International customers who use more than 40 characters in address and seller protection

[caloutlet]

Hello,

I have had numerous international customers who use more than 40 characters in their address. My most recent customer had the international city and state in the address line. I understand If I change the address, I as a seller may not be covered under seller protection. I have asked this customer to fix the shipping address before I ship them their items. I assume this is correct protocol on my (the sellers) part. If the buyer doesn't comply then I should have grounds to cancel the order. Why doesn't ebay flag the customer of this problem BEFORE they are allowed to buy/bid on the item? I'm sure ebay wants the sale to happen and maybe this is why they let this issue pass and have uninformed sellers take the risk of changing the address to comply with the 40 character max limit. Any comments?

[richard1rst]

Rearranging the address is NOT the same as changing the address.

For example, in addition to a line for the person's name, there is a line for company name and usually 2 lines for the street address. Simply take the information that is more than 40 characters and split it up between those 3 lines.

You're covered. I do it all the time.

[1tuna]

I ship international all the time,some addresses are easier to change than others

some will not change at all,make sure you ignore all the people who tell you not to be changing an address

if I can not get the info in the line I need I add to it with a taped on address.

I have used the offical address soemtimes and have added the email and phone number below with my taped on paper address

ebay is still having formatting issues with foreign addresses

Hong Kong and Singapore have not worked well with ebay shipping for many years

below are some real example of addresses with formatting problems

when you start to see the words null and void and default you can tell its not a good format

the 1st adress I had ebay refund me for the shipping,I said no way you are supposed to be shipping to that with no street address

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

[stuff4divas]

Agree with @richard1rst 

I've been selling international for years and have split the characters onto the next line without incident. And, if there is repetitious info, it can be deleted.

Sometimes, if you print the label thru PP instead, they don't make you re-do the address.

Not sure if the customer can be blamed on using more than the 40 character limit. It may not show that when they create their address.

[mansons2005]

Quick note to add to all of the good advice given:
When I struggle with this, in a few instances I have copied the address as written into a Word document and print it out, cut to label size. I then rearranged the address with the program until it will print and then place the labels side by side on the carton. This way any formatting or information that is truncated from the postage label is not "lost".