Post Office Shops -- Sending to a P.O. Box

Does anyone know the reason why the USPS Regular box shops cannot be mailed to a P.O. Box? I have thought about it and really don't see how this could affect the shop either way, but maybe I'm overlooking something.

"We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl -- year after year..."

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

More About Post Office/Shipping

Never thought to ask why, it's always been a rule. Perhaps since often it is a box that will not fit inside of the P.O. box? It wasn't always that one was allowed to use mailers other than boxes. In fact, when I first started doing these shops back in 2002 or so, the MSC that had the client at the time sent us boxes to use to mail to particular addresses of their choosing.

Has anyone seen any shops for the USPS for the month of AUgust??

Yes. I am already assigned 7 of them for August.

I've never used a P.O. Box before and I assumed that larger boxes would be stored inside the local post office branch and a slip put in the P.O. Box announcing its' arrival. When the P.O. Box owner got the slip, they just walked over to the counter to retrieve the larger box?

More and more people seem to be using the P.O. Boxes to avoid leaving packages on their front porches,especially in higher theft areas.

"We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl -- year after year..."

@Insight wrote:

Has anyone seen any shops for the USPS for the month of AUgust??

Yes, I applied for only two, since we'll be away the last 2 weeks...got one so far for this week. Hope I get the other one for next week.

It is what it is.

@msimon-2000 wrote:

I've never used a P.O. Box before and I assumed that larger boxes would be stored inside the local post office branch and a slip put in the P.O. Box announcing its' arrival. When the P.O. Box owner got the slip, they just walked over to the counter to retrieve the larger box?

More and more people seem to be using the P.O. Boxes to avoid leaving packages on their front porches,especially in higher theft areas.

I actually sent to a P. O. Box for a year or more before I noticed the "No P. O. Boxes" rule. Idk if it changed along the way or if I just missed it the first time. I'm not usually one to overlook those kinds of things. Anyway, it was clearly on the box in my photos but they never said a word to me about it and always approved them. Once I realized the instructions said no P. O. Boxes, I changed it.

The post office where I have my P.O. box told me that if I ever needed to get packages from a place that wouldn't deliver to boxes, I could put the post office's address and then the box # on the 2nd line like you would do for an apartment number. If you get a package, they put a key in your box that unlocks a larger box that has the package. I don't know if it's the same at every post office, but it might be worth asking yours about! (Others might have you pick it up at the counter, or they might not allow it at all. But again worth asking!)

Happily shopping the Pacific Northwest. Shopping since 2013

Many of the private post office box places in my area have street addresses attached to them. This is often so people can appear to live or do business in a location which is prized for school admissions or just for seeming to be a company doing well financially...so places like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica can easily rent boxes at these addresses. But I have also seen at times zip codes that are unique to post office boxes and very different than the local zip code in what I think are government post offices...perhaps it is because the msc software has a hard time recognizing these and cannot tell if they fall within the guidelines for which zones we can send to. Just a guess!

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Post Office Shops -- Sending to a P.O. Box

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine