eBay

tianna74 · ‎02-25-2022

I cannot purchase a shipping label. “Your Ship to address contains some errors that need to be fixed before purchasing the label. Please note that you may not be covered by the eBay Seller Protection Policy if the changes you make are substantially different from what the buyer intended.”

By the address line, there’s a message “please only use 40 characters”.

The address looks like the system put something extra in it.

The customer service told me to cancel order.
Later, he gave me the buyer address and told to edit it myself. Read a first warning ^ So I could be left without Seller Protection if I do it myself.

He said he cannot change anything in my account. I asked to talk with a higher ranked representative. And he disconnected me.

My shipping now is being late.
The buyer didn’t answer yet, but she did many purchases here before so the problem is probably not with her address, but with the system.

a_c_green · ‎02-26-2022

@tianna74 wrote:
I cannot purchase a shipping label. “Your Ship to address contains some errors that need to be fixed before purchasing the label. Please note that you may not be covered by the eBay Seller Protection Policy if the changes you make are substantially different from what the buyer intended.”
By the address line, there’s a message “please only use 40 characters”.
The address looks like the system put something extra in it.
The customer service told me to cancel order.
Later, he gave me the buyer address and told to edit it myself. Read a first warning ^ So I could be left without Seller Protection if I do it myself.

STOP. There is no error here.

The extra coding text added to the address (ABN# ... Code: PAID) indicates to Australian Customs that the buyer has already paid the import fees (to eBay, who will pass them on to Australia separately).

This is not an error or a glitch (well, maybe; see below); it is a normal addition to the international address that is required to show proof of payment. The UK has a similar requirement.

Where the problem comes in is when the buyer has a complicated address using more than one line. The line that's usually blank is the one to which the system adds the PAID reference number. Unfortunately if the line isn't empty to start with, it may be overflowing when the addition is made. You will need to rework the lines a bit to get things to fit. You might be able to move the first street address line into the option Company Name field, if that's available. Note that correcting the address is not the same as changing the address; you'll be fine.

See here for more details on the ABN coding:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/ABN-XXXXXXXXX681-Code-Paid-Isuue/td-p/32415081

tyler@ebay : this really needs to go back to the Shipping people for another attempt. Right now, the system is shoving in the cryptic "ABN/Code: PAID" addition to the buyer's address with no obvious explanation to the buyer as to what is going on, nor does Customer Service seem to be aware of this action.

At minimum, it should add some kind of informational popup bubble to the Shipping form, to explain what the code is, and how the buyer may need to make some line adjustments to get things to fit.

a_c_green · ‎02-26-2022

@a_c_green wrote:
tyler@ebay : this really needs to go back to the Shipping people for another attempt. Right now, the system is shoving in the cryptic "ABN/Code: PAID" addition to the buyer's address with no obvious explanation to the ~~buyer~~ seller as to what is going on, nor does Customer Service seem to be aware of this action.

At minimum, it should add some kind of informational popup bubble to the Shipping form, to explain what the code is, and how the ~~buyer~~ seller may need to make some line adjustments to get things to fit.

Ugh. Time ran out before I caught my errors above... 😖

femmefan1946 · ‎02-26-2022

I don’t know if I can safely remove “ABN#646520#### Code:PAID”. It’s obviously not supposed to be here.

That looks like a VAT (sales tax) or import fee code. Is the buyer overseas?

It is also possible that it is a code for a freight forwarder to correct guide the purchase to the buyer. Forwarders often, as part of their service, pay import fees for their (and your) customer overseas.

beautifulbeauty2012 · ‎02-26-2022

If it is some extra comma, no space, or something of that nature, I think t is safe to add/delete. When I get some international addresses, which USPS doesn`t accept due to more than 40 characters, I consult with my friends in those countries who advise me on what`s going on with it.

But, if it is something odd or buyer wants you to ship to another address outside the transaction, you will lose your seller protection. Just cancel it not to be sorry later.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-26-2022

As others have correctly mentioned, that is a Tax number which needs to be on the label to show that the buyer has paid their country's taxes. If the label has an extra line for a business name or a 2nd line for an address, you should be able to move some information around so that the address fits.

glgenterprise · ‎02-26-2022

@bashort wrote:
What I never understood is why ebay does not verify buyer addresses before they make a purchase rather than make sellers try to fix the mess after the sale.

I've lodged complaints with eBay for YEARS about this exact issue. If their system does not allow for more than 40 characters on a single line for the ship to address , why in h$ll the buyer is allowed to enter an address with over 40 characters is beyond me. Especially with the warning that ANY change could potentially void our seller protection.

90% of the time I'm able to figure out a change that will get it there - but it can be a **bleep** with international addresses.

OP - DO NOT remove that ABN number. The buyer is using a freight forwarding service and that's how the forwarder identifies which customer of theirs it is for. You probably can safely move the ABN number to the second line of the address block or if you're only a letter or two over, you possibly could remove the "o" from the word "Code" or the "a" from the word "Paid".

Final solution would be to cancel using problem with buyer's address - though I might screen shot the page where it shows that it was too many characters first, just in case you get a neg or ding on your account.

a_c_green · ‎02-27-2022

@glgenterprise wrote:
If their system does not allow for more than 40 characters on a single line for the ship to address , why in h$ll the buyer is allowed to enter an address with over 40 characters is beyond me. Especially with the warning that ANY change could potentially void our seller protection.

In a case like this one, it's not the buyer who's overflowing the address line, but eBay. The buyer has no control over this.

When shipping to Australia (plus some other countries, UK for sure), eBay adds an ABN code (Australian Business Number) to the label to indicate that the buyer has already paid the import duty. Unfortunately the eBay process is blindly appending the ABN code text to an address line that may or may not have text in it already, sometimes leading to an address line that's now too long to process. It's up to the seller in such cases to rearrange the address text in some logical way that will bring down the overall line lengths to 40 characters each, or less.

@glgenterprise wrote:
OP - DO NOT remove that ABN number. The buyer is using a freight forwarding service and that's how the forwarder identifies which customer of theirs it is for. You probably can safely move the ABN number to the second line of the address block or if you're only a letter or two over, you possibly could remove the "o" from the word "Code" or the "a" from the word "Paid".

Not exactly... this is not a freight forwarding service issue and that is not a proprietary code for one. Packages from the US going directly Down Under, from seller directly to buyer, will show that same code. That line is for Australian Customs (the UK has a similar practice), and should be left in its entirety.

glgenterprise · ‎02-27-2022

@a_c_green wrote:
Not exactly... this is not a freight forwarding service issue and that is not a proprietary code for one. Packages from the US going directly Down Under, from seller directly to buyer, will show that same code. That line is for Australian Customs (the UK has a similar practice), and should be left in its entirety.

Fair point in this case, but in general, it absolutely does happen with international addresses and even some domestic ones.

Before I switched to GSP shipping only, I'd get weird addresses that didn't fit at least once a month. And when they are going to say, Taiwan, I truly don't have any idea how to break that up or what I can safely remove and still have it get there. I had it happen just last month for a Puerto Rico address - I had to go through hoops to get the late shipping ding removed while I waited for a response from the buyer.

I don't like to punish good buyers over a eBay issue by cancelling for a "problem with address".

I'd hate to have a newer seller reading through this thread and think that letters/numbers that look extraneous in the freight forwarding addresses are safe to remove.

tyler@ebay · ‎02-28-2022

@a_c_green wrote:

@tianna74 wrote:

I cannot purchase a shipping label. “Your Ship to address contains some errors that need to be fixed before purchasing the label. Please note that you may not be covered by the eBay Seller Protection Policy if the changes you make are substantially different from what the buyer intended.”

By the address line, there’s a message “please only use 40 characters”.

The address looks like the system put something extra in it.

The customer service told me to cancel order.
Later, he gave me the buyer address and told to edit it myself. Read a first warning ^ So I could be left without Seller Protection if I do it myself.

STOP. There is no error here.

The extra coding text added to the address (ABN# ... Code: PAID) indicates to Australian Customs that the buyer has already paid the import fees (to eBay, who will pass them on to Australia separately).

This is not an error or a glitch (well, maybe; see below); it is a normal addition to the international address that is required to show proof of payment. The UK has a similar requirement.

Where the problem comes in is when the buyer has a complicated address using more than one line. The line that's usually blank is the one to which the system adds the PAID reference number. Unfortunately if the line isn't empty to start with, it may be overflowing when the addition is made. You will need to rework the lines a bit to get things to fit. You might be able to move the first street address line into the option Company Name field, if that's available. Note that correcting the address is not the same as changing the address; you'll be fine.

See here for more details on the ABN coding:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/ABN-XXXXXXXXX681-Code-Paid-Isuue/td-p/32415081

tyler@ebay : this really needs to go back to the Shipping people for another attempt. Right now, the system is shoving in the cryptic "ABN/Code: PAID" addition to the buyer's address with no obvious explanation to the buyer as to what is going on, nor does Customer Service seem to be aware of this action.

At minimum, it should add some kind of informational popup bubble to the Shipping form, to explain what the code is, and how the buyer may need to make some line adjustments to get things to fit.

Thanks for this tag @a_c_green - I know we've gotten this feedback to the Shipping team in the past, but this particular variation definitely needs attention. I'll get it to them!

Tyler,