Sellers mailing items to "Ebay:<random letters>"

[k3vinh3ng]

I've had 3 purchases recently (4 purchases in total) where ebay sellers have been sending items to address:

Ebay:<random letters> 

followed by (nearly accurate) address.

eg, today I received an Australia Post noitification saying that a parcel will be coming to:

John Doe

Ebay:4q7gln9 123 Fake St

Sydney NSW 2000

(name and address have been changed for privacy, but the bolded section is what I'm asking about).

last month, I had Australia Post notifications saying that a parcel would be delivered to:

John Doe

Ebay:nphjhhd , Suite 123, Level 4,5

67 Pitt St

Sydney NSW 2000

worse yet, because of the way the the address was split, the item was never delivered.

the real address was of the format

John Doe

Suite 123, Level 4, 567 Pitt St

Sydney NSW 2000

(another recent purchase had Ebay:kps2vz4 added to the address line)

not all sellers have this issue when sending parcels to me, but I can't tell in advance which sellers are likely to add these random characters (and potentially mess up my address).

Does anyone have any advice on why this happens, and how I can avoid this in the future?

[imastawka · Accepted solution]

Some sellers delete it, some don't

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

[gutterpunkz05]

It is an ebay code, that apparently aids in tracking, it is automatically added by ebay, and ebay advises sellers not to delete the code.

Have not had a single issue with deliveries that include the code.

[k3vinh3ng]

thanks for the reply.  I've never sold, so I didn't know it was a "thing".

So if my address was split badly over 2 lines (as in the above example), then that would be the sellers fault, and there's nothing I could do about it except open a case?

[davewil1964]

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@k3vinh3ng wrote:

thanks for the reply.  I've never sold, so I didn't know it was a "thing".

So if my address was split badly over 2 lines (as in the above example), then that would be the sellers fault, and there's nothing I could do about it except open a case?

---

Not really.

It's eBay's fault for introducing an unnecessary addition to tracking, and AP's fault for not formatting it properly. When you set up a label through AP, the code shows as being on Address Line 1, the street address as Address Line 2, etc. When it prints, they concatenate those two. Regardless. They show room for 3 address lines, then only use 1.

What does the tracking show?

If it shows delivered, the seller will normally win a case. If that is the case, you should be pursuing AP for compensation. Open a case through their website and when they don't respond, chase them up on Facebook. Just type slowly and use words of one syllable or less when contacting them.

[lyndal1838]

No, it is not the seller's fault.....ebay adds the code and instructs the seller not to remove it.

[k3vinh3ng]

Hi Davewil,

as stated, the parcel was shown to be delivered to:

John Doe

Ebay:nphjhhd , Suite 123, Level 4,5

67 Pitt St

Sydney NSW 2000

but that's over a kilometer away from

John Doe

Suite 123, Level 4, 567 Pitt St

Sydney NSW 2000

I'm not really going to blame Australia Post for delivering a parcel to 67 Pitt St, even though it was supposed to go to 567 Pitt St, especially when the format of the address was so badly mangled.

That particular order has been resolved, but I'm thinking about future orders.
it seems that the safest thing to do, is to re-format and condense my address to a single line,
John Doe
123/567 Pitt St
Sydney NSW 2000

I'm just worried that with the condensed address, it will make "normally labled" parcels more likely to be undeliverable, if the address ends up looking like:
1231567 Pitt St

[k3vinh3ng]

Hi Lyndal

so you're saying that if my address is:

John Doe

Suite 123, Level 4, 567 Pitt St

Sydney NSW 2000

and the seller sends it to:

John Doe

Ebay:nphjhhd , Suite 123, Level 4,5

67 Pitt St

Sydney NSW 2000

who's fault is it?

[davewil1964]

As said, the fault lies with AP. They are the ones who decided to concatenate the eBay code (which they presumably approved) with the first line of the address. Even though, to the seller, they show as being on different lines.

I suggest your suggestion of how to format your address would probably be the go. I doubt there is a 1231567 Pitt St, so you would expect the postie to be able to decipher the "/".

[gutterpunkz05 · Accepted solution]

It is highly like that  123/567  will not be accepted by the AP system and will instead generate an error message.

The problem is that when the code came into being,  AP  did not increase the number of characters permitted on Line One, so when the maximum number is exceeded an error message appears.  It is then up to the sender to re-configure the address into additional lines, in the example you have given it would appear that the sender has not  split the address correctly.

There are numerous reasons a seller may have to alter the address provided by Ebay/Paypal, to comply with AP requirements, but the onus is on the seller to do it correctly.