In my experience, a "real" address is needed somewhere. PO Boxes are fine for many things, but for process service, etc. the part of your state government that is responsible for business entities will want a real address.
Instead of PO BOX 1234, Anytown, ST USA you use Street Address of Post Office, Unit # PO BOX Number, Anytown ST USA.
In addition to giving you a "real" street address, it works for any services unable to otherwise deliver to a PO BOX like UPS, Fedex or DHL, because as long as they deliver during business hours, the post office will sign for your package.
I use this to great effect as package theft is so rampant in my area. It does add a one day delay since the package is signed for by my post office and not delivered into my po box until the next day. And I've had to call and complain to Amazon a few times until they stopped trying to use their vans to deliver to that address. The drivers rarely read the instructions that say "You must deliver during business hours as this is a post office." When Amazon actually ships via USPS to my po box I get the packages same day as delivery so it's the best of all scenarios. Really I don't know why people have a such hate on for the post office. I love it.
https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing/competitivepoboxes
But yeah most likely a process server will leave the post office frustrated. I'm not sure if that's a bug or a feature. :-)
As a result, the U.S. Post Office is not what it used to be (it used to offer banking services!!!) but it’s still one of the best things we have left. Not to mention its glowing record of equal employment.
-- "let me do anything I want, I want to succeed and be huge!"
-- "make sure I can stop anyone that wants to do the same thing, I want to be the only one to succeed and be huge!"
The USPS does an absolutely terrible job, by objective measure. Many of their locations are significantly understaffed, with 30-60 minute waits for basic services (for paying customers!). Rude, unhelpful employees are the norm.
Why should package and letter delivery be a public service? Their approach is not working.
> Why should package and letter delivery be a public service?
Because everyone needs equal access to those services. Everyone, no exceptions, regardless of how profitable it is or not.
That's absolutely not true in most parts of their coverage area, especially the extremely dense ones (for example in Manhattan). With FedEx, it is.
> Because everyone needs equal access to those services. Everyone, no exceptions, regardless of how profitable it is or not.
This, even if we take its premise on faith, seems like an argument for subsidy, not necessarily a publicly operated service like the USPS. Food access is required for all people but we don't have government farms, we give people food credits. We have private hospitals and Medicaid, for another example.
I'm also not sold on the idea that in 2021 (that is, email, webapps, and government subsidized smartphones with browsers and government subsidized network service) that equal access to postal mail is the necessity it once was. Many services now are unusable without an email address, and while they require a postal address the stuff there can be ignored forever if you can access the website and receive email.
I'm sure others will have had other anecdotal experiences, both bad and good, that's just the nature of a large organization. I've lived in several different cities over time and USPS has been consistently fine.
I can see that argument about food, water, healthcare, maybe even electricity and internet but postal services? It’s pretty low down the “need” pyramid.
My experience going to FedEx and other post office competitors is the polar opposite. Everyone there is pissed off they're forced to schlep across the city to some grubby terminal staffed by permanently disaffected employees. FedEx is fortunately a couple of miles away but if I'm forced to go to UPS that's a ten mile drive and DHL is more like 23 miles and that's in traffic because I'm not taking a day off for a package pick up.
So I don't agree aggregation down to a few physical places for package pick up when otherwise service will be for me worse and equally bad or worse for everyone else is an improvement. The only change will be a publicly traded company will be chasing new levels of poorer service every quarter because their #1 duty is not to their customers but their shareholders. It's exactly the opposite of what you want in a customer-facing service.
You only have to look at customer ratings of the local competitors to see what the public thinks of corporate run delivery services now. They hate them. I am skeptical yet another delivery service could improve much less disrupt anything, other than ruin a public service. Hate the post office? Then engage in the political process and help it improve.
I got a PO Box, not that my local P.O. seems to be able to actually honor a change of address form. And I actively avoid anything that uses postal delivery. I'm much happier now :-P
So I got a PO Box...Aaaannnd of course the P.O. couldn't forward that 1 piece of mail properly :-p
so yeah - I find them useless and actively avoid any items that will be delivered by them (eg 'e-packet' stuff from aliexpress is a no go)
Weirdly I have the opposite experience using foreign delivery services: my wife buys items from Japan regularly that come DHL and I've never lost one. But I don't use my po box to forward mail, just receive it.
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Refuse-unwanted-mail-and-remo...
Maybe the difference is due to my "PO Box" actually being at a store and not an actual Post Office? It's at a local ups store/mailboxes etc. type store, so the Post Office would actually have to forward the mail, not just drop it in a PO Box on premise.
I recall efforts to reduce stress as apparently managers were tired of being murdered.
Maybe new phrase will be “Going Amazon”
Veterans with PTSD and weapons training sometimes flip out and shoot people.
It’s probably one of those things that starts as a feature and quickly morphs into a really, really big bug.
For a long time, the USPS would simply refuse to accept deliveries from competitors, which always struck me as the utmost in anticompetitive, non-interoperable-by-design bullshit. I'm glad to hear they have stopped.