Hi Everyone. Well, after 15 years the RV-Dreams Community Forum is coming to an end. Since it began in August 2005, we've had 58 Million page views, 124,000 posts, and we've spent about $15,000 to keep this valuable resource for RVers free and open. But since we are now off the road and have settled down for the next chapter of our lives, we are taking the Forum down effective June 30, 2021. It has been a tough decision, but it is now time.
We want to thank all of our members for their participation and input over the years, and we want to especially thank those that have acted as Moderators for us during our amazing journey living and traveling in our RV and growing the RV-Dreams Family. We will be forever proud to have been founders of this Forum and to have been supported by such a wonderful community. Thank you all!!
I hate going to stores. Hate spending a lot of time and gas, going from place to place, only to discover that they're out of whatever it is that I wanted to buy, ("We just sold the last one!") don't have the size / color I was looking for, or never stocked the item to begin with. This is why I do the vast majority of my shopping online, and signed up for Amazon Prime to get the free, 2 day shipping whenever it's available. Needless to say, I've become quite spoiled in this regard.
My question is; what's the deal when it comes to having merchandise delivered to RV Parks and the like?
Some (most in my experience) RV parks will accept FedX or UPS shipments at the office. In some RV parks like the one we are in now, FedX and UPS will deliver to the site number.
The problem we have had is that when ordering from Amazon you may not know how the item will be shipped. If it goes via USPS then a mail box number is required, if via FedX or UPS an address is required. There is no provision on the Amazon shipping input form to handle that issue.
Two post offices have told me that if you put a PO box number after the zip code (if the PO box is 3 digits then put a zero in front) and if it ships to the post office they will put it in the PO box. However Amazon won't accept that either - says it is an invalid zip code.
With an order I made yesterday, in the address box I put "7195 Highway 72 or PO Box 1103".
Amazon accepted that. The item is a DVD set and we will see how it works if it is shipped via the USPS.
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Clay (WA5NMR), Lee (wife), Katie, Kelli (cats) Full timed for eleven years in a 2004 Sightseer 35N. Snowbirds for one winter and now settled down in CO.
Thanks Clay. This is the kind of information I'm looking for, and I hope to hear from others as to how they handle having merchandise shipped to ever-changing locales.
Mark - we've found the Amazon Prime membership to be well worth the $79/yr fee. Many of the products offer free 2 day shipping, if it's a product that takes longer we learn to be very strategic about our ordering.
For example, we spent the last 2 weeks of January at a state park close to Tucson AZ, none of the Post Offices near us accepted General Delivery, we would have had to go to the downtown location or to a small town 20 miles north. So we didn't get mail for 2 weeks, however, we knew we were headed to an RV park that would accept and hold mail for us (confirmed ahead of time) so we placed a few orders and had our mail forwarding company send our mail to the RV Park. I think they were glad to see us arrive, we had several packages waiting for us that had all arrived that day or the day before.
Once our travels settled down a bit and we weren't doing huge repositioning moves every 2-3 weeks, shipping has become easier to deal with. On average over the past 4 months we've had at least one week at an RV park that would accept mail for us, so we've learned to time our orders, mail shipments, etc. Most RV parks will accept mail for you, although we just found out the Escapees Park in Deming NM won't so we'll have to use General Delivery while we're there.
We have used General Delivery a few times and find that to be sometimes challenging, 2 different post offices "lost" our delivery only to find it the next time we were there (mis-filed). If you have a delivery confirmation, make sure you take it with you, this seemed to be much more problematic during the holidays, we didn't have an issue with General Delivery the first several months on the road but December was tough.
If you are having something shipped UPS or FedEx there are local stores that will hold for pickup, that needs to be confirmed with each store however, some FedEx stores don't offer that service and some UPS stores charge $5 or $10 for that service. We've also found that we could have large items delivered to the closest UPS depot and pick it up without a holding fee, however, the closest depots are usually a further distance from us than the closest UPS store.
Agree with Amazon Prime! Especially if you travel a lot. I've only had once or twice last year when something didn't get delivered in 2 days. And you can put other family members on your account so they get the free 2 day delivery also plus the free movies. But as with anything else you have to shop price. I can often find an item cheaper elsewhere.
Amazon Prime typically ships UPS. At our winter spot near my wife's mother the little bitty town has a different address for USPS and UPS/Fedex. So Prime has the advantage of knowing that the item will be sent by UPS.
So Prime has the advantage of knowing that the item will be sent by UPS.
I try not to get anything, (and I mean ANYTHING) delivered to me via the local USPS. Their slack and shoddy service is the main reason that I switched over everything that I possibly could (bills, banking, correspondence, etc) to the internet. I live in Chicago, and get mail that does not belong to me put into my box on a regular basis. Also, the mail person pushes a small three wheel buggy that she fills from truck which is usually parked along a midpoint on her route. If I get a parcel that will not fit through the mail slot delivered via USPS, she has to carry it along with her which can be cumbersome, or make a special trip past my place in her truck. So what she does is fill out a slip saying that she "attempted" delivery, shove it in the slot, and run like Hell so that I have to go down to the post office to pick up the parcel myself. If she knows I'm home, she won't even ring the bell because that would mean having to trudge back to her truck for the package. I've seen her do this on numerous occasions.
Why do I not file a formal complaint? Because I don't want what regular mail I do get tossed into the trash.
We have been at this park for awhile and the packages get delivered to the coach. I just put the park's address and our lot number. In a rare instance it was delivered to the office. Prime is the way to go for us since I order alot from Amazon. We also have our mail automatically delivered every two weeks.
Reference my post above.
The tracking info on the set of DVDs that I ordered says that it is available for pick up at the local post office, so the address with "street address or PO Box" seems to have worked okay. They chose the PO box and shipped via USPS.
The RV park will go over to pick up the mail in an hour or so and I should be able to pick it up in the office soon.
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Clay (WA5NMR), Lee (wife), Katie, Kelli (cats) Full timed for eleven years in a 2004 Sightseer 35N. Snowbirds for one winter and now settled down in CO.
A year or so ago we had an interesting experience with this. We don't get USPS delivery here at home (we use a PO box instead), but DHL, FedEx, and UPS can easily deliver to us. We ordered an item that indicated they would be shipping USPS, but wouldn't take the POB number. Turns out that they used FedEx for delivery to the PO, and then the PO was to finish the delivery. Fortunately we are in a very small community so the ladies in the PO knew we were expecting the package and gave it to us. We've had mail intercepted in KC, though, and returned because the sender put our street address on it instead of the POB.
