Address Format Issue Caused by eBay's Insertion of Tracking Code

hicf7275
Community Member

on ‎17-04-2025 04:45 PM

eBay has recently started inserting a system-generated tracking code (e.g., ebay:xxxxxxx) directly into the buyer’s shipping address — specifically between the recipient's name and their actual street address. For example (redacted for privacy): Name: [Buyer Name] Address: ebay:xxxxxxx, [Street Address] [Suburb, State, Postcode] Australia Phone: [Phone Number] This added string serves no purpose for the buyer or the seller, yet it causes serious operational issues. When such addresses are uploaded to Australia Post’s system, they are flagged as invalid because the first line of the address (ebay:xxxxxxx) contains no street number or valid delivery information. This leads to delivery errors, and every affected parcel must be manually corrected before it can be processed. This is a significant waste of time and creates unnecessary risk of delays or misdeliveries. We urge eBay to stop including these meaningless tracking codes in the address line, or to move them into internal or non-shipping fields where they do not interfere with postal systems.

twyngwyn
Community Member

on ‎17-04-2025 04:55 PM

Sorry, not recent, been there for ages…. but in saying that, I have never used it, and choose to ignore.

 

Why would you want to let potential thieves know it’s from eBay?

sandypebbles
Community Member

on ‎17-04-2025 04:56 PM

eBay very rarely read the member to member forum, nor do they take requests

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*casey*
Community Member

on ‎17-04-2025 05:01 PM

So, are the items you sell  ( and your address issues)  located in  Australia,  as I see you're registered in China

hicf7275
Community Member

on ‎17-04-2025 05:19 PM

Hi casey,

Thanks for your comment. Of course I wouldn’t use my real seller account to post something like this in a public forum. This account was registered solely for the purpose of providing feedback — I haven’t bought or sold anything with it.

I’m a backend developer working with ERP integrations, so technically, yes — I can easily write a regex or pre-processing hook to strip ebay:xxxxxx from incoming address data before syncing to Australia Post or any third-party logistics system.

But from a data design and system integration perspective, the issue is that eBay is appending a non-address token into a postal address field

This doesn’t just affect us technically — it results in real-world delivery errors when Australia Post fails to parse a valid house number from Line 1.

I’m just surprised it’s been going on for so long without wider discussion. If sellers are manually correcting this every day, that's a cost eBay should care about.

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davewil1964
Community Member

on ‎17-04-2025 06:20 PM

I C&P addresses directly from notification emails into the relevant AP fields, so it's never been an issue for me. Over the several years this 'recent' system has been in place.

twyngwyn
Community Member
In response to hicf7275

on ‎17-04-2025 06:44 PM

The discussion happened years ago, and yes it’s **bleep**py!

Lots of us chose to ignore and not use…

davewil1964
Community Member
In response to hicf7275

on ‎17-04-2025 07:49 PM

Why would you register an account in China if you were in Australia?

 

I look forward to you digging yourself out of that hole. After all laughter is the spice of life.

gutterpunkz05
Community Member

on ‎17-04-2025 11:18 PM

The code has been in place for ages and  it does not interfere with  the address format.  It was introduced to provide additional tracking information to ebay.

Personally I have never had any need to remove it.

lezned-toycollector
Community Member

on ‎18-04-2025 01:22 AM

@hicf7275 wrote:
eBay has recently started inserting a system-generated tracking code (e.g., ebay:xxxxxxx) directly into the buyer’s shipping address

 

Bwahahahaha... I read that much and lost it. Yet to read any further, but I will when I stop laughing.

 

Thanks for the belly laugh created by your side-splitting humour... much appreciated 🤣🤣🤣

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