Renting a mailbox when I'm nowhere near the area?

September 11, 2007 12:29 PM

Located in DC and needing to rent a mailbox in the Raleigh, NC area without going there... possible?

Situation: I live in Washington, DC and am looking for jobs in the Raleigh, NC area. A few people have recommended getting a mailbox from that area so that I have a local address for them to send things to, and then have any mail forwarded on to me.

Problem: I don't have any time to get to Raleigh in the near future to visit a post office or anything. I tried calling this guy, but he said I needed to show him two forms of ID in person. Anyone else know a way to set this up, or will I just have to take a sick day and drive down there for this?

posted by educatedslacker to travel & transportation around Washington, DC (4 answers total)

you need to rent your box in person. sorry. maybe you can set something up with a mailboxes, etc or someplace like that?
posted by thinkingwoman at 12:51 PM on September 11, 2007

I rented a UPS Store mailbox before I was in the area. The UPS Store assigned me a box in advance and charged it to my credit card. As I recall I had to fill out a form and fax it back to them.

When I arrived in town to pickup the mail I had to show two forms of ID. At that time they gave me the keys to the box and the store.

Also when I first called I spoke with a new employee who didn't know the process. He told me he would not be able to help me. Luckily a more tenured employee overheard the newbie talking to me and she knew the process to get me started.

I can't do the fancy linking so here it is old school:

http://www.theupsstore.com/
posted by Soda-Da at 12:51 PM on September 11, 2007

Two years ago, I was able to sweettalk the woman in a post office in another state to letting me rent one without my being there in person.
posted by letahl at 1:25 PM on September 11, 2007

Thanks, Soda-Da. I just called a Raleigh UPS Store and they said that I could handle all of the ID business here in DC and then fax them the form to get this started.

I appreciate the quick response!
posted by educatedslacker at 1:25 PM on September 11, 2007