Hi all. I posted a while back asking for advice on whether to rent a private mailbox using a fake ID. Just an update in case anyone else is considering this. I ended up doing it, and it worked great for a month or two. I successfully received a large international order and placed another.
Well, fast forward a little over a month, and I go in for my weekly-ish check to see if the pack landed. One of the shopkeepers sees me and says he's glad I showed up because they'd been contacted by the USPS asking for proof that I actually live in the city where the shop is located. (My fake ID was out-of-state.) He tells me he needs a copy of a lease or a utility bill or a bank statement or something showing a local address, because currently the USPS has no way of knowing that I'm not still living back in my "home state" and just renting a box here even though I don't live here. The guy was clearly irritated and suspicious and got pretty aggressive about asking me to produce something right then and there.
Luckily my pack was in the box, so I just made some excuses and left and never came back. I'm not sure what to make of that situation. I don't see how it would even be a problem to live out of state and rent a local box. Isn't that exactly the sort of situation private mailboxes are for? So I'm pretty sure someone was making that up in order to get more information from me, or pressure me somehow, but I have no idea why, or whether it was the shop or someone at the USPS or what. Needless to say it was pretty alarming and I'm not going to be trying that again.
Well that's good that they put it in the box anyways. The PO I use, you go in and to the left are the boxes and to the right is a door that goes to the customer service area. That way they can lock those and you can still get to the po box. Seems weird that they would see you come in but I guess it might be right by the door. Anyways I'm surprised they knew who you were? I would think they deal with too many people to remember.