rural route p.o. boxes

I don't know how those boxes work, but I would be a little concerned too. Here on STX, the clerks at the PO will give you the name and phone number of the actual mail carrier. If you can get that, call him/her and make sure what they need your address to say. Let us know how it goes. I would be interested to know about the numbers not matching.

We don't use the gang box, but lots of our neighbors do, and have for longer than the 20 years we've owned this house. They prefer that to having a box at the end of the driveway, which is what we do (not many places in stx can say that!). It is interesting every so often, someone (several times a US marshall) comes to us, looking for someone whose mailing address has the Box whose number corresponds to our PLOT number..the PO supposedly differentiates with the prefix in the address--55 for the gang box, 51 for house delivery, but for 20 years we've just used the plot number as our mailing address, without the prefix----
The letter carrier makes a big difference, more than any other place I've lived. More than once, I've gotten mail without ANY number in the address......or addressed to me at a different address.....and when I was working full time, the letter carrier would deliver my boxes to my office, since it was on his same route and he knew I was at work and not home....unfortunately he's not our carrier any longer...

I like the safety of my stuff being inside the post office until I go to get it. BTW, FedEx thinks we are a foreign country and charges international rates. Not a good option usually.

Yes and so does UPS. (td) It cost me $40 to FedX a check to STX from AZ. That was over a year ago, I can only imagine what it would be today.

Help!!! STX PO Box!!

My new place doesnt have a mailbox and the post office i went to has no more PO boxes...Waiting list!!! I wonder if thats only for that specific post office? The one i ent to was the big one on 75(mid island), guess ill have to try the one in town(c-sted)

I was told i can put up my own mailbox adn fill out a request form. Ive got a month before i move in, any suggestions?

Thanks

Cory K.

The one in C'sted (market) has quite a few boxes available.

I'm assuming you mean the Kingshill post office. It is the busiest and I know there is a waiting list. I suggest you put your name in there, if it will be most convenient to you house, and take an available box at one of the other branches. Downtown or Richmond.

Thank you for the help! I am near 5 corners and Judiths fancy, so the one in town would be the next logical choice after the super busy one in(kingshill?) The one downtown is on company street right?

Richmond would be closer to you.

I was just going to say I think you may have Kingshill and Richmond confused. Richmond would be the closest, between 5 corners and C'sted, next to Olympic Car Rental. They usually have boxes, although you may have to take one larger than you need. I took one smaller than I needed, and that was a big mistake. I gets lots of stuff that's just a little too big for the box, so I wind up standing in line.

Yeah, Richmond does have boxes available. They don't have the smallest size at the moment, so you might have to get the second size. It seems like a good post office, but the parking situation is a little challenging.

About the rural route numbers not matching, the boxes are numbered in the front from 1-16. But I saw *inside* the mailbox has the 4-digit number (written in Sharpie) that I was told to write on my mail. So I guess it isn't as hard for the mail carrier as I had thought.

So far we haven't gotten much mail in it. I did get two package slips, which was great. However when I went to the post office I had four packages (still moving our stuff here, slowly), so I don't know what happened to the other two slips. When our mail was on hold we received a LOT of different people's mail in our stack, and only one thing addressed to us. That was a little disappointing.

About the unaffordable FedEx option, what address do you give them? If a company won't ship to a PO Box, I assume they won't to my rural route box either. Should I give them my home address and assume they will find it??

Thanks for the help.

Fedex is really irritating when it comes to delivery.(td) I get my mail in a box on the side of the road too but fedex doesn't recognize non-physical addresses and only deliver to a house location. Except the house address doesn't make much sense either due to lack of road signs and numbering. So if something has to be fedexed (from international location for example), I give the rural route address and then plan to expect several phone calls from fedex about where the delivery location is. After a few games of phone tag, I can usually get a hold of the driver and just give him the directions to the house. It is an ordeal. Use USPS whenever possible! With USPS you can still insure the contents, get delivery confirmation and tracking info...soo much easier (and cheaper!). 🙂

two years ago, we ordered those sleep # beds--and the strange company shipped these king sized beds in boxes to stx, for about $50 each. They came UPS--must have cost a fortune, arrived on island in two days. The UPS guy took a WEEK to drive them out east because it was so far...

MailBoxes, Etc. will accept packages for anyone. It is $5.00 per box, no matter the size. I use them fairly often when companies won't ship to a P.O. box.

You can pick up Fedex at their office. There's one in Peter's Rest STX.