Can I hire a Post Office Box in USA ?

[aljamri]

I am From Bahrain ( Persian Gulf )To me it is impossible to buy ( almost ) anything from USA, that’s because my country is not listed in most of the countries that shipping service is available. I face this in most of my shopping in American sites like Amazon.com and ebay, but not to forgot the nice shop agreed to send me my PIC programmer 123electronics.com.

My question is: Is there any way to hire a Post Office Box in USA where I can receive my orders and from their ship them to my country by normal shipping ( not through Fedix, DHL, UPS….) ?

 

[ronsimpson]

I have a friend that is runs a “virtual office” company. This is how it works.

Lets say I have a very small company and I want it to look big. The virtual office has a real address and accepts FedEx and mail. There may be 50 small companies using the same address. 123 south 5th street suite 1, suite2, ….suite 50. Typically I would stop by and get my mail and deliveries every couple of days. OR They will box up my mail and send it to me every week.

When the phone rings it can go to my cell or to a switch board where a secretary answers the phone using my company’s name. There is a real conference room for meetings and several real secretaries. When I am out of the country my company still sends/receives mail, faxes, phone calls etc. If I can receive a package and have it sent out with out being in the country I think you can to.

Option 2. You could talk one of us into receiving your package and sending it on.

 

[jpanhalt]

Search on package forwarding. Here is one hit:

**broken link removed**

The problem is the international transit. The above link claims to provide it, but I didn't see any costs listed.
John

 

[RadioRon]

It is common for Canadian businesses to hire "freight forwarding" services which includes transportation and customs brokerage. But this is often too costly for small packages and for hobbyists.

 

[aljamri]

I have a friend that is runs a “virtual office” company. This is how it works.

When I am out of the country my company still sends/receives mail, faxes, phone calls etc. If I can receive a package and have it sent out with out being in the country I think you can to.

How to get this service please ?

 

[aljamri]

Search on package forwarding. Here is one hit:

**broken link removed**

The problem is the international transit. The above link claims to provide it, but I didn't see any costs listed.
John

Thanks for your answer, i checked this link, they are ready to do this service but again via UPS or Fidex which take me to sequare one again.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Thanks for your answer, i checked this link, they are ready to do this service but again via UPS or Fidex which take me to sequare one again.

It's a professional service, and therefore costs professional prices, doing it via normal mail would just cause them far too many problems. Do you really want a service where it takes months for you to receive your parcels?, and the chances of getting lost are much higher.

 

[jpanhalt]

Thanks for your answer, i checked this link, they are ready to do this service but again via UPS or Fidex which take me to sequare one again.

Such forwarding services are probably useful only if you are dealing with a vendor who won't ship directly to you. I thought that was the problem you were having, for example, with DigiKey. They are expensive. You end up paying shipping twice plus the mark-up for the service.

For incoming shipments to the USA, there is a major advantage to using FedEx, DHL, etc. as opposed to the regular postal service in that the commercial carriers pass an entire shipping container though customs in a single step; whereas, the postal service puts each item through customs. It is much slower that way, and the chance of loss/stolen is much greater. Your country may not follow that procedure. For myself, it was an expensive lesson. I will never use the regular post for incoming international shipments again, if I have a choice.

 

[Rolf]

High Cost of Shipping .......

I am From Bahrain ( Persian Gulf )To me it is impossible to buy ( almost ) anything from USA, that’s because my country is not listed in most of the countries that shipping service is available. I face this in most of my shopping in American sites like Amazon.com and ebay, but not to forgot the nice shop agreed to send me my PIC programmer 123electronics.com.

My question is: Is there any way to hire a Post Office Box in USA where I can receive my orders and from their ship them to my country by normal shipping ( not through Fedix, DHL, UPS….) ?

I have shipped small padded envelopes by US First Class (Air Mail) uninsured to many countries, without any problems. The cost has been most reasonable and you can look up Bahrain here:
http://ircalc.usps.gov/default.aspx?Mode=Intl_Single&CID=10029
Anything but International Air Mail ($ 1.07 / oz) becomes very expensive and insurance likewise.

 

[aljamri]

It's a professional service, and therefore costs professional prices, doing it via normal mail would just cause them far too many problems. Do you really want a service where it takes months for you to receive your parcels?, and the chances of getting lost are much higher.

In my country, we never dream with such luxury of getting everthing on time or 100% chance of getting it. you may remember how i strugle to get PIC programmer, so we will accept any deal with any percentage chances. Longer Time ?! we got used to it, our systems are of 25% tolerance and espicially timming.

in addition to that i found it funny to pay $10 for a uesed book from Amazon.com and pay $40 for shipping. This made the deal worthless, while if i paid another $15 and a chance of 50% to get it will be butter offer for me.

 

[aljamri]

I have shipped small padded envelopes by US First Class (Air Mail) uninsured to many countries, without any problems. The cost has been most reasonable and you can look up Bahrain here:
http://ircalc.usps.gov/default.aspx?Mode=Intl_Single&CID=10029
Anything but International Air Mail ($ 1.07 / oz) becomes very expensive and insurance likewise.

Thanks again. i checked and found my country as distenation, but again my request is mail forwarding and i think they are not providing it. any way i emailed them for this regard and waiting for their reply. Thanks for All.