[Tom Hannon]

I was told "I need to go to the post office to fill out papers. Until I do, I do not have an address. From what I hear, no mail can be delivered until I register my address.
Question is::: Can I ship packages to my Buttonwood address via UPS or FedEx. Rather than carry these package on the plane it would be easier to mail them and have them arrive a day or two after us. I guess I could mail them to my neighbor's but I'd rather not have her go out of her way.

[redwitch]

If there's a street address, it seems logical that FedEx or UPS should be able to deliver to you. However, you'd have to be very sure that the packages wouldn't arrive before you do -- I do know of a few cases where packages were delivered earlier than expected.

Can you do the address stuff for USPS online? If so, do it now to be effective day of closing and there should be no problems. Just a thought.

[Tom Hannon]

Problem with USPS is it is the Post Office. Not sure when I'll be able to get to post office to register. My intention was to have the packages mailed late Friday.

[salpal]

Mail them to me, then come pick them up. Send me a private message, will send you my address.

[BogeyBoy]

Originally Posted by Tom Hannon

I was told "I need to go to the post office to fill out papers. Until I do, I do not have an address. From what I hear, no mail can be delivered until I register my address.
Question is::: Can I ship packages to my Buttonwood address via UPS or FedEx. Rather than carry these package on the plane it would be easier to mail them and have them arrive a day or two after us. I guess I could mail them to my neighbor's but I'd rather not have her go out of her way.

I'm curious, who told you that you need to go to the post office to fill out papers? Register your address? I have never heard of such a thing.

[kb8tpw]

I agree, I just went thru all of this and did not have to register my address. I took care of everything I had to do on USPS.COM and have done temporary mail holds since we've been here on short trips north. Worked like a charm.

[BogeyBoy]

Some people may be confused about what you have to do to get your mail once you have moved.

There is not any requirement to "register" your address. The postal service will deliver your mail to you unless: 1) you or a member of your household have filed a change of address order, 2) you or a member of your household have placed your mail on a temporary hold, 3) there is a court order over who is entitled to your mail, or 4) it is not a valid address. (Once while I was managing delivery for the postal service in Santa Barbara there was a group of homeless people who listed the Fig Tree (a landmark in Santa Barbara) as their address and demanded delivery. Needless to say they did not get it, there was no residence or business there, just public property with a beautiful tree. This was during an election and they wanted to vote. I won't go into that, but there is a way for homeless people to vote.)

What you do have to do is advise your prior post office of your new address. You can do that at usps.com. You should also advise your credit card companies, lenders, etc. of your new address. The postal service will only forward your mail for 1 year, and lots of things do not get forwarded, they get returned to sender with your new address affixed, or they get trashed if it is an advertisement or some other mail that does not have enough postage to be forwarded. Automation has really helped this mail forwarding process. Let's say you live in New York. You move to TV. Someone mails you a letter from Los Angeles. If you have a change of address on file your letter will get the new address affixed in LA and it will come directly to TV. (In the old days it would go to NY, the letter carrier would get it, and then forward it to you because they knew you had moved.)

So, bottom line, once your deliver person sees mail for you at your new address they should begin to deliver it as addressed. It is called "attempting" delivery. If for some reason it is not yours you return it to the postal service with a brief note, usually "not here", "unknown", or "moved". If it is first class mail the carrier will return it to sender with the reason for the return, usually based on what you write on the letter. A word of CAUTION, don't selectively do this to mail you don't want, like your credit card bill! Once the carrier starts to see "unknown" on a piece of mail they will figure that name is not good at that address. You can always refuse mail, write "refused" on it and give it back to the carrier. Again, if it is first class mail it will be returned to the sender with an endorsement that states you refused delivery. (As a general rule once you open the mail you cannot refuse it.)

[Tom Hannon]

Thanks for the details. Maybe I "Misrembered" what was said.

[bluedog103]

Originally Posted by Tom Hannon

I was told "I need to go to the post office to fill out papers. Until I do, I do not have an address. From what I hear, no mail can be delivered until I register my address.
Question is::: Can I ship packages to my Buttonwood address via UPS or FedEx. Rather than carry these package on the plane it would be easier to mail them and have them arrive a day or two after us. I guess I could mail them to my neighbor's but I'd rather not have her go out of her way.

Tom, before we closed on our home in March I went to our local UPS store in NY and explained our situation, that we wouldn't actually own the home until March 4. They agreed to hold the packages in their NY store and ship them so that the would arrive the day of our closing. No charge for the extra service, I just paid for the shipping.
Nice folks.
I don't know if all UPS store owners would be that cooperative but it's worth a try.