly dying. When I request service, they always go through a sales pitch to convert me to cellular or try to upsell to VOIP Internet, neither of which will reach us.
And when they agree to send out the copper repair team (usually multiple lines are down at a time), I have to tell them to ignore that pole and to come down to the building at a different address where the equipment is housed. Did I say multiple lines? Well, the comedic aspect is that it takes days to send someone out, and when they do, they send a separate man for each line. Go figure.
In the end, you and I live in a dysfunctional environment that requires a little bit more ingenuity to navigate than those 15 minute cities. While annoying, I am thankful every day for that extra challenge that keeps me a step ahead.
clintoglic-0
OP2 years agoIt is a dysfunctional area, for more than one reason. I might start a Mail Box Express business. The opportunity is there and needed...
shipscript
·2 years ago@clintoglic-0
The only valid reason for a seller to not ship to a PO Box is because they use only UPS or FedEx, which can't deliver to a PO Box. One remote buyer's solution for overcoming the "No shipping to PO Box" dilemma, is to use the physical address of the Post Office, along with a suite number for the box (just like using a third-party mailbox service). But this would only work if the Post Office is staffed (ours is staffed only a few hours each day), and the staff cares about the customers they serve.
If your community is large enough, perhaps a private mail box service would be beneficial.