3056 Mail Boxes Etc

Just a note to mention this organisation. Basically a franchise shipping service, where you carry your parcel to a local drop off point (in your nearest decent sized town), and FedEx or UPS or DHL pick up and deliver to another nominated Mail Boxes drop off for collection by the recipient.

I found it by chance, and it is incredibly cheap and just as efficient as UPS etc. I've so far only used it for national (within Italy) deliveries, but it is fully international (US idea, I think!)

Very useful if you live half way up a mountain and the couriers never can find your house!

Category
Cost of living - Utility Services

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 06:40

We had a more simple solution.

We spoke to the Post Office & requested they hold on to our mail until we can to collect it. This is a faciility they are more than hoope to provice (if they have enough boxes!)

All such requests should be done in person & backed up in writing.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 06:56

A Post Ofice box certainly solves the prob of the postman not trawling up ones white road, but doesn't help when it is a courier like FedEx etc, or you want something shifted quickly and securely.
Generally though it is worth exploring the services which the ordinary post offices can supply - like post boxes, forwarding services - and it is certainly worth making friends with your local PO!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 09:23

We`ve also found MailboxesEtc to be excellent. We haven`t used them for sending parcels but they hold on to courier deliveries for us. Here we find couriers won`t always come into the country to find you, or, if they come once and you`re out, they leave the parcel with Mailboxes - we find it works really well.

We had problems with postal deliveries in the early days as our postman changed and the new one wasn`t quite so obliging. We asked at the P.O. and they weren`t able to keep our post because we did actually have a postal delivery out to us - they only hold post for people who don`t have a delivery service. However, we then got a different postman & things have been fine since. But, for couriers, MailboxesEtc is great.

Hazel