One might never realize how difficult it is to have an address that's both a PO Box and has a number sign (aka hash, pound sign) in it. The following is a letter I sent to one of my service providers regarding the challenges I encountered when trying to update my address.

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Since -quote-Comments or Questions must only contain the following characters a-z A-Z 0-9 , . - ! ?-quote-, I-apostrophe-m going to encode my message by replacing disallowed punctuation with the name of the appropriate punctuation enclosed in dashes.

I-apostrophe-m having difficulty changing my address through your web site. Your website seems to not accept my address. My correct mailing address is-colon-

PO Box 96503 -number sign-41825
Washington, DC 20090-6503

When I try to enter the address correctly, I get an error. The error message appears behind the form, so I-apostrophe-m unable to read it, but I suspect the problem is the number sign -open parenthesis--number sign--close parenthesis- in the address. So I try this address-colon-

PO Box 96503 No. 41825
Washington, DC 20090-6503

This address is accepted without error, but it replaces the address with an incorrect address -open parenthesis-it removes the -quote-No. 41825-quote--close parenthesis-. Apparently any address with a PO Box in it removes all other information in the address.

Finally, I tried one more address-colon-

PO Box 96503-41824
Washington, DC 20090-6503.

It accepts this address, but it strips off the -plus-4 of the zip code. While this is probably acceptable and may get to me, it will likely be delayed due to the fact that the post office box number can't be matched to the zip code.

Can you please see that my address is updated in the system with the correct address? You may have to forward this to the web developers or the core system developers for it to accept my address.