Walmart vs. Amazon

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

When I stay at the farm, I have to watch how stuff is delivered.  The farm has a UPS/FedEx address that USPS won't deliver to.  And if I use the USPS PO address, UPS/FedEx can't deliver.  And unfortunately, Amazon doesn't let you force the selection. 

[Al F]

Just curious, not saying you are wrong, mainly wanting to know what is unique about the farm.  What is so unique that the USPS doesn't/won't/can't give or have a street address for the farm?  Driving through the country side we see rural delivery USPS contractors delivering mail to mail boxes along the back roads.  Granted the mail box may be along a county road, many miles from where the house is located, it still could have a street address, I would think. 

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

When I stay at the farm, I have to watch how stuff is delivered.

Where is the farm? I'm just wondering as we have several friends & family farms that we visit and all have mail service. Also wonder if the place that you stay has a 911 address?

[SWharton]

One thing we have learned to be careful of is General Delivery, not all small USPS locations will accept General Delivery from UPS or Fedex. 

I agree, I wish Amazon gave us better control over how things are delivered.

[Al F]

4 minutes ago, SWharton said:

One thing we have learned to be careful of is General Delivery, not all small USPS locations will accept General Delivery from UPS or Fedex. 

I agree, I wish Amazon gave us better control over how things are delivered.

And not all USPS locations will accept General Delivery at all, even from USPS.  In some or many cities all General Delivery goes to a single post office in that city.  Many times that is the centrally located post office.

I always call the post office location I want to use to verify that they accept GD. 

[SWharton]

That is why I said small. Cities, with multiple USPS, are a different challenge. I try to use only the small towns with 1 USPS.

[vermilye]

7 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

Where is the farm? I'm just wondering as we have several friends & family farms that we visit and all have mail service. Also wonder if the place that you stay has a 911 address?

If you want a real challenge, get a package delivered to Quartzsite, AZ.  No deliveries to street addresses (even for the few permanent residents), and FedEx & UPS won't deliver to a BLM site (if they could find you). The Post Office general delivery window is only open for a couple of hours per day with a long line (in winter).  The solution is to have packages sent to Quiet Times, a business that receives packages for a small fee.  Even then, the addressing must be exact or it will never get delivered...

[Dutch_12078]

One thing that folks may not know about, is that UPS stores will accept USPS package deliveries. You do need to sign a form authorizing them to receive the package, and there is a small fee. I found that out in Florida last year when I ordered an item that specified UPS shipping. I gave them the address for a nearby UPS Store, since the state park we were at didn't accept deliveries. When I got the tracking information though, the shipper had sent it USPS instead of UPS. I quickly called the UPS store, and was told it wasn't a problem, just stop in and sign the form. I think the fee was $2.50 when I picked up the package...

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

2 hours ago, Al F said:

Just curious, not saying you are wrong, mainly wanting to know what is unique about the farm.  What is so unique that the USPS doesn't/won't/can't give or have a street address for the farm?  Driving through the country side we see rural delivery USPS contractors delivering mail to mail boxes along the back roads.  Granted the mail box may be along a county road, many miles from where the house is located, it still could have a street address, I would think. 

Rural Hayward Wisconsin.  The farm could have mail delivery for a fee.  They choose to go to town to pickup the mail.  They have US/FedEx because of a small manufacturing operation.

[Dutch_12078]

41 minutes ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

Rural Hayward Wisconsin.  The farm could have mail delivery for a fee.  They choose to go to town to pickup the mail.  They have US/FedEx because of a small manufacturing operation.

Is RFD (Rural Free Delivery) no longer the rule in WI? It's still quite active here in rural VT at least.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

10 minutes ago, Dutch_12078 said:

Is RFD (Rural Free Delivery) no longer the rule in WI? It's still quite active here in rural VT at least.

Perhaps it has to do with being a Business Address.

[remoandiris]

You can search USPS.com for post offices that will accept General Delivery.   Use the "Quick Tools" pulldown and "Find Locations" button, then check the "Onsite Services" list to see if they do General Delivery.  Another way is to simply Google the town and state, plus the words general delivery. 

Using the USPS Quick Tools has been more helpful to me than the Google search.  Google sometimes gives results for a post office 50+ miles away from the desired location, whereas the Quick Tools gets me a LOT closer.  But, Google is several fewer steps to get results.

[Al F]

28 minutes ago, remoandiris said:

You can search USPS.com for post offices that will accept General Delivery.   Use the "Quick Tools" pulldown and "Find Locations" button, then check the "Onsite Services" list to see if they do General Delivery.  Another way is to simply Google the town and state, plus the words general delivery. 

Using the USPS Quick Tools has been more helpful to me than the Google search.  Google sometimes gives results for a post office 50+ miles away from the desired location, whereas the Quick Tools gets me a LOT closer.  But, Google is several fewer steps to get results.

From my experience at Fairbanks, Alaska, I tried to have my General Delivery mail go to the "College" Post Office location in Fairbanks. It was closer to where we were staying, and parking was easier.

COLLEGE

755 FAIRBANKS ST
FAIRBANKS, AK 99709-9997

However the General Delivery for Fairbanks ONLY goes to the the downtown location.

Going to quick links, selecting the College location it does show General Delivery

On-Site Services

• Burial Flags
• Business Reply Mail Account Balance
• Business Reply Mail New Permit
• Duck Stamps
• General Delivery
• Greeting Card Services
• Money Orders (Domestic)
• Money Orders (Inquiry)
• Money Orders (International)
• PO Box Online
• Pickup Accountable Mail
• Pickup Hold Mail
• Priority Mail International®

My understanding is that this is common in many cities with multiple post offices.  That is why, in addition to using "quick links", I now always call the post office to be sure that location does accept General Delivery. 

[Al F]

2 hours ago, Mark and Dale Bruss said:

Rural Hayward Wisconsin.  The farm could have mail delivery for a fee.  They choose to go to town to pickup the mail.  They have US/FedEx because of a small manufacturing operation.

Searching online the only thing I could find was this statement on a website about rural delivery:

Quote

In 2013, the USPS changed one of its residential delivery policies. For all newly established addresses, instead of delivering to the door or a curbside mailbox, mail will only be delivered to central mailbox clusters. These can be located far from a person’s actual residence. These clusters also make package delivery tricky since the mailbox address is different from the property address.

I never did find any info about mail delivery for a fee.  The search "usps rural mail deliver fee" mostly came up with the RFD mentioned by Dutch. 

Anyways, it is not overly important.  It is mainly a curiosity on my part.  

[Kirk W]

30 minutes ago, Al F said:

I never did find any info about mail delivery for a fee. 

I found the following information on the site of a company that provides address verification as a business service.

Quote

In 2013, the USPS changed one of its residential delivery policies. For all newly established addresses, instead of delivering to the door or a curbside mailbox, mail will only be delivered to central mailbox clusters. These can be located far from a person’s actual residence. These clusters also make package delivery tricky since the mailbox address is different from the property address.

 

[remoandiris]

1 hour ago, Al F said:

My understanding is that this is common in many cities with multiple post offices.  That is why, in addition to using "quick links", I now always call the post office to be sure that location does accept General Delivery. 

Another thing I learned over the years...use a post office in a small town instead of one in a big city.  I've had good luck calling the small town offices to verify delivery of my stuff. 

Use what works.

[SWharton]

No matter what you always need to call.....................

[dirtyboots]

Rural delivery of USPS can be tricky.  When I bought property in Oregon that was 5 miles up a dead end road, the few mail boxes were located at the intersection with the main road.  Driving by the boxes the first time I noticed several reasons why I would not get delivery at those boxes - bullet holes, smashed boxes, not to mention the possibility of theft.  The nearest small town was 14 miles away but it was worth it for the Post Office box.  UPS/FedEx did deliver to my street address and as an added bonus, the UPS driver lived on my road

[Barbaraok]

3 hours ago, SWharton said:

No matter what you always need to call.....................

Never, in 12 years on the road, have I called a post office.  We have our package tracked and I go and pick it up when the app says it is there.  I always have the page up on the phone as I'm asking for my package, just in case they want to tell me it isn't there - they see the page and quickly retrieve it.

[Barbaraok]

On 6/22/2018 at 9:08 AM, Al F said:

My understanding is that this is common in many cities with multiple post offices.  That is why, in addition to using "quick links", I now always call the post office to be sure that location does accept General Delivery. 

If you go to the USPS Zip Code page, you just type General Delivery in for the street address and up comes the GD zip code for that town.   Search for street address will then give you the correct location - - usually the "Main" downtown post office is used for GD.  

[Al F]

1 hour ago, Barbaraok said:

If you go to the USPS Zip Code page, you just type General Delivery in for the street address and up comes the GD zip code for that town.   Search for street address will then give you the correct location - - usually the "Main" downtown post office is used for GD.  

Thanks, Barb.  Works great.

[Headenout II]

Walmart or Amazon or...........
Installing "invisible hand" and/or "Priceblink as an add-on to your browser, will usually give you the lowest price on the web that these add-ons can find.

[lappir]

I don't and won't use either.

[richfaa]

Price is one consideration. I can order on Amazon prime on Tuesday Morning and have the order delivered in the Thursday  mail. I never left the house. We use Amazon when it suites us. We use Wall mart far more often.

We order from whoever we wish .

[Sehc]

With the latest court rulings, you will have to be living in a tax free state to have no internet sales tax. Most Walmart have a plus, free to get a nap in the lot.