Okay, this is a pretty weird question but does anyone know if it's possible to have someone send something to your local post office and have you pick it up from there?



<--- and/or any other creative suggestions on how I can get a cd-sized package sent to me by a friend in the US without my parents noticing?



*i'llgohidenow*



CPPF <33

Get it posted to a friend?

That's occurred to me but I dunno if I have good enough friends who'd be willing to give their addresses away to someone they don't know over the internet.

School? Got any teachers who would take it for you?

..argh. no. it's not that important.

Why don't you want your parents to know?

Can you not get to the post first? If you just check it every morning? Or after you come home from school? Otherwise there's a link here: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?m...;catId=27300662 which tells you how to have a package addressed to a post office.

^^ ooh thanks Lucy, that looks promising.

I don't want my parents to know because to be honest, getting stuff sent by online friends does seem a bit dodgy at times ... my parents don't know anything about my online friends (including you guys ) and the one time they found about about abrsm they got more than just a bit mad. The thing that my friend wants to send is a mix-cd that I've helped to design the covers for, so it'd be nice to have a copy.

<3

Fair enough

Or you could get your friend to write a note on the envelope for the postman - 'Please leave behind the shed, whether or not I'm in' or something. I got so thoroughly fed up with getting notes to collect stuff from the sorting office that I started doing that with everything likely to be too big for the letterbox.

Haha, well my parents know I come on here, and my dad understands, but my mum's not big on the internet in general so she worries a bit more... but still not too much...

Still be careful... I have a friend with an online "boyfriend" who sounds a bit too good to be true... my friends and I have had to stop her meeting up with him in Ireland twice - once we had to ring her house and tell her parents about it, so that they could stop her.

whoah ... sounds scary.



Nah ... I know online people who live less than an hour away from me, and online people who live in America/Australia/India etc. I love the mix of cultures, it's amazing. But yeah, I guess I am pretty careful too ...

Get a post office box! That's what I know, so it isn't necessarily right or anything silly like that...

Yes - a quick look online and it seems you can still buy a box at the post office.

(didn't it use to be called poste restante? or is that something different ..)

It says ---
A PO Box® costs just £57.85 a year or £46.95 for six months. And if there's anything to be signed or paid for, we leave an advice card in your PO Box®. For an additional fee we can even deliver your PO Box mail.

so it's probably not something you'd do for the odd item, CPC.

*tries to puzzle out why someone would pay for a box and then pay to have the stuff delivered. I mean, why not just - oh never mind!*

It still says 'Poste Restante' on the link that Lucy posted. An it also said the service was free?

-confuzzled-

I found it was best to be honest with my parents about my internet aquaintances! I did get the stage with one friend, when I was about 16, when she came on holiday to Cornwall where I lived then, and suggested meeting up.

My parents were quite funny (though not unreasonable) when I mentioned it to them...


We did manage to meet up, but both brought our mothers. A highly surreal situation, but we're still in regular contact and see each other quite often.

I think the risks are less than they seem if people are sensible; but then, I had been talking to this particular friend for over a year before we considered meeting. I think it also depends on where you "met" the person online.

Why not talk to you parents about the CD, and ask what they think. They may be okay about it (sell it like having a penpal ... for some reason parents find this much less alarming, though it's not really that much different). It might be awkward, but you might also find they are far more laid back, and suprise you.

I think part of my parents concern was because they didn't know much about how I socialised on the internet at the time. They'd just see me disappear onto the computer. The more I let them know, the less concerned they were.

Parents are concerned because there's been so much publicity about adults grooming children via the internet by pretending to be children themselves. Basically, anyone can say anything on the net - I could really come from Inverness, or be a young man - with no-one the wiser.

I wouldn't have thought your parents would be too worried about your receiving a CD, but I can quite see why parents would want to be involved when it comes to meeting in the flesh someone you have contacted only over the internet.

In general, I agree with Tamsin; it's best to be honest with your parents about this, otherwise if they find you've deceived them over using forums they won't be able to trust you in other areas either.

One of the longest-standing friends of my adulthood is someone I met online

I think honesty is generally a good idea... though if you think your parents are likely to freak about you getting a CD from someone in the US then I can see why you might wish to be cautious.

Would it be possible to have your friend package it so that it somehow looked like a CD that had been ordered from a business?? Or some sort of, I don't know, free CD sampler from a website??! I don't know what would be less likely to worry them

But yeah if you can be honest, do it - it's only a CD after all, it's not like you invited someone to stay!!


Poste Restante is different from having a PO box, and yep, PR is free as far as I understand it.

I think is the crucial bit:

The person sending you mail just has to include the following on their envelope: your full name, 'POSTE RESTANTE' or 'TO BE CALLED FOR', followed by 'POST OFFICE' and the full address of the branch. If it's only addressed to a town name, for example 'POST RESTANTE, LONDON', then it will go to the closest main Post Office branch. The sender should also include their return address.

Should be reasonably simple - as long as you know the address of your PO - just be aware that you won't, unless I've misunderstood it, get any notification from the PO that it has arrived, so you'll need to keep checking every week or so, so it doesn't get sent back!


I don't get it either

So that the person sending the mail doesn't know your address. However I believe the PO has to divulge it if asked.

I think the parents issue is that it would mean that CPPF would have to give her address over the internet, to a relative stranger, which (quite rightly) parents should be concerned about.

I think in the long term it is best that you are honest with your parents otherwise, if you lose their trust it can be far worse. See if you can discuss it with them. I honestly think this is the best route. The more they can understand your internet activities (and that you are responsible and will not give out your address to anyone regardless) the better it will be for you in the long run.

Why not ask their advice about giving your address out for this CD, and you suggest that you are a bit concerned about giving your address out on the internet (would show you are thinking responsibly about this and that you are sensible about internet activities) and would it be all right if you had the package delivered to a relative instead.