Buyer addresses and formatting/typos

[jcarman00]

Hey all. So, I'm pretty new to selling, and decided to unload a bunch of stuff I don't really need anymore for some extra cash. It's gone great so far, with only one possible hiccup (and that's another issue entirely)... until today.

One of my items was bought within an hour of listing by an account that apparently registered solely to buy that item. The buyer payed immediately - but of course, I still have the 'new seller hold' on PayPal - and the address that shows up on the shipping label is technically valid, it's just a little... off. Here's what it looks like:

Buyer's Name
Business Name 8021 sugerplum avenue south    (street name is all lowercase, misspelled by one letter, and on same line as address)
Suite 3
Sometown NY 10515

Searching that address on Google yields "8021 S Sugarplum Ave #3," so wouldn't the correct format for the shipping address be:

Buyer's Name

Business Name

8021 S Sugarplum Ave #3

Sometown NY 10515

?

I've heard that changing the address will screw me out of seller protection in the case of any mishaps or disputes and is generally a bad idea, but I'm concerned about this, as the package is heavy, costs a lot to ship, and is decently valuable. Would my suggested alterations count as "changing the address," or should I just slap the label on it as-is, chuck it at the post office, and let them sort it out? Am I worrying too much?

[a_c_green]

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@jcarman00 wrote:

I've heard that changing the address will screw me out of seller protection in the case of any mishaps or disputes and is generally a bad idea, but I'm concerned about this, as the package is heavy, costs a lot to ship, and is decently valuable. Would my suggested alterations count as "changing the address," or should I just slap the label on it as-is, chuck it at the post office, and let them sort it out? Am I worrying too much?

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You're not changing the address; you're correcting it. The package will still be received at the original location as intended. If printing the label through eBay/PayPal, you may see it corrected for you automatically (depending on the severity of the error), even if you don't correct it first.

Note that an Item Not Received dispute is defended by a Delivered status in the buyer's City and ZIP, but the exact street address is not looked at.

[second-chance-sa1es]

This is something that happens pretty regularly. Some cities will have a S. Sugarplum and a Sugarplum South others will only have one or the other Sometimes cities format this way so that as they grow and add streets they can have the option of both.

Usually when I run into that problem I do two things. I look up both variants with google maps to confirm that the location exists and then I message the buyer to confirm their address.

I had this happen recently where an address showed up invalid. There was a typo (that probably wouldnt matter to the local PO) because the destination was at a college in a small town in midwest USA. I took both of those steps and the buyer did message me back to say "yeah that is correct, sorry about that new school....lol" Luckily for me the ebay shipping system caught the problem for me.

No harm no foul and the transaction went flawlessly. But I had that conversation as documentation to show that the buyer had made a mistake if anything had ever come of it.

[a_c_green]

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@second-chance-sa1es wrote:
This is something that happens pretty regularly. Some cities will have a S. Sugarplum and a Sugarplum South others will only have one or the other Sometimes cities format this way so that as they grow and add streets they can have the option of both.

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Well, the USPS in the past had a habit of revising the street address to put the directional at the end, so that "123 North Main Street" would get revised to "123 MAIN ST N" instead, which would fit their specs but prove a readability nightmare. More recently I've noticed that they don't seem to mess around with that as much as they used to, and seem happy to render it as "123 N MAIN ST" instead.

I had this happen recently where an address showed up invalid. There was a typo (that probably wouldnt matter to the local PO) because the destination was at a college in a small town in midwest USA. I took both of those steps and the buyer did message me back to say "yeah that is correct, sorry about that new school....lol" Luckily for me the ebay shipping system caught the problem for me.

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Oooh! Oooh! Was it Carroll University in Waukesha, WI? The main drag through campus there is East Avenue, which actually runs north-south, (of course! ) Thus you need to know whether your target address is 123 North East Ave. or 123 South West Ave. No, wait, I mean 123 South East Ave. Anyway, I know it's on the west side of East Avenue... No, wait, odd numbers are on the east side... Actually it's a miracle that they get any mail at all up there... I think they just dump it in a pile in the middle of town and let people dig through it.

[second-chance-sa1es]

I dug around to find that transaction and managed to find the messages buried in my inbox. It was actually a university in NC

I now remember exactly why that had come up, she had miss-typed the zip code and messed up two numbers on it. I remember it being pretty easy to figure out because there was basically nothing else near that university and if I remember right she had used the nearby towns zip code instead of the zip code the university was actually in. This would be the sort of thing their local Post office would have caught onto immediately since the address itsself was clearly to the university. A lot like when you ship something onto a military base, even if you muck up the zip code the post office still has a pretty good idea of where its going.

But the ebay shipping system was not going to accept the incorrect zip code. Here in california you can cross a bunch of zip codes on a 20 min drive because we have these VAST seas of suburban housing where different zip codes have duplicate addresses as the next zip code over. Out here zip code matters a whole lot more.

[disneyshopper]

I live in Anaheim, CA.

It's pretty sprawled out now, but the main city, years ago was bound by North Street to the north that runs west to east, South Street on the south that runs west to east, West Street to the west that runs north to south, and East Street on the east that runs north to south.

So a person could live at 123 East North Street.

[second-chance-sa1es]

LOL its funny you say that. Anaheim was the exact city I was thinking of earlier when I was talking about the naming process in some sprawling suburban cities. You are a hop and a skip away from me, Im just a bit more inland.

[wpt05]

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@second-chance-sa1es wrote:

….. I message the buyer to confirm their address.

…. .. address showed up invalid...   

I have seen this a few times in the past. 

I message the buyer.  

I get one of these two responses:

- it is messed up, I need to update it (which they don't) 

- the post office is wrong, that is my correct address 

[second-chance-sa1es]

it definitely happens

[moo*cow*corner]

Moline IL, is gridded with numbered streets in both directions. North-South numbers are Streets, East-West numbers are Avenues. Getting around that place is a nightmare. 2nd St at 19th Ave is a whole different place than 19th St at 2nd Ave.

[wpt05]

That actually sounds organized. 

I am assuming the numbers are in order.  

Then again, I get lost as soon as I get off the highway.  

[moo*cow*corner]

Rock Island IL is the same way. It was terrible when I first came down here. Dyslexia city! If I wrote an address down wrong, I was toast. Thank the Good Lord for Mapquest!

[jcarman00]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@jcarman00 wrote:

I've heard that changing the address will screw me out of seller protection in the case of any mishaps or disputes and is generally a bad idea, but I'm concerned about this, as the package is heavy, costs a lot to ship, and is decently valuable. Would my suggested alterations count as "changing the address," or should I just slap the label on it as-is, chuck it at the post office, and let them sort it out? Am I worrying too much?

---

You're not changing the address; you're correcting it. The package will still be received at the original location as intended. If printing the label through eBay/PayPal, you may see it corrected for you automatically (depending on the severity of the error), even if you don't correct it first.

Note that an Item Not Received dispute is defended by a Delivered status in the buyer's City and ZIP, but the exact street address is not looked at.

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That's what I was hoping. The address shows up in the same awful format on eBay and PayPal, so I did a quick test, without actually purchasing the label first, to see if anything regarding seller protection was there. On the new version, nothing unusual - the standard "You may not be covered by the eBay Seller Protection Policy if you ship to a different address" disclaimer was there, but nothing showing my eligibility was there, before or after. When I tried the same with "Classic label printing," however, the "Eligible for seller protection" indicator disappeared if I made ANY alterations, even correcting the single-letter typo in the street address.   

*sigh* I don't know what to do. I wouldn't worry if the buyer actually had feedback, but his account is a day old. I can't help but think that this is some kind of scam - something to get me to "fix" the address, lose my seller protection, and open the floodgates for shenanigans - when it's probably just genuine ignorance. It usually is, but I tend to attribute most of it to malice because I'm a nutcase. I'm already stressing out over another high-value order that was supposed to be delivered to the buyer on Monday, and instead I check the tracking to see "Delivery Attempted - No Access to Delivery Location" and no updates since then. Contacting the "buyer" won't do me any good, either, since he's in China and used a freight forwarder, which I didn't even know was a thing. Seriously, I've been fretting about this **bleep** all day long and I'm probably going to give myself a stroke.

[castlemagicmemories]

I tend to attribute most of it to malice because I'm a nutcase. 

You're not a nutcase; there is a lot of malice running around.  Backstabbing, what have you.

Please don't give yourself a stroke.

[moo*cow*corner]

@jcarman00 

If this were my sale, I'd contact the buyer and ask them to confirm the shipping address. If they confirm, I'd say you could safely fix it if it's only a formatting issue. Ebay says they will read messages in such cases, if a problem arises in the future. I think Paypal's policy may differ.

If I got no replies from the buyer by the end of my stated handling time, I'd cancel and refund. My selected reason would be 'problem with buyer's address'.

If you do end up cancelling for the address issue, you can relist, and send a message telling the buyer to fix their shipping address and repurchase the item. Walk them through how it needs to be formatted if you have to...