Pretest Validating the Buyer's Address---Much Needed

[getitright1234]

Pretest Validating the Buyer's Address---Much Needed

I had to cancel a Sale yesterday all because when I went to print out the shipping label, the system reported the Buyer's address contained an error/ was invalid.  So why isn't it when a Buyer's enters their address, the system pretests this address; lets the Buyer immediately know, this is an invalid address. 

[1tuna]

this is what I am up against every single day just about

check out these addresses.they  do not play nice with much at all

look close at the French one

I asked ebay...................how about giving the buyer back the shipping money

mind you this is his old address in France.............from long ago

mr big buyer
default
LYON Rhône-Alpes 69009
France

HK buyer
7/FL.,BLK 5, LEI MUK SHUE EST,
WO YI HOP RD,KWAI CHUNG,N.T.,
null
Hong Kong

mr NT
13/F,Phase1,Tsing Yi Ind Ctr,
Tsing Yi, N.T.
null
Hong Kong

[bigdeals.etc]

Yes, so as you also pointed out... not all addresses lend themselves to be changed around to work. That's why ebay/paypal should hold the buyer responsible to provide a valid address under whatever database they are using. Which is the general point of the OP.

[Anonymous]

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@pburn wrote:

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

But there are small instances that the address is totally off the wall. It's pretty clear the address is invalid among ALL shipping parties. Those are the ones I feel ebay/paypal should "pre-check" and not allow the buyer to leave such an address. Examples 1) one guy once left their email address as shipping address. Like johnsmith@email.com, Los Angeles, CA (zipcode). 2) I remember another time a buyer used the address "Ask my mother", Los Angeles, CA (zipcdoe). Both instances I was obviously unable to create postage and the buyer never responded to my messages. Ebay/Paypal can at least fix these issues.

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I completely agree eBay/PayPal should use address verification software when a buyer enters their ship-to address. It makes more sense to reject an invalid address at that stage than when a seller goes to print a label. If their software can identify an invalid address at the label-making step, why in the world can't it identify an invalid address when the buyer enters it? 

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Hi @pburn, we actually do utilize address verification tools to recommend address changes to buyer's when they are adding an address to their account. Since the USPS database being referenced is outside of eBay, there is a chance the information won't be up to date or be formatted correctly 100% of the time. It also would not apply to addresses outside of the United States (though similar checks may be in place on our other eBay sites). It isn't possible to have a catalog of every address worldwide, but we do recommend changes when we are able to see an address doesn't match an existing location in the records. We won't require the recommended address be used since this could lead to issues where a buyer cannot put the address they know to be correct into the form. This is the industry standard that avoids more problems than it would solve. 

I wanted to share an example of what is shown when adding a new address to your account. I've made a few edits to preserve private information. See below: 

As you can see above, I intentionally mistyped the address to showcase what recommendation is made by our system. I initially attempted to also type the city incorrectly as well, but was prevented from submitting the address for this confirmation page until I input the correct city name.

I hope this helps alleviate some concerns. There may still be some addresses that come through that are not functional, at which point a seller can cancel the order with the "Problem with buyer's address" reason, letting the buyer know they can update the address and repurchase if they would like. Be aware that some countries in the world do not use Postal/Zip codes, and there are even some locations where street addresses are not common, so international addresses may format quite differently than what you expect if you are shipping directly to a buyer who is located internationally. If you are using the eBay Global Shipping Program, you would only need to ship to the sort facility located domestically. When in doubt, communicate with your customer to see if a cancellation and repurchase is needed.

[bigdeals.etc]

Thanks Trinton. I have a follow up question, because you mentioned international addresses. What's up with the 40 character maximum deal? Is there some reason why ebay (or the industry standard) doesn't allow sellers/shippers to use more than 40 characters and yet allow buyers to go beyond the max? Isn't this asking for trouble here?

[sharingtheland]

More than a few times I've had to correct the 40-character error.  I simply divided up the jumbles into two lines that made sense and shipped away.

More than the few times I've had to correct the 40-character error, I've corrected other parts of the addresses.  And shipped away.

It is not unusual for me to change an address at a buyer's request (this was before we "learned" that if there is a message asking for that, we'll be protected).

In other words, unless something really stinks in Denmark or it's a high dollar sale, I'll change an address.   I'm not going to tell a buyer I'm going to cancel the sale, then tell the buyer to change her/his address, then tell the buyer to rebuy my widget.  

KOW but I've never had a problem.   

Okay, one time I didn't do what the buyer asked, which was add "Don't leave on front porch" to her address.  I've also been asked to add "Drop over gate to backyard" to an address.  Nope, didn't do that either.

[Anonymous]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

Thanks Trinton. I have a follow up question, because you mentioned international addresses. What's up with the 40 character maximum deal? Is there some reason why ebay (or the industry standard) doesn't allow sellers/shippers to use more than 40 characters and yet allow buyers to go beyond the max? Isn't this asking for trouble here?

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Hi @bigdeals.etc, great question! The maximum characters for a label are actually determined by the various shipping couriers. While 40 characters is standard, it is not universal: 

• US: 40 characters for address line 1, address line 2, city, state, zip
• UK: 35 characters for address line 1, address line 2, city, county, postcode
• AU: 40 characters for address line 1, address line 2, city, county, postcode
• GSP: 100 characters for address line 1, address line 2, 50 characters for city, state, zip/postcode

Currently, only about 15-20 GSP (Global Shipping Program) transactions a day come in that exceed the 100 character limit and our third party shipper works with us directly to resolve these address issues. The seller would only see the domestic shipping address, but the full international address would be passed on to the third party shipper. In most of the instances where an international address far exceeds the available character limits, we find that translating the the additional characters shows that they are instructions for delivery such as, "ring internal doorbell under stable at the bottom of the parking lot the bell gate bad road no you hear" or "2 floor ring doorbell internal parking downstairs stable bell doorbell main gate is not heard"  (real examples, with improper syntax due to how online translation services translate improperly at times). This is something our teams are aware of and are working on a fix for, but due to the variability of addresses worldwide this remains quite challenging to solve.

With this context in mind, if you run into a situation where you have an excessively long address, it is a good idea to first attempt to translate the "address" online to identify if the provided text is actually delivery instructions. If so, you can recommend to your customer that they include this information as a note to the seller when purchasing to be written on the package and then the two of you can work on updating the address to the correct format.