Buyer addresses/info

[player-0ne]

         I think it would be very helpful if the ui for inputting shipping addresses on the buyer's side would auto-correct for formatting and checking for legitimate addresses. Also it should be required to input an email address and phone number as phone numbers are required in some shipping situations as well as when opening a case with canada post. It is a detriment to my efficiency when I am required to message a buyer for additional information.

Just my thoughts, Eric.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@player-0ne 

tyler@ebay 

Valid reasonable suggestions.

-Lotz

[player-0ne]

I was wondering what Ebay's thoughts on the matter were.

tyler@ebay

-Eric

[recped]

Sellers have complained about this since the earliest days of eBay, nothing significant has ever been done to improve things. I feel this is mostly because to eBay it's the US way or no way, in spite of being an international company I'm not sure if even now they understand that address formats do not all follow the patterns set by USPS.

All buyer must provide an email address, you can't open an eBay account without one. Telephone numbers are optional as they should be, they are unnecessary for domestic transactions, rarely needed for International and even in those cases a number of major markets forbid the exposure of private personal information such as telephone numbers.

I just checked my last 100 sales, only 5 did not include the buyer telephone number, 1 Italian, 2 French and 3 German (the German ones were provided by the buyer but blocked by eBay due to German privacy laws).

[pjcdn2005]

You can check off your options to 'always ask for a phone number'  although I don't know if it is really worth insisting unless it is something that you need fairly often.  The option is available in account / site preferences/  shipping preferences.

https://www.ebay.ca/ship/prf

[pjcdn2005]

US sellers often complain about the same thing. Even for US addresses there is sometimes information missing or a wrong zip code.

[reallynicestamps]

Since I rarely use tracking, I have taken to looking up and adding the four digit zipcode extension to US addresses.

I'm not sure if it does any good, but I understand that while a zipcode can cover a huge area, the extension pulls it down to a single "postal walk" for the carrier.