englogic1 said:
I saw something online on the USPS website about shipping directly to a post office and then being notified when the package is ready for pickup. Does anyone know if it possible to actually do this? I would like to order diapers online and ship them to a post office and pick them up there rather than deal with trying to ship them to my apartment where I have 3 roommates and live in a complex with 10 other apartments all door-to-door.
How it works here is you can place a "do not leave unattended packages" order on your address, and the carrier isn't supposed to just abandon a box at your door. They're supposed to knock, and if no one is available to receive the package, they leave a peach colored pickup slip in your mailbox. You take that slip to the post office and get your package. You can't get it that day, it gets returned from the carrier station to the main office overnight.
I asked them if they could just hold ALL packages and deliver my pickup notice first thing, so I could go to the post office that evening after work and get my packages without the one day wait, and they said that wasn't possible. (rules/procedures may be different with your post office?)
A "P.O. Box" aka "post office box" is the option they want to sell you. Those you rent by the month, and ALL mail addressed to it goes there. So you don't order for delivery to your home address, you order to your PO Box. Quite a few places won't ship to a PO box, because the address doesn't match your billing address on your credit card. Also, the boxes come in different sizes, and you pay more for bigger ones. I don't even know if you can really get one big enough for a case of diapers. Probably a bag or two though. But that will get expensive.
Some UPS (not USPS, UPS) depots also require "one delivery attempt". That definitely varies between depots. So for some people they can call UPS and tell them to hold the package at the depot without ever trying to deliver it, but other places won't give you that option, they have to make one physical attempt before holding at the deopt. You'll have to call or stop in and ask them what they're willing to do.
Fedex can also hold for delivery. Again they may want to try an attempt first. Call your depot.
I've done "hold at depot" for both fedex and UPS several times, though only once for diapers.
If the post office is offering some new service, you'd have to call them up and ask them about it.