Incomplete address

[lindaloug624]

So on Wednesday I sold an item to a person living in France.  The buyer is a new member registered in March of this year, with only 2 feedback ratings. What I do in this case is I always check the address on google maps.  The address on google shows apartment buildings.  So using a translator, I emailed the buyer to ask if her address should have an apartment number and pasted the address I had received from paypal.  It is now 2 days later and I have not heard from her. My shipping deadline of 48 hours has now passed.  How long should I wait for a response? Should I try emailing again, to let her know I cannot ship until address is confirmed?

Thanks in advance

[reallynicestamps]

I would email again. If you did not use French the first time, you could add a Google Translate version.

It may help.

Is there a French version of Canada411, I wonder?

Or does the French postal code give a range of apartment numbers, as the Canadian one sometimes does?

Don't worry about the shipping date at this point.

It is cheaper to accept the fairly minor consequences for that, than sending a parcel that is returned from overseas.

[momcqueen]

Are you shipping with tracking, or not?

[lindaloug624]

no tracking, will be shipped with small packet international.

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

Tracking would save you from all issues regarding Item Not Received though ebay's MoneyBack Guarnatee. If the parcel cannot be delivered because the buyer has supplied an incomplete or incorrect address, you as a seller aren't held responsible. But tracking has to show it.

I take it you haven't actually tried to print the label? As in purchase the postage? You may be surprised to learn that Canada Post will outright reject an incomplete address. It won't allow a sender to buy postage for an address that is wrong. The only way to know is to try to buy it.

Of course, I would cover my rear end with a tracked packet as opposed to small packet. If you buy Tracked Packet directly from Canada Post's Electronic Shipping Tool with your Solutions For Small Business membership, you'll achieve a greater discount (and better price) than if you buy it via paypal shipping. 

[pjcdn2005]

When you say that you emailed do you mean that you sent a message via eBay's system?  If so, I would try sending an actual email to their PP email address as they may be more likely to check that.  

[pjcdn2005]

You may be surprised to learn that Canada Post will outright reject an incomplete address. It won't allow a sender to buy postage for an address that is wrong. The only way to know is to try to buy it.

I have never heard that but I am fairly sure that I have had items sent back from the US because they were missing an apartment number.  Perhaps that is true just for Canadian addresses?  

[momcqueen]

Nope. International. The people at Canada Post relayed this to me directly.

[lindaloug624]

Yes, the email was through EBay.  Just sent one now to the email on paypal.

[lindaloug624]

Okay I will try to print the label and see what happens.

Thanks for all of your suggestions

[pjcdn2005]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
Nope. International. The people at Canada Post relayed this to me directly.

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I see.  Well that wasn't true in my case.  I dfind it difficult to believe that that they have a data base with every address in the world and know if the address is not complete.  I do believe that they know when certain parameters are needed such as if a state or province is required but to know if every address entered is 100% complete.....that's a tough one for me to believe.  But that's just me being skeptical.......it must be true if they say so. 🙂

Of course, this comes from a company whose online calculator will give you a price for small packet, tracked packet and expedited to the US even if you enter less then the minimum dimensions required for those services.  (10cmx8cmx2cm)

[femmefan1946]

The people at Canada Post

Did you get a name? And are you sure it was Canada Post and not a minimum wage clerk in the postal outlet at the back of the drug store?

Since this is a question of an apartment number, I'm even more skeptical.

(I wonder if adding ATTENTION : CONCIERGE would help at all.

[momcqueen]

It was an employee of Canada Post at the 1-800-number who told me this. I'm sure I took the name of the person, as I always do, when I call and make notes on the conversation in case I am fed misinformation. It was three years ago, I don't suppose I'd have any luck finding those notes today.

At any rate, I do believe it to be true. I wouldn't assert it here if I didn't. There have been a handful of times that postage labels for new buyers have given me error messages that couldn't be explained by routine PayPal shipping errors, or any mistake I'd made. If I then clarified the buyer address with the buyer, sure enough, some component of the address as it was originally given would be wrong. Maybe the postal code would not match the city, or the address may be incomplete. Once corrected by the buyer, it printed.

Anyone truly skeptical is welcome to give Canada Post a call. Someone at the 1-800-number should be able to help, providing the call centre employees share a relative degree of knowledge for troubleshooting address errors when purchasing postal labels.

[pocomocomputing]

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@mjwl2006 wrote:
Nope. International. The people at Canada Post relayed this to me directly.

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Canada Post has a tool called Address Complete which is supposed to give the correct address for locations in Canada and many countries. The tool has a free trial for 14 days and after that you pay to use it.

https://www.canadapost.ca/pca/learnmore/

You can test the tool for free here on this page. I do not know how many you can check before having to register for the free trial or a paid for subscription. It defaults to Canada as a country but if you click once in the data entry box, look in the bottom right corner of the data entry box you will see a country select list with Canada flag as default, click on it to select USA for a test.

https://www.canadapost.ca/pca/

For example, use eBay Headquarters in USA for a test.

Contact Us
eBay Headquarters
2025 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, California 95125
USA

Start typing in the address 2025 and as you add more information it will refine the addresses shown. Make sure you change the country to USA.

To use this tool for free for Canadian addresses, go to Canada Post Find a Postal Code web page. It states it is powered by Address Complete.

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/postalcode/fpc.jsf

As for Canada Post telephone support, most likely they use this Address Complete tool to check addresses outside of Canada.

[momcqueen]

Very good, pocomo. Thank you for the information. I would suppose this is the function to which the Canada Post people were referring. It certainly makes sense to me that the tool would communicate with the postage-purchase platform so that sellers don't waste time mailing parcels to addresses that don't exist.