Shipping Labels generated by eBay/PayPal may contain errors - Seller must check!

[Anonymous]

I recently sent an item out using an eBay/Australia Post prepaid shipping label without very carefully checking it.  The line with the street address was missing, so the item was not delivered. The tracking info via the PayPal site showed the correct address, and as it was a "C/O" address (overseas buyer), I assumed that this was a buyer problem.
This led to a dispute, until I looked very carefully at the returned item, which had simply been marked "No such shop!".  So in the end I refunded the purchaser the full amount AND re-sent him the item anyway, as compensation for his aggravation.

There will be no compensation for MY aggravation!

So this is a warning: don't trust eBay shipping labels to be error-free, just because they are computer-generated:   be prepared to correct them.

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

Yes, one should always read the printed label and make sure it matches the original information source.

I think the problem may be that you created a 5-line label when there is room only for 4 lines. That is, the "care of" line took the place of the address line. Technically, there should be a "company" line and 2 address lines. But the format may not hold for international addresses. Of course, it's also necessary to place the country name on a separate line.

In the past, sellers have reported that the label creation process somehow omits the second address line, which normally is used for an apartment or suite number, thereby rendering the package undeliverable because the unit number is not identified.

~~C~~

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks for that input.  Looking more closely, I find that this is a different issue, related again to format.

The maximum printable line length is actually limited to 32 characters by the barcode boxes, which probably mask the rest of the text, since the latter does not justify to the next line.  This is probably a formatting error in the PDF setup.   My guess is that it very rarely causes a problem, but in this case  the buyer put the buliding name, level, shop number and street address on one line of 54 characters, so the street number and name disappeared.  Since it was cut off at the end of the shop name, and neatly in line with the line above, I didn't notice!

eBay technical assistance are unable to reproduce the problem without actually generating the .pdf file, and that apparently presents insuperable accounting problems, so this will not be fixed.