Adding New Shipping Address but it keeps saying “BC” is invalid

[sharkkingdylan]

The address is for in BC but no matter what I type it keeps saying it’s invalid; I’ve tried “BC”, “B.C.” and “British Columbia” but nothing works and it always says “invalid province” when I type in province, how do I fix this?

[pjcdn2005]

Are you typing this I shipping labels or a new listing or......?

[sharkkingdylan]

No I’m trying to add a new shipping address for myself when I buy something, nothing related to labels or selling

[marnotom!]

That's odd.  I'm on the desktop version of eBay at the moment and I just tried editing my secondary shipping address in "My eBay" and I had to select the province from a drop-down menu.  Are you doing this from your "My eBay" or some other "place"?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@sharkkingdylan wrote:
No I’m trying to add a new shipping address for myself when I buy something, nothing related to labels or selling

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@sharkkingdylan 

The system only accepts a new address if the postal code is in the correct format and can't have any typos. (Accidental extra space,Zero instead of letter O..etc) You can confirm the address is in the system using the CP tool. Link attached. Is the address you are trying to add new?

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/tools/find-a-postal-code.page

-Lotz

[sharkkingdylan]

Off mobile

[sharkkingdylan]

It’s not the postal code, it’s the province that’s acting up

[reallynicestamps]

Did you check the postal code for Lotz or just tell us it's fine?

What happens if you put in your province as Alberta?

From a mail system point of view, the code is more important than the rest of the address, since it indicates the postal walk for the recipient.

Enter K1A 0A6 into Google Maps to see what I mean.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@sharkkingdylan wrote:
It’s not the postal code, it’s the province that’s acting up

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@reallynicestamps 

@sharkkingdylan 

Only reason I suggested that was I moved a short time ago. Updating your address in account settings does not update the ship from address in (old) listings. I inadvertently made a typo for 1 listing and that listing had an interested buyer. No shipping cost would display. As soon as I corrected the postal code the shipping options were visible.

-Lotz

[marnotom!]

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@sharkkingdylan wrote:

Off mobile

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Are you using the app or the mobile website? I’ve never used the app but the mobile website also gives me a dropdown menu for entering my province.

 

[sharkkingdylan]

I’m using the app, but even trying on the desktop site from mobile isn’t giving me the drop down options

[marnotom!]

What sort of phone are you using?  Are the operating system updates current?

[doc_scribe · Accepted solution]

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@sharkkingdylan wrote:
I’m using the app, but even trying on the desktop site from mobile isn’t giving me the drop down options

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FWIW, I don't think you're imagining this @sharkkingdylan , or doing anything wrong, regardless of device or API. 

Coincidentally, I had a conversation just yesterday with our postmaster plus at least one counter clerk. The latter was struggling with repeated error messages trying to input an address via her terminal. And NOTHING else - not even in formerly valid address formats - would validate so she was trapped in limbo on that address entry screen. Eventually, she backed out of the whole thing and started again from scratch in the New Format.

Using my own mailing addy with the CP link @lotzofuniquegoodies provided,  there seems to be a '3-ring circus' of communication happening here:

1. Sender Input, including once valid, but now extraneous address punctuation.
2. Auto-Complete 'best fit' by CP, including additional punctuation not input by the Sender, yet no longer considered valid.
3. NEW Valid Mailing Address, excluding  ALL punctuation and special characters.

The point is, this appears to be an address translation issue, with  CP's own Auto-Complete format (once the norm, but no longer) not necessarily resolving to the new format.

And how many online POS systems out there are still validating to CP's legacy Auto-Complete?

[flipistics]

I've been having issues today searching for things on eBay (half the time the searches are failing or returning blank pages). There may be some new gremlins in the system affecting all sorts of things.

[marnotom!]

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@doc_scribe wrote:

The point is, this appears to be an address translation issue, with  CP's own Auto-Complete format (once the norm, but no longer) not necessarily resolving to the new format.

And how many online POS systems out there are still validating to CP's legacy Auto-Complete?

Well, I’m not getting Canada Post’s autocomplete data when I try changing my address, and I get a dropdown set of options for my province. I asked about the OS (and probably should have asked about the browser) because I’m wondering if the address input interface is dependent on the software used by the eBay member.

[flipistics]

Every so often CP's autocomplete on their Address Complete website won't work for me on Firefox. Switching to Chrome works. Seems to usually last for a few days, then things go back to working properly again.

[doc_scribe]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@doc_scribe wrote:

The point is, this appears to be an address translation issue, with  CP's own Auto-Complete format (once the norm, but no longer) not necessarily resolving to the new format.

And how many online POS systems out there are still validating to CP's legacy Auto-Complete?

Well, I’m not getting Canada Post’s autocomplete data when I try changing my address, and I get a dropdown set of options for my province. I asked about the OS (and probably should have asked about the browser) because I’m wondering if the address input interface is dependent on the software used by the eBay member.

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Ditto @marnotom! . I'm also wondering how address Auto-Complete data, and especially translation to the new address format is being maintained across all sites and users. I mean, is eBay, or any other online host pulling directly from CP in real time - seems unlikely from a network load standpoint - or hosting a cloned address translation database of their own locally? If the latter, how is address sync across all platforms being maintained, and how often??

When I see CP's staff struggling with address validation on their own POS system, I'm reluctant to update addresses associated with my own account registration and payments...not only with eBay, or SFSB, or shipping 3rd Parties, but also Banks, Credit Cards, License Bureaus, OS/Browser Accounts, etc...

How much of our address info must match precisely at all times to not throw an error like the OP encountered?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@doc_scribe wrote:

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@doc_scribe wrote:

The point is, this appears to be an address translation issue, with  CP's own Auto-Complete format (once the norm, but no longer) not necessarily resolving to the new format.

And how many online POS systems out there are still validating to CP's legacy Auto-Complete?

Well, I’m not getting Canada Post’s autocomplete data when I try changing my address, and I get a dropdown set of options for my province. I asked about the OS (and probably should have asked about the browser) because I’m wondering if the address input interface is dependent on the software used by the eBay member.

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Ditto @marnotom! . I'm also wondering how address Auto-Complete data, and especially translation to the new address format is being maintained across all sites and users. I mean, is eBay, or any other online host pulling directly from CP in real time - seems unlikely from a network load standpoint - or hosting a cloned address translation database of their own locally? If the latter, how is address sync across all platforms being maintained, and how often??

When I see CP's staff struggling with address validation on their own POS system, I'm reluctant to update addresses associated with my own account registration and payments...not only with eBay, or SFSB, or shipping 3rd Parties, but also Banks, Credit Cards, License Bureaus, OS/Browser Accounts, etc...

How much of our address info must match precisely at all times to not throw an error like the OP encountered?

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@doc_scribe 

@marnotom! 

Several months ago just after eBay sometime after the Address Verification Tool was released  I had a sale come in from a new buyer in the USA. The address was garbled. No caps. Street number combined with street with no space. In attempting to correct, the system did not like the address. The system could not even locate the correct state. In checking Google it was a long time valid address. I confiremd with the buyer and advised to update for future purchases. (I know it could have been cancelled for bad address, but sometimes it is not worth that trouble.) I was able to update no problem with Shippo. I haven't seen the same problem since. Would be very scary to know how reliably updated the systems are when a street is changed for whatever reason anywhere Who Know's Where, World. Why it is always a good idea to Google when in doubt about any address. 

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Announcements/Introducing-Address-Validation-for-eBay-users/ba-p/487943

-Lotz

[sharkkingdylan]

I think this was probably the issue or part of it, tried doing it again and it worked no problem this time even though I changed nothing, probably just gremlins in the system lol

[doc_scribe]

What none of us are accustomed to on the 'Net is waiting - patiently - while a major database update propogates throughout the entire system of hosts, devices, apps, and users. And this change happens to be a biggie, touching everything we do that includes an address entry/validation component.

BTW, one workaround I've adopted that seems to help with CP's online Customs Form is to use Auto-Complete only to find and pre-validate an address. Before proceeding, I always go back in via 'Edit address manually' to remove all special characters (e.g. # before the unit) plus punctuation (especially commas after the City and State/Province). Just one step closer to the new address format without relying on the accuracy of translation...at this time.