Not shipping to a PO Box

[oneblindcat]

Why not? City or rural, porch piracy or mailbox theft is a problem which can not happen with delivery to a PO Box. I live in a rural area, I don't even have a mailbox because of theft in my area. But so many sellers here ship with USPS, but won't ship to a PO Box. Why not?

I work at home, so when UPS or FedEx deliver, I see them on my security cameras, but I'd have to put a mailbox a half mile away where my dirt road meets pavement, and I can't see it from here.

[kensgiftshop]

I've never understood why they won't ship to a PO box when they are shipping USPS.

A PO box is one of the safest places to ship to.

[buyselljack2016]

There are some odd birds that think "scammers" use a PO Box for delivery.  They are just so misinformed.

[css2001]

Years and years ago that's what I had, so I don't have a problem shipping to someone who uses one.

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

Most Post Offices allow their PO Box holders to participate in "Street addressing" which allows them to use the PO's street address rather than showing "PO Box..."  This is useful mostly for accepting packages shipped via UPS and Fed Ex, but can also be used to purchase from sellers who are allergic to PO Boxes. They'll  never even know that you have a PO Box.

https://www.usps.com/pobox/customer-agreement-for-premium-po-box-service-enhancements.pdf

[az93]

I agree, po boxes are perfectly safe and legit. Refusing to deliver to a po box eliminates a huge portion of the public, buyers in small towns in America who must use them. 

[soh.maryl]

Regarding sellers who refuse to ship to PO boxes, I prefer to believe that these are people who have no idea of what a PO box actually is and where it's located.  As you know, this is a LOCKED BOX accessible only by the owner of the box (and PO personnel).  It's in a Federal building, for heaven's sake, and is probably the safest delivery address of all.  Maybe all it takes is ONE seller who does not ship to PO boxes, then other new sellers just copy his restriction.  Sad, isn't it?  

[janet9988]

Some sellers lie about the items true location and ship using a different service than indicated on the listing.

Some foreign shippers do not ship to PO boxes.

Sellers may exclude po boxes if they want the item to  go through the Authenticity Guarantee program.

[ravensbeak]

I, too, am rural, so we do not even have any mail delivery at all in my area. Everyone has to have a box down at the post office to get mail. So when I run into one of those sellers who won't ship to a PO box, then I simply do my address like this to them:

My Name

123 Yippy Yappy Lane, box 123

Happy Place  KY

00000-000

The key is to put your box number right after the street address as shown above. And if you have a +4 to add to your zip code that also helps get the package to you, as it helps the Post Master quickly ID where the letter or package needs to go. Each individual person has a +4.  The various Post Masters who have manned our local post office have all said that this was a really good way to get around the problem for businesses who refuse to ship to a PO box, and all said it was fine to do this. So I've been doing it that way for quite a few years now.

That's my 2¢ on the matter, lol!

[marnotom!]

I suspect that a long time ago, a seller posted something about a problem they had with a shipment to a PO box and people reading the thread grabbed the wrong end of the stick and decided to stop shipping to them.  After all, eBay must have made them excludable for a reason, right?

I'm thinking of a post I made many years ago when there was an International Trading discussion board on this site.  I can't remember the context, but I thought I jokingly mentioned Liechtenstein and Vatican City as examples in a thread about using Buyer Requirements to exclude certain countries as shipping locations.  All of a sudden (well, it probably took a bit longer than that), I was seeing those countries show up on exclusion lists for many listings.  So to Prince Hans-Adam II and Pope Francis, I'm sorry I made it more difficult for you to buy from the US on eBay.