Privacy: PO Box, Fedex or UPS Suites?

[zenmushin]

Some people advocate for using a United States Postal Service P.O. Box instead of domain privacy services (e.g. GoDaddy's Privacy). I once read about a Fedex or UPS equivalent that enabled you to use their physical address and you had your own Suite number.

I can't seem to find this information at FedEx or UPS. Can anyone find it and provide a link? I would like to setup a small business and am trying to decide if a PO Box or a Physical Address (with Suite number) is more suitable for me. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Brujah]

I think the biggest difference between a PO Box and a Physical address is whether or not someone can sign for you if needed. A UPS store will do this. You'll get a box number but you can give your address without including "box." If the address is 123 Main St Box 4, then you can just give it away as 123 Main St #4 as a physical address.

 

[TestCase]

One other big difference between using a PO Box and a UPS type mail box service is the cost. A PO Box is dirt cheap compared to a mail box service.

What you pay for one month at mail box store will probably get you six months at the local post office (at least in big cities).

 

[zenmushin]

Good stuff - thanks all.

Do you know of any drawbacks to a PO Box? I think that many companies will not ship boxes to a PO Box. For my small business, I don't think I will have the need to receive any boxes. Do you know of any other limitations?

Or, to put it another way, what are the advantages to the mail box store? If the mailbox store closes, is the address lost?

 

[bmugford]

Or, to put it another way, what are the advantages to the mail box store?

1.) They can receive packages via any popular mail service
2.) It gives you an actual street address. It looks more professional, and some documents can not be sent to PO Boxes.

If the mailbox store closes, is the address lost?

Yes, it happened to me. My box was assigned to another store and the address changed.

Brad

 

[elius]

there are a lot of cheap alternatives to PO boxes. Like already stated above; some companies don't send to PO boxes and a physical address looks more professional. I think you're looking for something like myus.com or bongous.com. If you don't get too much mail/packages these are pretty inexpensive.

 

[pit]

I would even search for virtual offices. A lot of these have package services as part of the monthly rate, often less than $100.

 

[cdboard]

Yes, it happened to me. My box was assigned to another store and the address changed.

a long time ago I had a similar thing happen to me. but, it was the local post office that closed, and I had to get a new P.O. Box address. haha

 

[DomainAvalanche]

I would go with the physical address. It looks more professional in my opinion and you will have no shipping restrictions if you plan on receiving packages.

 

[RazorNF]

When I had a post office box, I was only able to retrieve my mail when the postal outlet was actually open.

The UPS store gave me a door key giving me 24 hours access to my box.

And as already mentioned by others in the thread, an important benefit is that they will sign for your packages for you.