A rather strange Return to Sender case.

[richard1rst]

On the buyer’s sales ticket there is a street address and an apartment number. So I printed the label, no changes, and sent it out. Just got it back “Insufficient address”. To my astonishment the apartment number did not print when I generated the label. The only anomaly I see is that there is no space between “apt” and the first number. In other words “apt123” instead of “apt 123”.

I see posts in these boards about items returned for insufficient addresses. But this is a case of the address was correct and the label printer decided to drop part of the address. Because it didn’t like the format?

[wastingtime101]

From where did you purchase the label?

I've had issues like that on stamps.com where stamps dropped info but eBay labels did not.

[12345jamesstamps]

I check my "inbox of emails" of addresses to ship to of eBay... as well as on eBay site of addresses.

I find the inbox of emails of addresses more accurate than eBay web site addresses....especially International. I always cross reference both sites and usually go with the email "your item sold" in my inbox of emails.

However. I also get returns as well...I just wait for the buyer to contact me...which none have ever..I usually get a few returns a month.

[richard1rst]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

From where did you purchase the label?

I've had issues like that on stamps.com where stamps dropped info but eBay labels did not.

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Pirateship. I have been using them for many many years and I have never seen this happen.

[wastingtime101]

It's highly unlikely your printer would just drop a line of the address. You can verify by going to the transaction on Pirate and checking to see what address displays there.

If the apartment # is showing there, then drop a line to Pirate CS chat. You can also click the blue "duplicate shipment" button to see how the address appears (you can cancel and delete without buying a new label as I'm sure you know).

If the apartment # is missing, it could be an issue with the API in which case I still suggest chatting with Pirate CS.

[richard1rst]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

It's highly unlikely your printer would just drop a line of the address. You can verify by going to the transaction on Pirate and checking to see what address displays there.

If the apartment # is showing there, then drop a line to Pirate CS chat. You can also click the blue "duplicate shipment" button to see how the address appears (you can cancel and delete without buying a new label as I'm sure you know).

If the apartment # is missing, it could be an issue with the API in which case I still suggest chatting with Pirate CS.

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I had already reviewed the PS screen before I made my original posting and the number is missing there even when I click duplicate ship. Fortunately it was only  a 4 ounce package NV to CA so the money is chump change. I had already contacted the buyer and I am of course sending it back out with no charge to the buyer.

Pirate's CS chat is next.

[wastingtime101]

In that case it sounds like an issue with the API. No way to know if the error is on Pirate's end or on eBay's end, however Pirate CS will definitely be more responsive than eBay CS when looking into something like this.

Let us know if you get any updates from Pirate.

[richard1rst]

Will do. I'm in my evening cool down phase right now so I plan on doing it in the morning.

[richard1rst]

@wastingtime101 

Well, I have been in contact with PS chat. It should be noted that on the eBay screen the address was listed as “123 Main St Apt123” (Obviously a fictitious example to show the format). It was all on the same line.

Their answer.

I’m happy to clear the seas here matey If the address was entered in eBay exactly as shown in your message, that means the customer entered their apartment information in the wrong field. When the order was imported, our system corrected the format since what was entered was incorrect. Secondary address information such as apartment/unit/suite numbers have a designated area when you enter and address typically referred to as Address Line 2. Since nothing was entered in that field on the eBay side, nothing imported to include in that field on our side

in the future, we recommend always double checking your labels prior to shipping to check for any address errors. Its easy to correct pre-shipment and we're happy to help if you ever have questions or concerns about an address 😊

***

That thing about double checking all the labels sort of defeats the whole convenience factor. It should be noted however that even though I did not ask for it they refunded the cost of the original label.

[wastingtime101]

Thanks for the update @richard1rst . That's complete bull on the part of Pirate. If they are going to "correct the format" they need to put up a flag indicating a change was made. In your shoes I would go back to them and suggest that.

Sellers cannot check every address on every order to make sure the label platform isn't stripping out info.

At the same time, eBay should not be accepting addresses in an "incorrect format" so I suppose the issue stems from eBay, but I fault both platforms on this one.

[pjcdn2005]

  '’I'm happy to clear the seas here matey"

It took me a few to realize that must be a standard reply from a company called Pirateship but it definitely took me aback when I first read it. Not the typical customer service reply.

[wastingtime101]

😂Clearly you've never browsed their website @pjcdn2005 . It is FULL of cheesy pirate lingo. Drives @fern*wood crazy. The CS reps all use the lingo, too. Their CS is chat-based and appears to be in the US.

Every email begins: Ahoy PJ!

Label purchase confirmation emails are signed: ARRRRrrrrr... we thank y'ee f'er y'er business!

The last announced price increase email began: Yo ho ho ho PJ! It's that time of the year again

And it ended: 

If you run into any questions just give us a shout. We're always here for ya matey!

ARRrrr,
The holly jolly crew at Pirate Ship

[richard1rst]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

Thanks for the update @richard1rst . That's complete bull on the part of Pirate. If they are going to "correct the format" they need to put up a flag indicating a change was made. In your shoes I would go back to them and suggest that.

Sellers cannot check every address on every order to make sure the label platform isn't stripping out info.

At the same time, eBay should not be accepting addresses in an "incorrect format" so I suppose the issue stems from eBay, but I fault both platforms on this one.

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Actually I did make that point to them. This is their answer:

I understand that concern matey. Our role here is to provide discounted postage rates, and just like when shipping with the carrier, its up to your recipient to provide accurate information 👍

The information from eBay is passed through an API that validates the address before it actually enters our system and is included on your label. So there's no way to make you aware of a formatting error our system never saw 🙈 Its up to your customers or recipients to provide their address accurately and completely and its up to you as the shipper to verify the information on your labels is correct 📦

[wastingtime101]

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@richard1rst wrote:

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The information from eBay is passed through an API that validates the address before it actually enters our system and is included on your label. So there's no way to make you aware of a formatting error our system never saw 🙈 Its up to your customers or recipients to provide their address accurately and completely and its up to you as the shipper to verify the information on your labels is correct 📦

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Thanks for the added info @richard1rst . That takes us back to my first thoughts above about an API issue, and confirms the issue stems from eBay's side with the way they don't validate buyer address at checkout.

[fabulous_fragrance]

I had a similar experience recently with Pirate Ship. In my case, the buyer uses both a street address and a PO Box to cover Ups/FedEx and USPS shipments. The street address was on the first line and since the USPS address validation system does not recognize that address as having any additional information, Pirate Ship stripped out the Box number. The package came back with a "no mail receptacle" designation and I had no idea what happened until I compared the address label with the eBay order details when I was composing my initial message to the customer.

I agree that Pirate Ship's reply is bunk, which is disappointing, since their CS is usually top notch. There is a setting in Pirate Ship under General Settings called Address Settings where you can Disable automatic address validation and correction from USPS. Since we can't change anything about an address imported from eBay, this seems to be a helpful step. But this issue makes it harder to choose to use Pirate Ship on a day with several orders to ship, because it means extra time that we shouldn't have to waste.