topic Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines in Selling

eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

charmony — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 04:47:32 GMT

I wonder if this is something eBay can address? (pun intended)

Australia Post has guidelines for writing addresses on envelopes. eBay doesn't follow these guidelines, and it seems to me it would be easy enough to fix in their software. It would be so nice if the packing slips and address labels printed correctly. I have to manually paste them into Word and fiddle with them, which becomes quite a task when you're mailing 10-20 items a day.

The worst part is that Australian states are not abbreviated, so we get "South Australia" instead of "SA" and "Australian Capital Territory" instead of "ACT". No Australian would make this mistake so I don't know why eBay does.

Then there's the inclusion of "Australia" as the last line of addresses for items being sent WITHIN the country.

For overseas addresses, eBay insists on printing the word "default" if the user has put their postcode in the wrong place, or in the case of Ireland (for example) if there is no postcode.

Finally, and this is really the fault of users but it's something I always fix before printing - why not have eBay apply Title Case to addresses for those who insist on using all lower case when they fill out their details? (In fact the AusPost guidelines ask for the last line (suburb + state) to be all-caps, if that's not too much to ask.)

So instead of this disaster:

joe blow

123 nice street

suburbia New South Wales 2220

Australia

we would get:

Joe Blow

123 Nice Street

SUBURBIA NSW 2220

The guidelines are here:

http://auspost.com.au/personal/addressing-guidelines.html

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

the-kazbar — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 04:51:38 GMT

The one that annoys me the most is when people put Sydney, Melbourne etc instead of their suburb but a close second is people who don't even use capitals for their own name

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

charmony — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:10:16 GMT

Yes, I see lots of Sydney, Melbourne etc. in addresses and it's very odd because surely Australians know not to do this?

I think at one time you could put whatever you liked for your location that appears on an item page (rather than eBay generating it from your postcode, which may or may not be how it currently works). So sellers might have done that in order to show a more generic location. Maybe it's a holdover from that time.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

leader-of-the-band — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:18:25 GMT

I wonder if this is something eBay can address? (pun intended)

I think you should also be targetting PayPal as well. When I sell an item I am advised by PayPal of the address to send the item to. I always address the item exactly as it appears in the PayPal advice. This includes the use of lower case for names and the inclusion of capital city on addresses to capital city suburbs e.g. "Springvale Melbourne" or "Petersham Sydney".

Seller protection relies on the seller addressing the parcel exactly as it appears on PayPal payment advice.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

charmony — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:25:36 GMT

I didn't know that. In that case eBay shouldn't be providing the option to print out address labels. I presume those are generated from the user's eBay account, not their Paypal account.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

davewil1964 — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:53:49 GMT

If you use Click & Send, you can't put things like Sydney or Melbourne in if they aren't in the postcode area. So you put the suburb in the 'Suburb' field and drop the city name altogether.

I just fix them up and will defy Paypal to take my money if a buyer claims INR. I'm also willing to bet that the FOS will agree with me. It's not in Paypal's purview, imo, to cover for buyers who don't know how to correctly format their address.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

lyndal1838 — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 06:00:24 GMT

Ebay and paypal are American companies and the name and address details are formulated for the USA.

You will have a hard time convincing them that they need to rejig their forms for every site.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

suitcase_of_memories — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 04:24:36 GMT

Bit of a worry, I addressed a 'letter' sale to Italy or perhaps it was Singapore [one of them] & I noticed after some numbers the word DEFAULT which I thought very strange, but wrote it on the envelope regardless...just in case........after reading this I am now worried that the buyer didn't write that in his address....ebay did.

Great Italy is notorious for INR cases apparently.....hope I'm not the next victim thanks to ebay 'adjusting' buyers details !!!

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

thesoulyearns — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 04:40:07 GMT

& I noticed after some numbers the word DEFAULT which I thought very strange, but wrote it on the envelope regardless...just in case........after reading this I am now worried that the buyer didn't write that in his address....ebay did.

Great Italy is notorious for INR cases apparently.....hope I'm not the next victim thanks to ebay 'adjusting' buyers details !!!

If in doubt, ask the buyer for their exact address. The international shipping form is tough as it is.

I filled out a shipping form for a few places overseas and was unsure about whether to just type the exact PP address in the Address lines and/or also type in the things like Country, State, Territory, Postcode, etc, that are underneath the address line. With PP seller protection as a concern and also just hoping it's able to be read and delivered correctly, I asked the staff member behind the counter what the best way to write the form is. He said just write the address exactly as it was given. I didn't fill out any duplicates (e.g. State, Country, Postcode, etc) - I just wrote the exact PP address in the lines. The parcel arrived safely.

Whether that's the right thing to do or not is the question but it worked that time. Previous times I've included everything in its exact spots and it's also worked.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

patchoo78 — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 08:18:41 GMT

I think you should also be targetting PayPal as well. When I sell an item I am advised by PayPal of the address to send the item to.

No you're not.. The address you get given is the buyers registered eBay address; it shows on the PayPal invoice but the address is actually your default postage address in eBay..

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

jensmanchester-australia — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 09:39:38 GMT

I think you should also be targetting PayPal as well. When I sell an item I am advised by PayPal of the address to send the item to.

No you're not.. The address you get given is the buyers registered eBay address; it shows on the PayPal invoice but the address is actually your default postage address in eBay..

The address from Paypal is the address that the Buyer has provided as the delivery address for that particular order. It does not have to be your default postage address on ebay. It can be any address you choose to enter when you go through checkout.

The eparcel system will not accept this format - it has to be entered the exact way that Australia Post recommend. If the postcode doesn't match the suburb it will also not accept that.

We have to correct approximately 25% of buyers addresses where there are errors in either or both of the suburb and postcodes. It is no wonder so many parcels goes astray with so many buyers not even knowing what their postcode is.

The eparcel system doesn't correct street names so it makes you wonder how many buyers have those details incorrect as well.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

leader-of-the-band — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:39:59 GMT

The eparcel system will not accept this format - it has to be entered the exact way that Australia Post recommend. If the postcode doesn't match the suburb it will also not accept that.

For those that use eparcel this would be a nuisance, but many of us that are casual sellers do not use eparcel or click and send. I know many casual sellers do use C&S, but many do not.

I hand write all of my satchels, envelopes and boxes. This means that casual sellers like me can address their items exactly the way the address appears on the PayPal advice with the address to be sent to supplied by the buyer. I do usually write the capital city in smaller print to avoid confusion, but I have met my PayPal obligation by addressing it exactly as it appears on the payment advice.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

tonalidesigns — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 13:17:08 GMT

I use a label printer, and take the trouble to correct every address that needs it ... we capitalise first letters, we remove city names where there is a suburb, we replace the ebay generated state with the abbreviatiins and capitalise the last line ... so everything is in line with Oz post. We also cross check postcodes where we have anydoubt.

Yes its a bit of extra wjork, but since we started doing this our delivery times have significantly improved.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

davewil1964 — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 15:54:19 GMT

I can't understand why anybody would use standard satchels when C&S is cheaper and safer. As long as you have a printer and are prepared to spend $1.25 for stock.

A big advantage, as said above, is that you can't put a non-compliant address in. Apart from the suburb/city I've had incorrect postcodes, wrong suburb (and that was to a business address. Luckily the business knew where they are located, according to their website, anyway), so regardless of Paypal I prefer to send goods to where the buyer is, rather than where they think they are.

Re: eBay doesn't follow AusPost addressing guidelines

the-kazbar — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:43:59 GMT

For those that use eparcel this would be a nuisance, but many of us that are casual sellers do not use eparcel or click and send. I know many casual sellers do use C&S, but many do not.

I hand write all of my satchels, envelopes and boxes. This means that casual sellers like me can address their items exactly the way the address appears on the PayPal advice with the address to be sent to supplied by the buyer. I do usually write the capital city in smaller print to avoid confusion, but I have met my PayPal obligation by addressing it exactly as it appears on the payment advice.

Unless you register every single one of those parcels it makes no difference anyway.

Meeting the PP address guideline won't matter if you can't provide proof of shipment.