<p>No, I do not mean p***** off. I mean a Post Office Box.
My son got his post office box very easily at Bama Bound. Here are some tips for others: </p>
<p>The post office is in the lower level of the Ferg Bldg. It is small - 2 employees serving customers - so expect a line, but come back, if so, as at other times there is no wait whatsoever. Your kid will need their drivers license + Action Card to serve as ID. They will also need to know their CWID. I was with him because he is not of legal age, but I was not asked anything other than how would āweā like to pay for this (they accept cash, credit, debit, check).
They will only rent for 6 months now (and cost is $29 for that time period), as there are renovations planned for the building/office there, so maybe they donāt actually know where the boxes will be located in the future? Their postal ācontractā w/ UA only goes through end of November. (Hope they are not moving!)
You are given 2 keys - I could suggest keeping the spare in dorm room in case your entire lanyard goes missing with the other one on itā¦
The box itself is very tiny - about 3" x 3", and there are 1000ās of them.</p>
<p>Little known factoid that conflicts w/ some info on other thread: we were told that you CAN get packages sent to the post office, even via Fed Ex and UPS. You are given instructions on this at the time you rent your box.</p>
<p>Regarding the packages, we were told the same thing, but were also told that theyāve only been accepting UPS/FedX/etc. packages since January, so itās a relatively new policy. The woman at the post office told me theyāre in limbo because the university has not renewed their lease, so theyāre only good (for now) until November.</p>
<p>The university is closing the post office at the Ferg after the end of the upcoming academic year and implementing a new mail distribution system.</p>
<p>Letās hope the mail/package service is improved. More out-of-state students means more packages and even entire contents of dorm rooms being shipped to campus and delays and long lines should not be common place ā especially for arrival in August. Last year as far as sending packages to Paty Hall goes, it seemed to be a huge game of Whereās Waldo? in there the first couple of weeks of school. They didnāt seem to staff up to sort & distribute packages during the beginning of semester rush which meant lines and delays in receipt. We could tell via on-line tracking something had been delivered to Paty, but they wouldnāt have it available for pick up for 3-4 days more. Later in the semester the delay would only be a day or two. This translates to realizing that paying for overnight shipping doesnāt mean your student will get the goods the next day. One hint: if the package is coming from home/family member write the studentās last name in large letters on several sides of the box so the Paty staff can more easily spot it in the pile of āto be sortedā. Also donāt ship tiny items in a tiny box if possible; a small box is more likely to be overlooked or misplaced among the hundreds the Paty staff is dealing with daily.</p>
<p>I work with Campus Mail, USPS, and UPS daily when Iām at UA and have noticed that USPS has a much smaller chance of misdirecting mail and has employees who know mailing regulations, especially when international postage is involved. The Post Office is also open during holiday breaks and when UA closes due to snow, which is a helpful feature.</p>
<p>The trick with mailing packages to Paty is to pick them up in the afternoon of the day they arrive and not wait for them to send an email. </p>
<p>If USPS cannot return in some capacity, Iād like to see a place that accepts both FedEx and UPS packages for mailing. Iāve spent the better part of a morning waiting around campus to find a FedEx ground truck to mail a prepaid return package. The Ferg Post Office has over 10,000 PO Boxes, which would be a chore to move somewhere else. The Post Office employes are predicting that a changeover to Campus Mail will increase prices (UA has little incentive to charge USPS standard rates) and service will go down as new people will need to be hired who donāt have many yearsā experience working with mail.</p>
<p>As a reminder, the Ferg Post Office cannot accept Bama Cash. As the very informative signs outside the post office mention, the best way to mail packages is to use the Priority Mail flat rate boxes (regional rate boxes are occasionally available) and print your postage online. This allows one to skip all lines and hand the box directly to a USPS employee. There is a discount and free delivery confirmation/tracking (a $0.75 value) when using USPS Click-N-Ship.</p>
<p>When they mentioned at BB the possible privatizing of the mail at UA and the possible charge (100.00 a quarter) the room went nuts. It is all rumor at this point but I feel it is crazy for an institution to even consider letting someone come in and charge their students hundreds of dollars a year to get a birthday card. </p>
<p>How is mail handled at other large public universities? Anyone with experience? Our other D goes to a midsize private where all on campus students have free mailboxes.</p>
<p>My DS is a junior at Miami (Ohio), a mid sized university. When he lived in the dorm freshman year, there were mailboxes with locks for each resident. My understanding is that a couple of work-study students were responsible for sorting the incoming mail each day. The USPS dropped off a bin of regular mail and picked up anything in the outgoing box.</p>
<p>As for packages, all USPS, FedEx, UPS parcel or overnight deliveries were redirected to the university package center - their Paty. Likewise, an e-mail informed you to pick up your parcel. The disadvantage to Miamiās system, your address changes every year - harder for grandma. </p>
<p>A bigger problem came this year when he moved into a frat house. There were mail slots, but no one sorted the mail. To make matters worse, the USPS delivered to the front or back door - so the guys just through it inside in the hall. DS found his absentee ballot in a pile of junk mail.</p>
<p>I hope UA gets this resolved. When visiting with my rising HS senior I liked their system - much better than DSās frat system!</p>
<p>Iāve seen schools with mail boxes for each dorm room located at the front desk of each dorm and also ones that used UAās current system of having USPS packages sent to an on-campus USPS Post Office and UPS/FedEx/Courier packages sent to the individual dorms.</p>
<p>A charge of $300 per academic year to receive mail would be ridiculous, especially since the UPS Store just off campus charges $79 per year.</p>
<p>My D is a junior at Iowa State and they have banks of mailboxes (free) in every dorm. Where there is a group of dorm buildings that share a common cafeteria, then there is one large bank. They access them w/ keys and when they have a package they get a note in their mail box. Nice easyā¦</p>
<p>I was at that BB where someone in the audience said that they were told that the charge would be $100 per quarter. A small riot did threaten to break out. But again, most of us realized that this was hearsay. Hopefully they will just move the Post Office and life will continue on.</p>
<p>At Bama Bound someone said that girls in sororities can get their mail and packages delivered to the sorority houses. Does anyone know if this is the case? Thanks.</p>
<p>I received a reply from Lynda Gilbert, Vice President of Financial Affairs at UA, answering some of the questions I asked about the upcoming changes to student mail delivery.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Right now, only 4,000 of the 10,000 mail boxes are used, making the operation small enough to be absorbed by campus mail. </p></li>
<li><p>Paty package delivery and mailboxes will be merged into a combined facility. </p></li>
<li><p>The current USPS employees will be reassigned and are able to apply for similar positions at UA. This leads me to believe that UA employees, likely a mix of full-time and student employees, will be staffing the new facility.</p></li>
<li><p>The new facility will have expanded hours and more consistent service levels. While fast by Post Office standards, there is not much flexibility with the current 3 employees and the occasional manager being the only ones who can work at the Post Office.</p></li>
<li><p>Paty package delivery will get new software to better track packages.</p></li>
<li><p>The intent of this change is to improve service rather than to make money off of students.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My DD is in a sorority and did not live in house last year. However we were able to send packages to her at the house. I do not know about mail as she had her PO Box and utilized it for letters.</p>
