For the first time, I have no address to ship my spring/fall wine shipments to. My new office does not allow shipments of alcohol and no one is at home during the day.
I’ve heard various things on here over time about accounts with UPS and/or FedEx that allow you to ship to one of their locations until you can pick it up, but can anyone give me the real scoop/details here? Any info would be appreciated.
Once your receive tracking # just call shipping company and ask to hold. Simple and easy.
Curious, how would your office know? Also mind me asking why they don’t allow?
I have pretty good luck with FedEx. Once you have your tracking # go to the tracking page and click on the Customize Delivery button. You don’t even have to register if you don’t want, just click next on the Continue As Guest button. Follow the prompts, you’re even given a list of your local offices. They will hold for five days, after that they will return to sender. Free.
UPS MyChoice I find cumbersome. I have nothing good to say for that service.
Option #1: Ship to your home address or work address, but when you get the tracking #, change the delivery to “hold for pickup”. There will be no delivery attempt, it just goes straight to the location you specify.
Option #2: Look up the address of the local UPS or FedEx store near you and ship the wines there. UPS charges $5 for this service. FedEx is free, if I recall.
I work in a Government building as a contractor, no alcohol shipments.
If I just list a local FedEx or UPS location as the shipping address, how do they charge me the fee? Do I have to pay the fee when I pick it up? Or do I have to set something up ahead of time. Someone told me that they really are not supposed to hold alcohol, but most location will.
Until recently I kept a mailbox at a local shipping center. They signed for any boxes I received and emailed me when they came in. They even had AC. Now I have a locker at a wine storage facility and they receive my shipments. Works great.
FedEx will hold alcohol as a matter of business practice, at least that’s what my office told me. Haven’t seen it in writing. And like Scott says, you can ship direct to a FedEx office, but for some reason thought that was Express shipments only, not Ground or Home, could be wrong.
Edit: will hold wine, not beer or spirits
There is usually a big purple sticker on the box that says “adult signature required”. Kind of a big red flag.
Dusty, I am also a government employee and can’t have wine shipped to work so I have all of my wine shipped to my home. When I receive a FedEx tracking number, I use the “customize delivery” tool and have it routed to a nearby FedEx store just as Bob said above. It’s very efficient. I also agree that the UPS version is cumbersome and I believe that there is a fee to upgrade to a similar option that is free at FedEx. Fortunately though, whenever I miss a UPS shipment (which is not often because the drivers know to hit my house later in the day), I use the door tag # to call automated customer service so that I can pick it up at the nearby facility that evening.
If there is a wine storage facility nearby, most will receive shipments for clients.
I have a PO Box & the post office will sign & hold for me.
I used to have a “mailbox” at the local UPS store. This is a very small mailbox, think it ran about $25/month, and they will hold all of your deliveries for you. This is good as it doesn’t require contacting the shipping company each time you have a delivery. Also, though this has gotten better, it used to be that when packages were held they were held at the distribution centers, which can be far away.
Alternatively, FedEx has gotten good at shipping to and holding at the local retail outlets, though I’ve found that service was total garbage compared to the UPS store, where they knew my name and were extremely nice.
I didn’t know if USPS would do that. That is probably far more cost effective, though long waits could make it a problem.
For Fedex, I list the local Fedex Print and ship center as the delivery address. They will hold packages for 5 or 6 business days. UPS is much more of a hassle if you can’t get deliveries to your house/office. You have to join their club for a fee to have deliveries accepted at their stores.
I think the main issue here that makes it inconvenient is that many wineries only offer shipping from one company or the other (UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.). If they all offered all of them, I could set up one process and it would be much easier.
When the box shows up with a large sticker on it saying “This package contains alcohol, adult signature require” …might tip them off.
This:
…and this:
Or find a friend to receive shipments for you. A friend who isn’t likely to judge you 
Definitely don’t use your work as shipping address expecting to reroute every shipment. Someone will surely ship to you eventually without notice.
FTR the USPS does not ship alcoholic beveriges. For those who sell their artisanal “olive oil” do not use the USPS, it is a federal offense if you get caught.
I do it all the time. FedEx will hold at one of their locations for your pickup. They stick a HAL tag on the box and you have five days to get it. UPS will keep making attempts and then they’ll hold it for you. Just find out if the FedEx nearest you will accept deliveries. Some don’t but most of the little FedEx/Kinko’s shops are willing to do it.
Make sure you contact the winery first and make sure that they ship only FedEx though. Most will use either carrier but you should specify which you want. If they use a fullfillment center, get in touch with them.
Worst case, send it to a neighbor if you have any that stay home during the day. Or befriend your local grocer or hardware store guy or dry cleaner and see if they’ll hold an occasional box for you. In Brooklyn, some shops will do that for the neighborhood people.
This.
Shipping address is my name c/o FedEx with local store address. No need to change the delivery option when you get the tracking number. It just goes straight to the FedEx Print and Ship local center. I pick it up the following Saturday. No extra charge for holding it a few days. The stores have AC but I don’t know that they run it at night, so if you’re really paranoid about temps just stick to cool weather shipping windows.