>>I was informed by a FedEx account rep, that FedEx will deliver to a PO Box
Whether the PO will accept the delivery is the $64,000 question though.
In my case they will, because I am signed up for USPS Street Addressing (PBSA), and have submitted signed paperwork authorizing USPS to act as my agent. And not all PO locations are PBSA eligible which makes what follows more complicated.
If recipient's PO Box address is not in the program, I don't know if USPS will, can, or has to accept outside deliveries from FedEx, UPS, etc.
From the 2012 USPS PBSA Guide:
When a Customer Has Not Yet Signed an Agreement
When a customer receives mail addressed to a PBSA, but has not yet signed the
agreement, the customer is asked to sign the agreement. The mail is delivered to the customer.
If the customer fails to sign the agreement and continues to receive mail addressed to a PBSA,
the mail is treated as undeliverable-as-addressed mail, which will be handled as authorized for
the particular class of mail or ancillary service endorsement used.
From the USPS POB Service Agreement deliveries to PO Boxes are subject to USPS Mail restrictions:
You may use this address only for items that can be delivered through the mail. For example,
you may not use the street address to receive shipments of wine, other alcohol, items over
70 pounds or items prohibited by Postal Service policy (see Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
Section 601), even though private carriers can carry those items. Any such shipments will be
refused or held for pickup by the private carrier. The DMM is available at http://pe.usps.com/
Documentation on this is all very old - 2012 when the SA program was rolled out and sparse, and some is no longer online that I can find.
In general, a seller unilaterally choosing to ship to a PO box street address (that's assuming he either has the address from the buyer for some reason, or he looks it up and fabricates it), is probably a bad idea, even though it might work depending on the employees at the receiving PO. Seller may not have any leg to stand on if it goes south as it isn't a documented procedure/policy by either FedEx or USPS, and eBay, PayPal, and banks likely wouldn't be sympathetic to non-delivery, etc issues)
However, if a buyer provides the address as a street address (as I sometimes do) then
1. without sleuthing there is no way for the seller to know it's a PO box and not a UPS or box store or a small office with a suite number (although FedEx seems to recognize a USPS street address as residential)
2. whatever goes wrong as a result is on the buyer's head (assumes it was ok, but buyer isn't in SA program and his PO rejected the delivery, etc)
