Fictional name

[zee-chan]

I had a new (zero feedback) buyer who just bought a comic, but in the mailing address they used a character's name from the comic they bought instead of their real name. Will this cause any shipping issue?

The buyer is in the US and the address seems to be for a townhouse occupant (well Google map showed me townhouses for that address).

[recped]

NO! Maybe if it was a Rural Route but if there is a full address why would it have ANY effect on delivery?

[mr.elmwood]

It could cause an issue at the PO requires some kind of name, which is why mail is addressed to "occupant". I do not know that a character will work.

[maggiebvintage2010]

I don't know why not - there are many many different names in this world - does the PO vet them? - and how would they know that it is the name of a comic book character?  As long as the rest of the address is complete with full street info, unit # if any, city state and zip, don't think it should be an issue.

[recped]

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@mr.elmwood wrote:
It could cause an issue at the PO requires some kind of name, which is why mail is addressed to "occupant". I do not know that a character will work.

---

The post office only requires a name for Rural Routes or Registered Mail.

I live alone but I receive mail under at least 6 different personal names and another 8 - 10 business names.

The only time a name might be used for normal mail is if the address has a typo, is incorrectly delivered, given back to the carrier, a carrier who would make the effort to attempt to match the name to the correct address.

Bulk mail has "occupant" on it because I believe it's required to qualify for "unaddressed admail" rates.

[reallynicestamps]

The address is the important part.

Not the actual name. I get mail addressed to my eBay IDs all the time. I only got questioned on it once when I needed to sign for a parcel, but the postie was quite happy to accept my passport and signature. Mind you she'd seen me at the door several other times.

When I was a bank teller I had one customer who was a married Chinese-Canadian actress. She got cheques made out to her married 'English' name, her married Chinese name, her Chinese birthname, her 'English' stage name, and her Chinese stage name. Basically we just asked her to sign the way the cheque was made out and then again with the name on her bank account. Our only other security was that the cheques were deposited rather than cashed.

[cumos55]

Could it be this buyer was so enamoured with the character in the comic that he officially changed his name?

[reallynicestamps]

I know a guy who officially changed his name to Starwolf.

Yeah, he is just like you are imagining him.

[faircrochet]

I've sent things to people who had "names" that clearly weren't their names at all and they've all gotten through ok.  Some have been pretty funny, but the only one I can remember now is "Upstairs Lodger".  Kind of felt like sending something to Harry Potter at "The Cupboard Under the Stairs" 🙂

[pjcdn2005]

I've had some items go out without any name at all..just an address or just a business name and address. I believe that when an item goes through customs it should have a name on it but I haven't had any problems the few times that I've had to send a package without a name.

[zee-chan]

Thanks for everyone's advice  I have shipped this comic book today (Light Packet so no tracking and what not, name should not matter), hopefully this buyer's address didn't have any typo in it! 

[cumos55]

Sometimes ,  even the address can look strange......    not the way it usually presented.

And that is when I do some checking

(1) White pages search.....  looking for information... name, address telephone number, and maybe even email address

(2) Mapquest..... Confirmation that an address is real.

and

(3) Google maps....  Google the address...  One finds the address,  and sees the place where the buyer lives.....It is like standing on the street ready to deliver the parcel to the buyer.....  Some very interesting situations.

A very unusual address to a borough in New York City....  Unusual, but very correct...

and sometimes  the address is missing a small piece of information,  not critical  but missing..... or even  spelled wrong for someone new to eBay, usually.

[zee-chan]

...now this buyer became the first person to ask "where is my item" this whole year.

I wonder if I should just ask the buyer to wait another couple weeks, or if I should ask them whether or not they have had bought anything using their fictional name before since that could be the contributing problem.

[zee-chan]

Does this sound okay? Or is it too long and wordy? I'm also debating if I should bother showing the buyer a photo of the envelope and postal receiptto prove that I did ship to address provided...

Hi, thanks for messaging me.

As noted in previously sent shipment message, your comic book was shipped on March 19 via USA light packet (airmail service). It usually can take up to 2-3 weeks (on the rare occasion up to a month)  for parcels to arrive from Canada to USA (cross border shipment). Since it's currently Easter long weekend, it might have slowed mail down in the states as well. It should hopefully arrive within a couple weeks. If it still doesn't show up by April 19, can you please let me know?

May I also ask if you have previously used "(the character name)" or other fictional names as the name of the recipient for a shipment before? Can you please check to see if any family member may have received the book, but has put it aside because of the unfamiliar name?

Thank you and please don't hesitate to contact me again if you have any other questions.

[canuckchat]

Rural Routes - to the best of my knowldedge - were all given individual street names and numbers a few years back. Initially "they" said it was so you had a 911 specific address to give in case of emergency. Then it gradually became that you were to give those sending you postal mail, your full street name and number of your residence so they could use it on postal mail. Having said that, while I use my full street name/number for my address - my small rural post office also has on file all the possible computations/permutations of names/business/organization names that are to receive mail at this specific street name/number.

[pjcdn2005]

Your note sounds fine to me but I tend to write long notes too so I'm not a good judge of being too wordy. 🙂 But I do have a couple of comments...

In that paragraph about the fictional name, I might add a comment about it possibly taking longer to go through customs because the name caught an U.S. officer's eye. I don't know if that would happen but it may??

I don't know if the Easter weekend would affect the mail there. The package should have already been in the U.S. before Easter and the USPS doesn't close any extra days for this holiday.

[zee-chan]

I took out the Easter bit as you suggested.

I don't think the name should have issues with customs since it's just a Japanese name, unless the customs officer happen to follow this comic series to recognize it lol

Fingers crossed that it shows up at the buyer's door in a couple weeks. It's only $21.50 and it's an affordable loss, but I'm more worried about getting my first defect/negative...

[pjcdn2005]

So I guess his name wasn't Captain America or Green Lantern. lol

[tobyshitzu]

I just had one I believed the name was fake and there was something weird going on.  So i used a paypal light packet label that I never otherwise use.  Sure enough a bank reversal came, but paypal ate the loss with the label accepted as proof of shipment.   The address was a UPS store with no box number initially provided. Buyer responded quick with it.  If they made it easier to void suspicious payments without punishment paypal wouldn't have lost the money

[pjcdn2005]

Did you have some sort of proof that the post office accepted the package with the light packet label? Usually just buying a Paypal label doesn't satisfy their proof of shipping requirement for chargebacks.