There is no doubt that my property has never had a mailbox upon it. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.
In the United States, "junk mail" (which is also called "3rd rate" because of the bulk nature and slower delivery time) is normally computed and addressed to, in essence, postal patron at blah blah blah. And when you don't have a mailbox, you will therefore not get any of that junk mail. This simple statement leads me to the main point of this post, but more on that anon.
I've taken to drinking tea lately; it's quite a bit easier on my system, particularly for the "later" part associated with consuming any liquid. A lot of tea. One of my favorites is Yorkshire Gold. Another is Twinnings' English Breakfast. Amazon is a wonderful place to shop for large quantities of tea; I typically buy 160-bag (or at least 100-bag for the English Breakfast) boxes, and they last a while, but not indefinitely to be sure. Well, I was running out of the Yorkshire Gold (I have four bags left) so I ordered one.
Separately, I now work from home for a call center operation. I don't care for the headset they supplied, so I bought a more comfortable one. However, it gives me some compatibility issues with the Avaya phone software, so I had to quit using it. However, the other day I looked at the little booklet and discovered you can also connect it via one of the cables it came with and use it as a wired headset. I tried this and it works; however, the cable isn't remotely long enough.
So, when I went to place the order for tea, I started looking around for USB-C > USB-C extension cables, and I found one: 6.6 feet (roughly 2m for my non-US friends). Both items showed up as eligible for Amazon Prime shipping; however, I know from past experience that that does not always mean it will come on an Amazon truck. So what? Well...
Let us come back to the point of this post: I use a post office box as my mailing address, and I don't have a mailbox on my property. What most people don't know is this: the United States Postal Service does NOT deliver to physical addresses. Let me repeat that: USPS does not deliver to physical addresses. Rather, they deliver to a MAILBOX at a physical address. All the other carriers out there, on the other hand, do NOT deliver to a mailbox. They deliver only to physical addresses.
In the United States, Federal Express (now FedEx) and UPS (and perhaps other carriers) will job out certain deliveries to the postal service. This can also happen with Amazon, but will mostly happen with independent sellers who don't ship with Amazon's delivery service. Now, remember what I said above: carriers don't deliver to mailboxes but physical addresses, and the Post Office doesn't deliver to physical addresses but rather mailboxes at physical addresses. And because 99.99999% of Americans who have a physical address also have a mailbox of some sort on that property, they will never notice the distinction. However, for myself, when I order from someone who ships via USPS, or if I order from someone who uses FedEx or UPS and that particular delivery is going to get jobbed out to USPS, I have to find an alternate address to use; otherwise, my order will get returned as "undeliverable".
Now, the way I can test this with Amazon (and they're the only "shipping entity" I am aware of where one can do this sort of "checking") is if you can have the package delivered to an Amazon drop box (unless it's massive, but then it wouldn't get shipped via the post office anyhow) then that means Amazon is physically doing the delivery. And if it cannot be shipped to an Amazon drop box, then Amazon is not delivering it.
So, last night when I placed my order, I tested both items to see, and yes, I can send them to an Amazon drop box, which means I can safely have them delivered directly to my home.
HOWEVER... fate intervened. Let me explain:
After placing the order for the tea and the USB extension cable, I happened to discover someone else was selling a 10' (~9m) version. So, I went in and cancelled the original cable (I only ordered it like 5 minutes before) and then ordered the 10' version. However, in verifying how it would ship (see above if you're that brave) I didn't realize but I'd left the shipping location set to a drop box (which happens to be at a mall in the town next to mine). This means I won't get the cable until tomorrow (I'm already happily holding my box-o-tea.)
Is all of this story proof that this arrangement is a MAJOR pain in the ass? Oh, you bet'cha.
To make matters worse, the annual cost of having a post office box has skyrocketed. Now, part of why I have left things as they are is I share my house with my mom, and so both of us have the same mailing address. However, a couple weeks ago I had to drop a little over $80 (€78-ish) for SIX MONTHS. It used to be $60 for the WHOLE YEAR.
Needless to say, I'm going to put up a g███████d mailbox post and box between now and the end of the year. Of course, it's not instant. You have to put the box up, then inform USPS and submit a form. THEN, once you start getting mail there (for example, sending yourself something at that address, or getting junk mail) you can start putting through changes-of-address. That's going to be a PITA, but heck... what am I throwing $160 (€156-ish) away every year for, when by this point it is what it is and frankly most BS comes in through email anyhow and I've already dealt with that.
And there you have it. Cheers!