How do I get the post office to hold a package for pick up?

[j2774]

I would like some of the items I purchase to be held at my post office so that I can pick up the packages myself because the contents are susceptible to heat damage at this time of year.  I know the post office will hold all mail if place a vacation hold, but is there some way a seller can ship a package so that the post office holds it for pick up instead of sending it out with the carrier?  I only want to do this from about May through September.  

I called the post office 800 number for information to no avail.  Never could get out of the automated system which did not provide an answer.  Total waste of time and phone battery.  

[dbmm-media]

go to your local post office

[lja440]

I'm a mail carrier. You need to talk to the Postmaster at your DELIVERING PO. Your carrier may be some help also. Tell them you are ordering temp sensitive items and want them held for pickup, they will then deliver a 3849 notice. You bring that and your picture ID to the PO to collect the packages. NOTE: they will not keep the packages forever, so pick up promptly.

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

You can call or visit your local PO and tell them not to deliver packages but to leave a pick-up notice instead.   In other words, prevent the package from being placed on the mail carrier's truck.  Or you can rent a PO box.  Or you can set up a General Delivery account and provide that generic address to vendors, who likely will be very suspicious unless you live in a remote village in Alaska.

Another option is to use the services of a PMB; the latter provides a street address so UPS and FedEx packages can be delivered there, too.  These stores are usually air-conditioned, but of course  packages may ride for hours in a very warm truck.

From the sender's side, USPS online Click-N-Ship provides Priority Mail Hold for Pick-Up.  But few, if any, eBay sellers use Click-N-Ship because it's retail price only, no commercial rates.

On your end, have you considered providing an insulated cooler as a package receptacle?

~~C~~

[j2774]

I spoke with supervisor at my post office.  No offense, but she is an idiot.  She claims she never heard of anyone being able to pick up a package unless his/her mail is on vacation hold.  She has never been any help to me whatsoever.  Last January during a heat wave, she refused to let me pick up a package worth $400, and it was ruined.  This is the sort of incompetence I have faced with my post office.  Who in his right mind endangers a package worth $400?

[j2774]

duchess-at-speakeasy,

Thank you for the suggestions.  I have had approximately 22 different carriers (counting full timers and part timers) in less than 5 years.  I do not think providing a recepticle would work.  I do not think it would even be accepted.  Probably the click and ship option is the best if it causes the package to be held at the post office for pick up.  I only have this problem during the hot weather months (last January's heat wave was something of an anomaly).  

My regular carrier is a great guy.  He is friendly, polite, honest, and practical minded.  If only the supervisor at my post office was the same way.  : (

[buyselljack2016]

There is, or at least there was, a form that you can fill out at the Post Office directing them as to what they should do with packages.

Hold at office. Put in garage.  Put on the porch, (side, front, rear)

I do not remember the # of the form, but I filled one out after the substitute carrier left my package outside the garage door on a rainy day. Regular carrier always put in the garage if it would not fit in the mail receptacle.

[j2774]

Thank you, buyselljack2016.  I will look into it for sure.  : )

[buyselljack2016]

@j2774

Try searching PS form 4232

May not apply to you

[j2774]

Thank you.  : )

[lja440]

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@j2774 wrote:

I spoke with supervisor at my post office.  No offense, but she is an idiot.  She claims she never heard of anyone being able to pick up a package unless his/her mail is on vacation hold.  She has never been any help to me whatsoever.  Last January during a heat wave, she refused to let me pick up a package worth $400, and it was ruined.  This is the sort of incompetence I have faced with my post office.  Who in his right mind endangers a package worth $400?

---

Sorry to hear that. There is a Hold for Pickup order, but frankly, I don't know the form or particulars. A note in a mailbox or put on my mail case has always been sufficient. 

I've had meds come to my route that per the customers' request I have put in a mini fridge on their porch. I've loaded baby chicks and turkeys for years into the animal husbandry teachers brooders in their breezeway, and certainly held dozens of Birthday gifts and other surprises, if not hundreds at the PO as requested.  It really shouldn't be an issue, sorry you have a dud of a supervisor.

[j2774]

Wow, thank you for that information.  That sounds like true customer service.  I am going to try to complain to a more regional manager.  I have done this in the past to no avail, though.  The supervisor that was there before this one was not too bad.  If I belled them and asked them to hold something, they would do it.  The new supervisor is a total jerk.  The last time I belled them and asked that a package be held, she not only flat out refused, she hung up in my face after I said I was going to complain about her.  People like that are in the wrong job.