topic Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please. in Selling

Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

shoppingbag* — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 07:34:21 GMT

I have sold an item, buyer is a newbie(0) feedback. Her postcode and the city don't match. Seems she has put a city in, NO suburb.

I have messaged her to correct it in Paypal and eBay before I can send the item. However, in the past I have come across many who put the suburb and also the city in, and labels won't print as they have put the city in the suburb line. I had one customer I told about it, and even though she corrected it, it did not correct on the address I was seeing, so I supect it would only be correct for future sales. So this is my dilemna...even if she does correct it, I cannot send the parcel to an incorrect address if I do not see the new address, so do I need to cancel the sale and tell her to rebuy when she corrects her address, so that the correct information comes through to me? If I need to cancel the sale, and I select "something wrong with the buyer's address" does she have to agree? I wouldn't think so. However, way back I had a buyer from Spain buy from me even though I am only selling in Australia, I cancelled the sale and marked it "buyer is in a location I don't send to" and he still had to agree to the cancellation. Also, would I get a defect for cancelling? Your advice is very much appreciated.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

eol-products — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 08:17:53 GMT

So you have the street and postcode but no suburb. Just google the street name and postcode and you will find the suburb. I get a few a week with suburb does not match postcode and is usually because they are on the border of two or new suburbs.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

davewil1964 — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 08:18:22 GMT

Google the street and postcode. That will give you the suburb.

Send it there.

Unless it's worth a fortune, I certainly wouldn't cancel the sale just to get dubious protection from eBay/Paypal. Even though you won't be sending to the stated, deficient, address you could certainly make a case that you sent it to the actual address.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

shoppingbag* — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:12:29 GMT

There are three suburbs with the same postcode, who knows if the postcode is correct! They look like an outer suburb from the City they have marked. If I should send it to one of these couldn't they just claim "not received" especially if it is safe dropped, then I don't have a leg to stand on. I really don't see how I can legitimately supply the suburb, especially when there are three to choose from.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

shoppingbag* — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:17:35 GMT

A postage label could not be printed for the address in it's current form, and if I add (guess)a suburb then I am not sending to the address provided. Who knows if this is a scam.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

digital*ghost — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:19:39 GMT

It is unlikely for there to be the same street name in all three suburbs, though. This happens more often than I would like, but if you google the street name and postcode together, the results will usually clarify the correct suburb. There is a risk, but I usually take it if I'm sending untracked anyway. If I'm not prepared to take the risk, I cancel and get them to re-purchase (most do, a few do not).

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

shoppingbag* — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:31:40 GMT

ok so I've narrowed the street name and number down to two, one of which co-incides with the postcode, so you think it would be ok to just add the suburb and print a label? Am I not altering the address by doing this?

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

davewil1964 — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:36:43 GMT

It depends if you want the sale.

If there is only one street name in the supplied postcode, then it is a reasonable bet that that is the suburb.

Unless you are very lucky, you will have had to edit buyers' addresses in the past. Like the ones who put their suburb in the second address line and the city in the suburb line.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

shoppingbag* — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:36:54 GMT

Thank Digi, I took lyour suggestion and have located the correct suburb for the Postcode. I would need to add it and print a postage label, so it would be tracked. Maybe I should just do that and hope for the best, just so many scammers about lately it makes me rather suspicious of anything out of the ordinary.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

davewil1964 — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:38:31 GMT

@shoppingbag* wrote:
Thank Digi, I took lyour suggestion and have located the correct suburb for the Postcode. I would need to add it and print a postage label, so it would be tracked. Maybe I should just do that and hope for the best, just so many scammers about lately it makes me rather suspicious of anything out of the ordinary.

Google the street and postcode. That will give you the suburb.

Send it there.

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Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

in reply to shoppingbag*

on ‎07-01-2019 07:17 PM

And eol. And Dave.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

shoppingbag* — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:42:18 GMT

Yes Dave, I have had many that quote the Capital City in their address, as myself being from the old school, we always quoted our addresses to include the Capital City, now the Post Office just wants suburbs and postcodes. I've had to remove Capitals from many addresses to get a label to print, just never had one with a Capital City and no suburb before, the Buyer's name sounds foreign, so maybe English is their second language or they don't fully understand.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

egglesdtp — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:02:31 GMT

@shoppingbag* wrote:
Yes Dave, I have had many that quote the Capital City in their address, as myself being from the old school, we always quoted our addresses to include the Capital City, now the Post Office just wants suburbs and postcodes. I've had to remove Capitals from many addresses to get a label to print, just never had one with a Capital City and no suburb before, the Buyer's name sounds foreign, so maybe English is their second language or they don't fully understand.

I bet I am a lot older than you and I have NEVER heard of an address including the capital city. Are you from Queensland by any chance?

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

plonkacolin — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:09:05 GMT

i am noticing many buyers now are not giving their full address

why ebay /paypal alow this is crazy

many many times lately ive had to google to get either post codes, suburbs or states

and with many suburbs haing the same post code its all confusing

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

purplemon18 — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:18:14 GMT

Old school internet I think they mean. Back in the early days many websites did not properly acknowledge that they were communicating with the whole world, so they asked for addresses in just their local format which was most often the USA. And USA addresses are formatted with a city where we would put a suburb.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

purplemon18 — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:25:33 GMT

I find it's usually just the state that's missing, and since the first digit of postcodes tell the state it's easy to fix.

(like 2000=NSW 4000=QLD 0000=NT)

I have come accross some odd stuff though, once I had someone who's postcode was a special code reserved for AusPost buildings or something, I forget the details, but it did not look like a normal Aussie postcode.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

countessalmirena — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:43:17 GMT

Even today, quite a few Melbournians include MELBOURNE in their address if asked for their full address. For example,

Mr Fedwitz Larrikindunniemere-Smythe,

26 Sourberry Ave.,

Hampton East,

MELBOURNE VIC 3188.

For the record, there's no such person and no such street address, to the best of my knowledge. I made it all up.

However, the inclusion of MELBOURNE (or Melbourne) comes from first-hand official (non-eBay and non-label-related) knowledge.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

countessalmirena — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:46:02 GMT

Ah well, as long as it's not the devil's postcode. I hear that postmen may sometimes be told to go to that suburb/city/infernal kingdom, but it's not part of the regular delivery route.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

joztamps — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 12:15:05 GMT

@countessalmirena wrote:
Even today, quite a few Melbournians include MELBOURNE in their address if asked for their full address. For example,

Mr Fedwitz Larrikindunniemere-Smythe,
26 Sourberry Ave.,
Hampton East,
MELBOURNE VIC 3188.

For the record, there's no such person and no such street address, to the best of my knowledge. I made it all up.

However, the inclusion of MELBOURNE (or Melbourne) comes from first-hand official (non-eBay and non-label-related) knowledge.

I have a semi-regular buyer who does that with his northern suburb, which is 15km from the CBD. Confused the heck out of me at first, went looking for another suburb of the same name.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

gutterpunkz05 — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 12:20:17 GMT

You can always use google maps, street view. Then ask if their house/flat etc is the one with the green door and yellow letterbox etc. They normally reply pretty quick then.

I now use My Post Business, instead of ebay post. The Auto complete/correct saves heaps of time and is pretty user friendly.

Still it would be a lot easier if people would just enter their address and phone number correctly.

Re: Buyer's address is wrong, your advice please.

phorum_junkie* — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 15:24:26 GMT

I usually find the sub using google then write the adress as: line 1. 6 fantasy lane, line 2. googlesub, VIC, line 3 googlesub, line 4, VIC 1234

Doing this you have given the address as provided by the buyer plus the extra needed to get it to the right place.

I have done this countlesstimes and it has never caused a problem.