Maybe the admins in Ebay can post memo to all sellers about putting a return address on all the mail

[bishi3]

When a seller posts the item to the buyer, there are quite a few sellers who do not put on any sender details on the envelope /small package, maybe Ebay could send a message to all sellers or be in the T/C's, it can save alot of hassell  and return bussiness to the sellers as well, and some lessons to sellers how to address envelopes/ small packages properly, in this huge bussiness postage community there are some who cant do this properly

[kopenhagen5]

eBay is mostly run by computers and is an advertising medium similar to a classified newspaper.

Even if eBay was to send an email out with suggestions, many sellers just won't listen as many are not even adhering to rules.

Also some sellers don't want to give out personal details to online purchasers

[enigmabear]

How would ebay 'enforce' this when it is not a requirement of Australia Post?

If buyers want to buy again from the same seller, they only need to look at their purchase history

Perhaps it is not that these sellers 'don't know' how to address things, English may not be their first language, just as one example

Perhpas as this is something important to you, you could consider adding a polie note on your payment if the seller could put their address on the back of the package 

[brerrabbit585]

Of far more concern is the fact that a lot of buyers either don't know their proper address or they can't be bothered entering it correctly. I've had buyers from Caloundra who put their address as Caloundra, Brisbane, and many other similar instances. Sellers who print postage labels are constantly having to correct these mistakes before the system will allow them to print the labels. That's only one small example of the sloppiness/inaccuracies in buyer addresses.

[joztamps]

Or those who think Capital letters can be dispensed with in physical addresses, just like they can in email addresses.

Or those who not only double up on the Town address, like your Caloundra Brisbane (actually quite common this one, as you say), but who also do it with the State, eg Hamersley WA, Western Australia.

[purplemon18]

I had one a couple of days ago with 2 postcodes. One was for Parramatta and the other Ingleburn. They were at ingleburn which is 30km away. So I sent them a polite message to let them know of their mistake, and they told me that either postcode works...

[brerrabbit585]

While it's incorrect, I can understand that some put their suburb as well as the city that it's a suburb of, but Caloundra isn't even part of Brisbane and is miles away!

It's more important to get buyers' addresses correct so that their items actually arrive, rather than worrying about return addresses.  I've only ever had one item returned to me and it was several weeks later.  The envelope had been torn across the end and then 'patched up' and I suspect the person who bought it may have died because I never heard a word from them.

[countessalmirena]

That would leave you in limbo, not knowing what to do.

[brerrabbit585]

I have a no returns policy so if they send anything back without my permission I don't feel obliged to do anything, especially if I don't hear anything from them. 🙂

[purplemon18]

Although I assume most of these problems are due to the fact that ebay has American origins, and their addresses have cities, not suburbs. So ebay asks you for your suburb/city, and people don't realise that they are asking for either, not both.

Back in the old days when ebay only asked for a city, there must have been people who just put the city and left off the suburb altogether. That would have been fun.