Getting stuff from Amazon

[gopher]

Wow, this board is quiet, but I thought anyway my 2 cents might help somebody.
It took a few bad experiences, but finally I learned that having Amazon ship to General Delivery is a bad idea. That's because UPS won't deliver to the Post office, and neither will Fedex. And there's no way I know to tell Amazon who to ship by. Usually Amazon uses UPS, but sometimes you'll get a Post Office tracking number and the Post Office will then deliver it, but you can't depend on that.
If a shipper uses Fedex, it's possible to have the package rerouted to a Fedex pickup point such as a Walgreens. If you asked to have it shipped to General Delivery, then you'll have to get the rerouting effected as soon as the shipper gives you the tracking number. It's a nuisance.
The most reliable, but also the most expensive way, is to have everything shipped to your mail forwarding service, like MyRVMail (Good Sam).  They'll accept delivery from any carrier. The costly part is that you''ll have to pay again for shipping, for them to send your package to General Delivery where you're going to be, but it's worth it to avoid the hassles.
I've settled on requesting my mail once a month, mainly to deal with a few monthly bills that still get sent by snail mail, and at the same time, I'll get any goodies like RV parts or clothing from Haband that I've ordered. It involves just a little planning, knowing where you'll be so your mail will be there, when you get there.
There's just one uncertainty left with this method, and that is, that a few Post Offices won't accept General Delivery mail, so it's best to call and ask the one you propose having your mail sent to.
I've camped around Florida all this winter, going from place to place, and General Delivery has worked well for me. I notice too when I go to pick up my mail, that the PO seems to have a lot of GD mail for others, so the snowbirds must be using it too!! (I'm a FL resident, so technically not a snowbird)

I think it's odd nobody on this forum had talked about this. Are there other ways of getting mail? Well, I hope someone finds this helpful. 

[Froggy1936]

 When i am traveling i have all my mail sent to my son,s house , He forwards anything important to where ever i am   Frank

[tmsnyder]

Sounds like a pain. 


If you're in a state park campground, can the package be shipped to the main office?


If you're boondocking, wow I don't know where you'd have it shipped unless you make friends with someone with a permanent address.  Maybe the local diner if you frequent a place, or local pub.  Sounds like a service that Walmart should start offering.  They are friendly to RVs as it is, b/c they know we'll shop there.


Actually that's something to consider.  Try shopping online at Walmart instead of Amazon, they have everything that Amazon does and you can have it shipped to whatever store you want.  Pick up is next to customer service. I've gotten a few things from them instead of Amazon b/c they were less money.

[Aaarrghh]

I had a package returned to Amazon because the UPS driver wouldn't leave it for me at the State Park where I was camphosting. I noticed others getting packages, but nevertheless it scared me off. UPS is so quirky, IMHO. You can even address a package to a UPS store, but if the Post Office tries to deliver it there, they won't accept it. Back to the shipper it will go.

There are Walmarts everywhere but in small towns. Good idea.

[tmsnyder]

I bet if you were a member of a fraternal order, like Knights of Columbus, Elks, Moose, Rotary, VFW, American Legion, etc you could ask them to accept mail and packages for you.