A Mailbox By Any Other Name. . . The USPS loosens its rental mailbox designations.

When the U.S. Postal Service issued its controversial Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) regulations in March 1999 requiring the use of the PMB (postal mail box) notation on any letters sent to mailbox rental facilities, Stan Lewis knew it wouldn't last.

Many homebased-business owners rent mailboxes to take advantage of mail center services or to keep their residential addresses private, printing the facility's address and their rented box on their stationery and business cards as if it were their own address. The postal service, concerned that scam artists would use private mailbox addresses to dupe unsuspecting customers into believing they had a traditional office, created the PMB designation.

As franchisee of two South Florida Mailboxes Etc., Lewis heard complaints from hundreds of customers worried that "PMB" on their stationery would damage their reputations. "Customers were looking to use the stores, not trying to be scam artists," says Lewis. "That's what MailBoxes Etc. is all about-trying to make a difference from the post office. This was a restriction of trade."