Every time I get one of these, Buy Shipping will not give USPS as an option. I want to use ShipStation to buy shipping but I don’t know how to address those labels to make sure the products make it to the buyer on time. Has anyone had success buying USPS shipping labels for these addresses?
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So I used to just print when buy shipping allowed it, and it printed both on there.
It’s normally for a small town and there may not be mail carriers. If in doubt just use the po box!
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It depends.
If it comes in
PO Box 1111
925 Main Street
I leave alone.
if the address is street first, like
925 Main Street
PO Box 1111
or
925 Main Street Box 1111
I flip to
PO Box 1111
925 Main Street
AND go to USPS to verify zip code (as the can be different)
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I have been using Buy Shipping because I’m scared something will happen to those packages, but it’s so much more expensive for me to ship UPS.
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That’s absolutely true, but you can also get an “upgraded” PO box that allows for UPS, Fedex, DHL package delivery as well. I don’t recall exactly what the USPS calls it but you use the actual post office address with your PO box number (just as you showed). It’s not available at every post office but they do have it in the small to mid-size city I live in.
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Should I even gamble on Shipstation or stick with Buy Shipping? I can’t afford too many misses, since I don’t ship in great volumes.
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I looked up this service on the post office website and it’s called “street addressing” a PO box.
Here is what it says from their terms of service-
With Street Addressing Service, you have the option of using the street address of this Post Office location for your
mailing address in addition to your PO Box number. For example, if a Post Office is located at 500 Main Street and your
PO Box is “PO Box 59”, with Street Addressing Service your mail may be addressed to you at “500 Main Street #59”.
You may also use Street Addressing Service to receive packages that comply with USPS mailing standards deposited
by private carriers, such as UPS, FedEx, DHL and Amazon. Both “street addressed” mail and PO Box addressed mail.
I would try using buy shipping, but change the address as shown above. Buy shipping might accept it in that format. If you really don’t get a lot of these, google the zip code post office address to make sure it matches what the customer used as a double check.
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This isn’t available in most rural towns where everyone has a PO box. It wouldn’t work for our town. Our daughter has it in Las Vegas, NV … but it isn’t available for us in our little rural town.
Here is our process of handling them.
- Google the address to see if it comes up in Google. Check to see if Google shows a house at the address.
- If Google shows an address and a house at the address and if Amazon Buy Shipping doesn’t offer USPS services, we use USPS.com to purchase the label and input the tracking on Amazon.
- If Google doesn’t show an address, we try contacting the customer and ask them if they have a PO box for delivery. If the customer does and provides, then we use USPS.com to ship and input the tracking on Amazon. If the customer doesn’t reply, then we make a gut call as to whether we cancel the order as invalid shipping address or ship using USPS.com (value of the order plays a role in the gut call).
In small rural towns under 2,000 people, the postal people know who lives where and which PO Box their mail goes into. If the address shows in Google, it is a safe bet for us that we can ship to the address using something like USPS.com or PirateShip when it isn’t available in Amazon Buy Shipping.
Side Note
We worked in our little town’s post office and it was vary rare we got something that we didn’t know where it was going.
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Is there a way to change the address in Buy shipping?
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No … and shipping to an address other than the address on the order would mean NO INR coverage.
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