This actually is the normal for me growing up, except it was UPS and, occasionally, FedEx[1]. USPS doesn't deliver, ever. You rent a PO Box and that should be good enough. If we knew it was UPS, we would have an address like "House 311 Behind the School Loop". So, USPS delivers to PO Box and UPS would find your house or just drop it off where you worked because they knew that too. If a college won't accept applications from a PO Box then you don't get to apply to that college[2].

This in the modern, internet era, has become a true pain in the rear. So, somehow, somewhere, there is a list of street names for 911. This might or might not correspond with the utility company's idea of location. There are often no signs. To fix this, it seems a lot of websites and vendors are starting to use a USPS website[3].

I seriously think we need an article in the spirit of the name article[4]: Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Addresses[5]. I would like to contribute one: "The USPS Address Lookup Tool only shows addresses that the USPS itself delivers and not all valid addresses for delivery."

So, all that work to find out a real address doesn't really matter if the USPS doesn't actually deliver to that address, but UPS and FedEx are just fine. Never mind the fun practice of handing off the package to USPS for final delivery (looking at you DHL[6]) when the deliverable street address for UPS/FedEx turns into an undeliverable address for the USPS who will send it back unless you can convince your vendors to put the PO Box on line 2 of the address.

Now, a normal person would think it might actually be an ok thing to get the real address added to the USPS system, but that is currently a bit of an exercise in phone tree spanning.

Can you guess what I have been doing during this current unpleasantness?

So, my fellow developers, please allow an override of your address checking.

1) oh, by the way, do not confuse FedEx and FedEx Ground when talking to employees of said companies, they are quite hostile.

2) almost as good as the old "we don't accept money orders" for weeding out those pesky poor people back in the day before debit cards and online applications.

3) https://tools.usps.com/zip-code-lookup.htm?byaddress

4) https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...

5) I guess https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-a... is it.

6) ah DHL, who somehow shipped a printer intended for North Dakota to another tribal college in South Dakota (different tribe, different state) then had it go to Chicago and then Compton CA to be handed off to USPS.