BufferBox (YC S12) Solves The Problem Of Missing Packages

I'm starting to notice a trend with this latest YC class-- lots of unsexy products addressing really specific pain points.

DHL has those in Germany. In fact over 2400. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packstation" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packstation</a> I'm an avid and happy user. Of course something like BufferBox would have been better, but I understand that investment does make a lot more sense as a parcel delivery service, as you bind customers to you. I hope they break up that monopoly at some point.<p>The question is why nobody did something like this before BufferBox in the US? Normally we are the less innovative ones :)

I've been waiting so long for something like this.<p>The second this shows up in Boston, I can personally guarantee half a dozen users without even bothering to survey. My building has a huge stolen package problem, due to the front door facing a main road, and the UPS driver for our area being an idiot. My last building had a driver who never left anything if you weren't home. While that's better than theft, it's still annoying to take two buses and walk ten minutes to pick up a package by hand. And then walk ten more minutes and take two more buses to carry the thing home. The whole process usually took upwards of two hours.<p>My only concern is getting the drivers to actually use these things correctly. I've found multiple packages addressed to me left outside the front door, despite explicit instructions not to do that both given by the shipper and posted on the door. Each of these packages were apparently signed for... just not by anyone who lives here. So yeah, getting the driver to follow instructions isn't going to be easy.

We've watched this team expand their footprint and execute on a complex hardware product in a very short amount of time. Package logistics is a huge problem to solve, but if anyone can do it, they can. Congrats guys!

As a user of the service since it was in its MVP stage, I really like the service and I'm excited to see them grow.<p>To hear that they have a big vision is great. Partnerships with retailers is one thing, but the potential for them to make key innovations on the logistical side of things is huge. I think they can make some big moves in this space (outside of boxes).<p>I'm curious how they'll address the "only ship to billing addresses" problem?

What if the package doesn't fit in any of the available compartments? Does the customer get notified they're package is about to arrive in X (hours, minutes, etc)? This could lead to an angry customer who decided to plan their day around retrieving said package at the estimated arrival time and they find out it's not there?<p>For select distributors, the customer gets to use BB for 'free'. How is this possible? Doesn't that mean those distributors are increasing the cost of shipping to pay BB for using your storage boxes? Why would a distributor want to use BB rather than the current individual shipping locations model?

So, should BufferBox pay 7-Eleven, or should the money transfer in the other direction? On one hand, the BufferBox takes up valuable floorspace, especially in the urban markets most likely to be BufferBox's bread and butter. On the other hand, effectively guaranteeing 20+ people walking through the front doors of a store every day certainly has value. What percentage of people receiving packages will realize while walking past the refrigerator case that they have no beer in their fridge?

It sounds great.<p>But will USPS deliver to one of these? Are they even legally allowed to? Or are you limited to private shippers like UPS, FedEx, etc.?

I think this is kind of a portable PO box, or PO box you can franchise. It seems there are things moving to kiosk despensers like redbox, blockbuster, even those change counting machines in the supermarket!

I really like this idea. As someone who doesn't have an office to send packages to or a doorman, I will use it.<p>I'm actually interested in seeing how they'll address utilization if it gets popular. What if 100% of the spaces are taken, and someone decides to wait a few days to pick up their package. Is there a penalty fee to prevent such behavior?

These are very useful. Here in Ireland that service already exists as ParcelMotel.<p>As someone who has used ParcelMotel, I can't help but notice the differences between the things I love about the PM site that aren't on the BufferBox site. BB use uninspiring stock images but PM have commissioned an entire set of custom artwork that's a strong brand and very cutsey and describes their service using metaphors.<p>PM are very explicit about the pricing. It takes up a big chunk of their homepage. After several minutes I still can't find how much bufferbox costs!<p>And do BB only email out the PIN? Surely sending it to everyone by SMS would be a better idea?<p>The product is a great idea and it's implemented so well through different companies here in Europe. It's good to see something similar starting off over there also.

There's a very big vision here. E-commerce growth provides a tremendous opportunity for this company to not only rethink the end point but the network itself. We have one at my office and it's incredibly convenient. I completely stopped using my home address for any deliveries.

These are ugly things, and I'm sure that it wont be long before they are used for nefarious purposes.<p>So instead of going to the UPS offices to pick up the package for free, I instead go to one of these for a fee. I don't see the advantage, there are UPS locations everywhere and are easy enough to get to.<p>This just seems like an ugly solution to a not real problem, and with a WebVan like costly infrastructure before it's even remotely useful. There has to be enough of these ugly green boxes to be more convenient than the just going to the shipping depot, the cost to get to that point seems prohibitively high, after any significant number of boxes they will become targets for theft and vandalism too, another operations cost to deal with. Webvan revisited.

I reached out to these guys seeing how I could set one up in my city. Never heard from them.

It should be clear on the homepage which cities are currently being served.<p>I signed up, hoping to see a list of locations, but the only option is to edit/cancel my account? Definitely not ready for launch...

Having had stuff stolen from my front porch before (because I wasn't around to collect the package)...this sounds like a pretty clever idea.

This may take off, but they need some sort of unlimited plan as well. The reason Amazon Prime does so well is because some people can't get over the mental hurdle of paying for shipping. At $3 per package, on top of whatever existing shipping rate there is, BufferBox could be seen as cost-prohibitive to many frequent online shoppers.

Amazon do this in the UK with their Locker service[1]. I haven't tried it, but it seems like a good idea and solves a problem I've certainly run into in the past.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200742950" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId...</a>

We had a system exactly like this in Norway. It was run by the Norwegian postal service. It was shut down after just a year or two of operation due to lack of use, although it's evident that the main cause was mismanagement. Very few people were actually aware that the system existed.

zBox.com solved the problem of not-home package delivery and pickup, with weather-resistant IR-wireless crypto-locked locking boxes in 1999-2000[1]. The USPS, UPS and Fedex driver's existing Palm-based scanners would communicate either by IRDA to the box front panel, or would display a secure unlock code to be typed into the keypad, encrypted based on current time of day, vendor, and customer. zBox had testing deals with the three top package co's, and had funding from USPS and Whirlpool. They went broke and shut down in 2001. I still have an electronics package, and a dev kit.<p>[1] <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010721122740/http://www.zbox.com/" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20010721122740/http://www.zbox.co...</a>

The French post office (la Poste) have been offering that service for a few years, it's very convenient. very surprised it didn't exist before in the US.<p><a href="http://www.cityssimo.fr/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cityssimo.fr/</a>

I'm not sure I get this one. Why would you not want something delivered to your house? Isn't that what the post office does if you aren't there to accept the package?

So stoked on these guys. I met them about 6 months ago and was excited then as I am now :)

Really good job at using Bootstrap there. You guys have really made it your own.

Wow, these boxes are tiny. A Packstation is about 3 to 6 times as big.

I wonder how/if they can handle packages that need a signature?

A nice target for burglars :)

Meh!

Thats it..this is getting on my nerves.Look at HN's homepage, of-late, there's been too many articles on un-interesting YC startups (most of them) and worse yet, most of them, from TechCrunch. TechCrunch gets paid for featuring YC start-ups or what?<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/imXhb.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/imXhb.png</a>