PO Box or Virtual Address

[Dave Kinnel]

What if it's not your business to meet clients at your address? I think you should stop tarring every business with the same brush. Each business has different needs for an address, and therefore one requirement of a business isn't always the same as the next one.
I'm hardly tarring everyone, just asking a question!

And also, what solution do you suggest for those who don't have the spare "few hundred pounds a month" that you may have?
They admit they work from home!

As for fooling customers, I don't believe that to be true. You could apply the same rule to any business, e.g. a company registered outside of London who decides to operate from a London office because it offers nothing more "prestige".
Silly argument as they do have real offices in London :|

I would like to point out, I have no affilation to any mail-handling/service etc businesses and I consider my opinion to be completely impartial. As a consumer, I wouldn't have a problem purchasing an item from a distance seller who traded from a PO Box or virtual address, and subsequently, the law doesn't either, as cited in my earlier post.
I'm with the crowd who think a geographical address is not a virtual address, and until you can show me something that is both physical and virtual I, and I suspect the law, will see it this way to. Not going through that argument again though!!

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[captaincloser]

I'll say it again, if your a back bedroom boy working in Grismby it is deceitful to have a virtual office in St.James Square as your business address. I can see no reason why a business would do this if it were not to deceive.

Welcome to the world Deceive? Have a quick overview of the banking system, the energy companies and the largest supermarket group Tesco and get a bit of a handle on smoke and mirrors. Your poor little chap in his bedroom in Grimsby would be the archangel Gabriel in comaparison when it comes to deceit. This thread ain't going to change too much in the world...

 

[Dave Kinnel]

Welcome to the world Deceive? Have a quick overview of the banking system, the energy companies and the largest supermarket group Tesco and get a bit of a handle on smoke and mirrors. Your poor little chap in his bedroom in Grimsby would be the archangel Gabriel in comaparison when it comes to deceit. This thread ain't going to change too much in the world...

That's going off topic - we will all be banned apparently!!

The OP is a small business that's going to work from home, which is the point I'm responding to. Tesco's, Banks don't trade from virtual office or PO Box's - it's very easy to walk into Tesco's HO or any Bank branch or their UK HO. But go to St.James Square to find back bedroom Grimsby chap and your screwed.

 

[Super Simon]

I can see no reason why a business would do this if it were not to deceive.

Cost efficiency, temporary requirements, the additional benefits of such services (e.g. telephone answering facilities and conference rooms) to name but a few.

 

[captaincloser]

That's going off topic - we will all be banned apparently!!

The OP is a small business that's going to work from home, which is the point I'm responding to. Tesco's, Banks don't trade from virtual office or PO Box's - it's very easy to walk into Tesco's HO or any Bank branch or their UK HO. But go to St.James Square to find back bedroom Grimsby chap and your screwed.

Ha. You may have to do (slightly) more to get banned !

Its not off topic...my point is that you are getting wound up by a tiny thing in comparison to what really goes wrong in business. You wont stop the Grimsby back room people so move on. They are not breaking the law. Whereas Tesco...fined £12m two months ago for price fixing.

By the way I am looking at a letter from my bank. The only address on either the communication or envelope is:

P.O. Box 17311
Edinburgh
EH12 1AS

Also neither you or I would find it all easy walking into the HQ of any bank.In reality its the Virtual address providers who come under the spotlight.They are expected to have strict records about their clients so that they can be tracked down if needs be.They are the ones who need controlling.

 

[Dave Kinnel]

By the way I am looking at a letter from my bank. The only address on either the communication or envelope is:

P.O. Box 17311
Edinburgh
EH12 1AS

Also neither you or I would find it all easy walking into the HQ of any bank.In reality its the Virtual address providers who come under the spotlight.They are expected to have strict records about their clients so that they can be tracked down if needs be.They are the ones who need controlling.

Yes, but that PO Box won't be their registered address which will be easy enough to find. We are getting at cross purposes here me thinks, probably my fault! I'm just on about the small one man bands that try to pull the wool over their customers eyes. Tesco's et-all simply couldn't give a stuff and blatantly rip you off hoping the majority of the public are either to stupid or apathetic to do anything about it!

 

[captaincloser]

Yes, but that PO Box won't be their registered address which will be easy enough to find. We are getting at cross purposes here me thinks, probably my fault! I'm just on about the small one man bands that try to pull the wool over their customers eyes. Tesco's et-all simply couldn't give a stuff and blatantly rip you off hoping the majority of the public are either to stupid or apathetic to do anything about it!

OK.But does any of it matter unless the guy in Grimsby is your number one competitor in which I would go head to head with him and take an address in the city of London.

If your posts are on some moral grounds then forget it...the world is a big bad place !
Gotta take the budgie for a walk now

 

[estwig]

Has everyone had a little too much coffee toady??

 

[Dave Kinnel]

OK.But does any of it matter unless the guy in Grimsby is your number one competitor in which I would go head to head with him and take an address in the city of London.

If your posts are on some moral grounds then forget it...the world is a big bad place !
Gotta take the budgie for a walk now

No moral ground here high or low (well maybe low!). I just want to know where someone is actually based before I used their services. Being just an hour away from London myself I might well employ a London based company, to then find they are in Grimsby would seriously pee me off and I would wonder what they are hiding.

Love to the budgie

 

[Dave Kinnel]

Has everyone had a little too much coffee toady??

Who fookin asked you

Who's Toady?

 

[captaincloser]

Has everyone had a little too much coffee toady??

Coffee is for closers..get back up that ladder

(but you are right, as usual)

 

[estwig]

Coffee is for closers..get back up that ladder

(but you are right, as usual)

Coffee is for poofs, real men drink Tea!

Ladders? It's a long time since I got me hands dirty!

 

[FirstClassVirtualOffice]

Our virtual address is a real building and can be visited. Occasionally unscrupulous people will try and use the service and if something seems suspect then we won't process their application any further.

There are those that use the service to knowingly avoid people coming to their home such as bailiffs, etc, and last week we had an angry customer and a bailiff turn up here for 2 different clients. The clients both got a warning to take steps to make sure this doesn't happen again and that we will not accept this. Our terms now state that we will suspend the service if we find this happens again.

 

[TODonnell]

We did have a bailiff turn up recently, looking for one of our clients. We don't mind (looks nonchalant) . They're just doing a 'seeking-out-a-debtor by numbers' and our address is on their list.

We would tell bailiffs 3 things:

- We're a virtual office: their quarry is not physically here;
- If they want our clients info, they have to apply in writing;
- They have to have the legal power to access that information: a letter from the courts or similar, as opposed to a letter from some private company digging for info, which has no legal force.