Quote from: brockeh on January 25, 2012, 09:11 ammaybe im not understanding 100% but it seems like there is a reasonable chance that whoevers living there will grab everything in their hole/box thing and either bin, open or mark return to sender your gear =ONo, that's next to impossible.You see, the pigeon holes aren't for specific apartments or dorm rooms. That's the central principal at work here. It's inefficient for each renter/student to have their own personal pigeon hole. So, all envelopes (usually not packages, those you have to sign for usually, which is not a good idea) wind up in pigeon holes according to some kind of internal addressing system. 90% of the time this is sorted by surname.Example: All letters for 'James Anderson', 'Luke Allen', 'Mark Adams', 'Philip Alexander' etc go into the pigeon hole for 'A'.Now, anybody can walk up to a pigeon hole and check whether mail has arrived for them. That's what makes controlled delivery improbable.You just need to flip through a collection of letters in a pigeon hole to check that there is no name similar to the one you're going to be using in case of an accidental pickup. For surety, you should also ensure that the room/dorm/apartment no. you're addressing to, actually has a tenant (in case the post is held back by the staff, albeit that is unlikely for large blocks of flats or dorms).Lastly; the majority of such places don't ID at the door to check that you're a student/renter at that location block of flats/apartments/dorms. The sheer volume of people makes it impracticable because people are always crowding through doorways, holding doors open for each other etc.I wouldn't suggest you use student accommodation if you're above > 30 years old, you might be the odd one out. Similarly with < 30 for blocks of flats. Of course if you look sufficiently mature/young, it won't matter so much.Another reason why this plan is sheer awesomesauce, is that these places where mail is collected by students, are usually open 24/7. Students are creatures of the night and renters are frequently at day jobs so it's frequently only practicable for them to pick up their post in the late evening/night/early morning.Loopholes! Loopholes everywhere! :D