Australian customers, Ebay has started adding their ABN number and "Code:Paid" to your post address!

[smithj04_55]

For overseas sales to Australian customers, Ebay has started adding their ABN number and "Code - Paid" to the first line of the customer's postal address.

This is intended to indicate to Australian Customs Authorities that GST has already been paid on this item.

Unfortunately, this is having the effect that some deliveries are being returned to the sender because Australia post doesn't recognise that information in the first line as a proper address!

This has now affected two deliveries to me!

[lyndal1838]

I am waiting on a small package from overseas so will be interested to see what happens.

I will be jumping up and down if it does not arrive.

Have you contacted ebay to let them know?

I don't know how they could put this information on the address label as the address label is printed by the seller and they do not have access to that information.

[smithj04_55]

The "information" appears on your Paypal address. Under Paypal rules, sellers must send items to the buyer's address as it appears on Paypal. 

I think it would help if they put the "information" after the last address line (i.e. the destination country) - this might help to avoid postal service confusion.

[lyndal1838]

My package has arrived and there is nothing like you describe on it at all.

There is nothing different now to what has always been on the Customs forms.....ebay is not putting anything on the labels.

[twyngwyn]

are you referring to this?

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/eBay-Announcements/New-Code-for-eBay-Orders/ba-p/2263844

[Anonymous]

I received something last week from the US that had an ABN number in the address but it was on the second line after my street details. I wondered whether it was ebay AU's ABN as after the number it had "Code PAID".

My item was the equivalent of a large letter if it'd been sent within Australia. It was from a high volume seller so maybe not everyone has to include the extra details yet.

[zanadoo_56]

I recently got a parcel from Portugal and I noticed the seller had hand written my address including an ABN number for paid GST 

I guess it must have been part of details supplied to the seller by eBay or PayPal.

[ali5550]

So is this some sort of tracking that ebay have set up with Australia Post?

[brerrabbit585]

Nothing to do with tracking or AP. It's to show customs that the gst on overseas purchases has already been paid.

[countessalmirena]

I suppose that most people will have read the announcement just made about this new code.

Just in case, for those who haven't, I'm posting the information here. The announcement itself is in the eBay Announcements board.

The new address labels format looks like this:

The announcement says that the code is added to "address line one", and that sellers should not remove the code. If sellers print their labels using an "external labels platform", they are to make sure that the code is included "in the format provided by eBay", which presumably means it must be on address line one.

Apparently these codes will give buyers "more  tracking events and visibility over their parcel’s journey". Australia Post are still struggling with tracking as it is. How is another code - which is just additional identifying information that has somehow to be scanned by someone - going to improve efficiency in tracking? By making everyone in the delivery chain have to match that code to a tracking number? I am worried that this will actually slow things down and result in problems with misdeliveries.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think that there are going to be machines and sorting procedures and couriers and postmen who will be wondering what that code is doing on line one of an address. In my opinion, it's not a good place for a code; it muddies the waters with regards to the delivery address.

Oh well. I suppose we'll see how it goes.