Especially when I’d bet they would have sent it to any address you told them, yet ID is required to take out a PO box - point being you could be skimming a letterbox somewhere waiting for the SIM but you need a key for the PO box.
The particularly troubling aspect of this is that to someone it seems perfectly logical and reasonable.
Another ‘interesting’ one is the online redirect capability. There are certain things sent through the post that must be handled by licensed dealers, yet - hypothetically of course - the online redirect function on MyPost works well 
The important thing is that people ‘believe the right thing has been done’ I guess …
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Well judging by responses, you have struck a chord with this NubglummerySnr. We live in an area where there is no postal delivery so have a PO Box in nearest town. Couriers and most freight companies won’t deliver here.
My latest experience was ordering a tablet from Harvey Norman. I didn’t notice the usual warning about non-delivery to PO Boxes until my delivery address was rejected for being a P O Box. That teed me off so I gave my home address and hoped for the best. 2 days later my post office called to tel me the parcel was with them. Turns out Harvey Norman used Australia Post to deliver!!!
That got my goat, so on the usual ‘how did we perform’ email, I told them that I would not be ordering again. I also pointed out that AusPost has a service called ‘Parcel Collect’ which HN should sign up to given they already use AusPost. With that service the delivery goes to the PO where they can immediately relate that to my P O Box #.
Just had the last laugh. Just buying a new mobile for our family and the first link to the model we want was to Harvey Norman. No way HN. :-))
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For parcels from overseas, you can use a forwarding company. I use one for products only sold in the US and to have parcels sent to my PO Box.
Try HopShopGo or similar
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Damn good idea @grahamn, let’s see what we can come up with 
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I also live in a rural area without courier services. My POBox is located 1km away whilst the courier depot is 16km away. Naturally I prefer POBox deliveries but to ensure that the parcel arrives at all and if Ebay says ‘we do not accept POBox delevery’ I put our address in as eg 2222/567 Whatever Street i.e. the POBox number before the street address. That works very well for us.
However, I totally agree with other statements that the order confirmation should clearly state if certain delivery modes are not supported by the supplier to prevent delays, confusion, time and cost for ringing or emailing around to question the whereabouts of the order.
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I was thinking whether the Australia Post Parcel Lockers would fix the problem of couriers not delivering to PO boxes, but looks like the same applies. The Australia Post website says that parcel lockers are unsuitable for 'Parcels delivered by a courier that has chosen not to deliver to our parcel lockers".
I also see that some online sellers allow collection/pickup from Big W…parcel is sent to Big W which then becomes the collection point for the buyer. Maybe this could be a option where it is available…and one has a Big W nearby.
The other option (if one works or partner does) is to see if your employer would allow the infrequent delivery of parcels to the place of work. My old work allowed this until it started receiving dozens of parcels each day and the cost/inefficiencies outweighed the benefits to the employees.
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Maybe I don’t follow you but do you really use some combination of your PO Box address and street address? I would think that would cause nothing but confusion and not contribute at all to getting material into your PO Box. Normally an address of the format you give would be interpreted as Unit or Shop Number = 2222, Street number = 567. When they find that Unit 2222 doesn’t exist whoever is doing the delivery either drops it at 567 Whatever St or gives up and does a RTS.
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It works in our location as suggested by our local Community Post Office 
Depending where you live it may be worth to try it out.
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I suspect this is a hangover from the days when few had PO Boxes and those that did were more likely to be up to no good! Insisting on a physical address was about the only way a ‘real person’ would take delivery of the goods. And then there was cash-on-delivery arrangements (CoD) which you don’t hear much of these days either.
Whilst frustrating (and it is) it’s really a new age problem. And if the Government gets its way, we will be charged an extra $5 for the parcel to (not) be delivered - the so called anti-terrorism fee to inspect all parcels arriving in Australia.
Honestly, I have a bigger issue with the delivery people showing up in their van and and making no attempt to deliver, preferring to shove the ‘sorry we missed you’ card in the post box even as you watch from the window!
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We know all about the couldn’t be delivered cards. One time we put our lives on hold and waited all day at home for a delivery that tracking had stated was coming that day. By 4pm no one had come to our door, but the tracking had changed to say no one was home to receive the package. We looked in our letterbox to find the card. Pretty sure the driver parked around the corner, crawled on his belly to get to our letterbox to avoid detection, slipped the note in, then crawled back to his truck behind the cover of our brick fence.
I absolutely dread having to use a courier service. They are so unpredictable at times. Will they deliver our package? Will they actually try and get a signature or just dump our parcel in the front yard in the rain? Will they dump it at our address or someone else’s? Will they just decide to leave it at the post office, after the seller insists that they can’t deliver to a PO box? Will we have to reorganise a delivery and hope it actually arrives this time? Will we have to deal with someone at the depot who has no idea where our package has been stored? Will the correct tracking number be written on the card, if at all? We’ve had to deal with all of these issues at least once at the hands of various courier services, including Australia Post’s own Star Track. It’s so much easier when we can use our PO box. I’m happy to use Australia Post and wait a bit longer, but some businesses just insist on using the couriers. As the buyer I’d like to have the right to be able to choose, but most places that use couriers don’t give you any other choices.
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How about some details, what does the address you give comprise? How does anybody know that it includes your PO Box? How does this get around the refusal to deliver to a PO Box? I don’t want your actual address but to understand what you are doing. This still makes no sense to me.
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POBox number followed by the street address. As I mentioned earlier we do not have courier deliveries which will be automatically delivered to the nearest depot according to the post code. I should also mention that we do not have postal street deliveries and all mail goes to the local community post office.
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I have the same issue - my local PO is happy for me to give address of Post Office (just my name and st address of PO) and we get round it that way
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How would you use a parcel locker as your address?
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Will need to check this out. Thanks for the idea.
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Yup. Is the only way we have found that works!
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When you sign up for the locker you are given a identifying number that goes with the parcel locker address. You use this as your address. Paypal allows alternative addresses so you add the address to them. When paying with paypal choose this alternate address for delivery. When AusPost or Startrack gets a parcel for you it sends it to that address and you get notified by SMS or email that an item has been left for you at the parcel lockers and this message includes a single use pin number you use to open the locker and get the parcel/s, you then get about 2 days to get to the locker to collect. Some couriers other than Startrack also will deliver to the PO who then put it in the locker for you.
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Thanks for responding and providing that useful information. Much appreciated.
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Np at all. All the locker locations I know of are 24 hour 7 day a week accessible, so you can choose a time that suits you in that window of allowed time to get to the locker and get your parcels. Works really well for us.
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I have the same problem - except that there is no postal delivery to my house and hence it’s PO Box or nothing.
The solution I use for those suppliers who won’t accept a PO Box - and I do a fair bit of online ordering - is to provide the street address of the post office. (As you are paying for the PO Box service this is not terribly unreasonable but you should clear it with the post office first as a one-off.)
You can even try to sneak your PO Box number into the name field, which might be helpful to the post office staff in a larger post office.
I think there has been only one supplier in recent memory where both approaches (PO Box, street address of PO) have failed and in that case I had no choice but to go to another supplier.
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