We live in a rural area. There is no mail service in most of the area so we are assigned a post office box instead. What makes everything worse is that our street isn't on any map and we are the only house with an address on this street. The street curves and before and after our segment is a street called Macguire but our address is on a different street.
Most rebate forms won't allow a PO box mailing address. Most websites use post office guides for street and zip verification, so if you don't have mail delivery you don't exist.
We have decided to go wireless for our home phone to save money. We had to order the phone through Cingular (the only company with reception in the valley) because the local stores charge for the phones the company offers for free. The phone was sent out 2 days ago via FedEx for 2 day delivery with a scheduled delivery of today. We tracked the package and were frustrated to see that they decided we had a bad address. Ummm, it's not the best sounding address but it's not bad!
Paul called customer service and they said the driver said it was not a valid address. Well, he was calling from said address so obviously it's just fine. He left directions to our home with the agent who said she would forward the info to the driver. A few hours later the tracking info said the package was back at their facility. What happened to our delivery?!?
Another call, more explaining that this is a good address, not an apartment, not a new house (it was built in the 50's), and UPS is here numerous times a week. Maybe the dig about UPS made an impression... but after talking to a supervisor they decided they would try to find someone to deliver it tonight since they don't come up here on Saturdays. Some more waiting and the guy called back to say they found someone who lives up here and he would meet us in town at the gas station.
I'm pleased that they relented and agreed to deliver the package. Why do places like UPS and FedEx insist on relying on USPS records in an area that doesn't have mail delivery? The UPS guy had trouble the first time too. I've even seen the FedEx truck pass our home so I know they come up here on occasion.
The only really serious issue we've had was with Amazon. They offer free shipping but not to us. Malachi ordered a book, computer game, and joystick a few months ago. The joystick could not be delivered to a PO box but they said they would only ship via USPS unless we wanted to pay for shipping. We ended up sending everything to my in-laws house. We don't order much from Amazon anymore because it's too much of a hassle.
I guess it's just one of those things you have to deal with when you live in the boonies.
2 comments:
Did you have mail service to your yurt? Can you mapquest your address and get directions? Just curious as ever....
We didn't have mail service to the yurt but we could have. We had an address so all we had to do was put up a mailbox and notify the post office there was a new address. That area, which was more remote than where we currently are, had mail delivery.
This current address doesn't show up on mapquest or google maps but it does show up on zillow. That and the county plat maps seems to be the only place our street exists.
The USPS says they only deliver to towns with 2500 or more, smaller than that and you have post office box service only. The two towns around us each have more and they still don't deliver. We don't live in the town, 3 miles from one and 5 miles from the other. Funny thing is we are on the cut off line between the two post offices so we have to go to the one 5 miles away. Honestly I think they just don't want to pay for a rural route carrier.
The smallest town on this side of the lake has service though. On the other side of the lake there are rural carriers for the people outside the town limits. None of it makes sense, but that's the government for you :)
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