Incorrect addresses

ballisticbrian

I've seen an increase in incorrect / incomplete addresses on eBay. Sometimes the house number or road name is missing. Sometimes the post code is one end of the country and the address at the other. I pick up on a lot of these and email the buyers, however there seems to be a very large co-relation between buyers that give you sloppy addresses and buyers that never go back on to check their eBay messages or emails.


I have one address at the moment which is in a foreign country and there is no road name, just a small business name and the area. It's one that slipped through the net.


I wonder does anyone know what constitutes a complete address to eBay. For example I know that a proof of posting to Royal Mail just needs and house number and postal code. How will eBay look at a case for untracked item missing, when the buyer admits the address is missing a road. I have won cases where the whole address is wrong and admitted by the buyer.

theonlywayisup

IME if CS are able to verify the address - such as on the RM postcode finder they will take action against the buyer. They won't rule the case in your favour if you don't have tracking. Obviously with an international address you will have rely on them knowing how to verify it.

ballisticbrian

They won't rule the case in your favour if you don't have tracking.

I have even had them rule in my favour when I have the item back with the sticker on it saying address invalid, and no tracking. Where the item is, isn't in question in this case. In my current case I don't have the item back (yet) however whether the buyer admits the address is incorrect has been the over-riding factor in my experience.

theonlywayisup

ballisticbrian wrote: »

I have even had them rule in my favour when I have the item back with the sticker on it saying address invalid, and no tracking. Where the item is, isn't in question in this case. In my current case I don't have the item back (yet) however whether the buyer admits the address is incorrect has been the over-riding factor in my experience.

You asked for opinions and that is my experience.

Gary123456790

I've also had all kinds of terrible addresses - incorrectly spelt road names, many don't include the postal town... I laugh when I see a paypal email with "Address status: Confirmed" and its a mess!

ChicaBonita

I had it a few weeks ago where the buyer didn't have a house number on her address. I checked on google maps in case it was a cottage/only house on the street, but there were tens of houses. When I messaged her for the house number, the first message she ignored, the second she said "it is on there". I had to screenshot her address and send it to her so she could see it wasn't. She finally handed it over, but then I was worried that if I sent it to that address, would I be covered if it went missing. I asked her to update her paypal, she said she did it, but it didn't show as updated on my end. The item was only £5 so I risked it, haven't heard from her since so assuming it's been delivered ok. I don't know if I did the right thing, but I'm just a casual seller and her grammar and spelling was so awful i couldn't be bothered to deal with her anymore!

in_the_Cotswolds

As a postie this is a common occurrence. Christmas will soon be here and it gets even worse. Sometimes I haven't even taken them out the office, not because I don't want to but there is not a correct address.

This_Year

I had a parcel ready to go for an amazon customer who has given 2 addresses. Literally it's 123 The Street Anytown postcode followed by 321 The Road Another Town postcode.

I messaged to ask where she wants it sending but she didn't reply. As my crystal ball was in the wash that day, I refunded her. (gave her a couple of days to be sure)

soolin

I had one on eBay today, an address that PayPal say is 'OK to send to' that was just something like 36. Liverpool LV1

If buyer doesn't respond with a proper address or at least a full postcode by Monday I'll have to cancel the sale rather than risk a late defect.

soolin

I had a good one on Thursday, user name is a fairly standard random configuration of letters and numbers- possibly initials and a date (too recent for a birth date though). All address details show no name and only the name of a large hotel in London. I emailed buyer who has good feedback but nothing in past year, for a name and have heard nothing else.

As I have emailed once to buyer I don't want to cancel this and risk the ebay draconian 'selling off ebay' to be considered and now have to send it or else risk a late defect. So it's going to the hotel with no name but I have added a note on the address label with the user details . It's a standard parcel so I assume it will show as delivered (I can't imagine a large chain is going to check all their post before they accept it).

Customer service at it's best and all to avoid risking my account on ebay. At least if buyer does check their emails they will be warned that they omitted to identify themselves at all.

My OH wondered if the hotel themselves were buying, but this is not something I can imagine a hotel chain needing at all, and also I assume they would use an easily identified buying account.

ballisticbrian

It's amazing how people can get really shipety with you when you tell them their address in incomplete or unintelligible or wrong. I had one guy concede that his road name was wrong and there was a flat number needed and the blocks even had names and that wasn't on there either, but he still had to come back right at the end and say, "still that was correct in the first place!" :O