Not always seeing VERIFIED ADDRESS when purchasing labels...

[PristinityJewelry]

Not always seeing "verified address" when purchasing Etsy labels.  Consequently, that maybe means not seeing "unverified address" too?

The good news...I'm seeing seeing some addresses how up with customer's phone number available.

[AmoreTreasure]

This bug, at least I assume it is a bug, has been happening in my shop for a few weeks.  There have been a few threads about it.  Edits are sometimes flagging addresses as unverified over stupid things like not abbreviating "Avenue" to "Ave".  Also, doesn't appear to even be trying to validate other addresses as there is no indication if they are verified or unverified.  Work around, for either case, is to go into Edit on that address, DO NOTHING, and save it.  This seems to trigger the address to then be verified (as it worked before this bug so things like "Avenue" will be automatically abbreviated to "Ave") or, if it ends up truly being unverified, will indicate as such.

[CanningCrafts]

I've experienced this for weeks too & think it's an Etsy bug. The majority of my orders are missing the verified address icon and also the "Buyer Expects By" date. If I have a repeat customer who is missing the address verification icon, I can look at their purchase history & the icon is there... but missing on prior orders. So that makes it seem like a glitch. 

[cutebutton]

yeah it's weird.  I don't understand why some of the addresses show verified as normal and some show nothing but when you click edit and then save without changing anything they show verified.  Such a weird glitch.  Luckily it's an easy and quick fix as far as being able to get them to show verified.

I haven't seen any phone numbers on any orders yet so that is interesting. As far as the phone number goes, I know on amazon when the order shows a phone number it says something about it being for amazon's use only or maybe for the shipping carriers use only and I can't use it to call anyone.  I don't remember the exact wording but just because there is a phone number I personally wouldn't call them. 

[AmoreTreasure]

The buyer phone number would be a very welcome addition for international orders.  Sometimes, packages get held at local post offices awaiting payment of import taxes and a phone number would give the post office a way of contacting the buyer (as well as the email address).  Hopefully, if Etsy does allow buyers to enter the phone number on orders, they will pass it along to Pirate Ship for inclusion on the label as there is a spot for it.

[RebecaMojicaJewelry]

@AmoreTreasure Yes!!!  This would be great. I recently had an international customer message me 5 days after placing an order, asking if I could add the phone number to the package, but I'd already shipped the order 4 days prior. (And this had turned out to be a problem order, so a phone number could've been very helpful!)

[BeaconwoodDettman]

I don't think this is necessarily an Etsy glitch. An order I got yesterday had it; I got two orders on Saturday, and only one had it. 

Addresses can be tricky, I do like seeing the "USPS Verified" but there are cases where a correct address doesn't show that. New housing developments are one example. I've also seen where the buyer puts something like "Unit 2 Back" where you would put an apartment number, and that makes sense to the local post office, and the local carrier - they will know exactly what that means, and the buyer knows that, but the official postal address database may not have that on file.

A local example - the east to west roads in my neighborhood are numbered avenues - up the road from me is Dowling Ave. N - Google calls this "38th Ave N.", which is technically correct - it's in between 37th and 39th avenues - but if you say 38th Ave. N. to anyone, they won't understand what you are talking about - the street signs, the exit of the interstate all say Dowling. I've also seen where 55432 shows up as "Minneapolis" - it's not, it's Spring Lake Park, two different cities, two different counties. 

At the end of the day, I send to the address the buyer puts in. If something is really weird, I check with them, but I can't remember the last time I did that. 

[AmoreTreasure]

Maybe not necessarily a glitch but it is for sure a known bug.  This bug has been showing up daily for me for the past several weeks.  In the past, if USPS did not recognize the address, it was flagged as unverified.  It may be something like a new development and USPS just hasn't caught up yet but in another example, people will enter a street address but are in an area where USPS doesn't deliver and only accepts P.O. box numbers.  I think you are taking a chance by sending to the buyer when unverified as I have run into many instances over the years where the address is truly not valid and I really don't want to deal with a lost or returned package.

As a note, in your "Spring Lake Park" example, the "main" post office is Minneapolis so in at least parts of the USPS system, the zip code for Spring Lake Park will show up as Minneapolis.  I know this because I live in "Blaine" (for those not in the area, it's a northern Minneapolis suburb right next to "Spring Lake Park") and have the same situation for my zip code where USPS treats the city as Minneapolis.  When I give out my return address, I use "Minneapolis" because customers had sometimes run into problems buying postage at the post office with "Blaine" as the city as they were  told my valid zip code was invalid. 

[CanningCrafts]

The abbreviations can definitely cause the verified icon to disappear. But this bug isn't about that. Right now I have a repeat customer who's address is like 123 Main St. In the past, I could assume St may change to Street. But if I look at her prior purchases, the address is exactly the same with "St" & it's verified. It's the same address with the same abbreviation. Yet one order is flagged & the other isn't.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

USPS recently updated some softward for addresses.  However addresses have to be entered exactly as USPS says it should be written.  So Avenue has to be Ave.  and North has to be N.  whatever abbreviations are for the address.  They system never changed spelled out words to the format accepted by USPS.

So when addresses are not verified, I usually looked to see what needed to be changed.  Sometimes USPS would give me an alternative but not always.  There were times I had to look up the address to see what the abbreviations or order should be such as the buyer wrote 124 N.Street when the correct form was 124 Street N.  .  Usually once I made the change, it would verify.

Now new developments or changes to developments may not appear right away even if the resident was notified of the change.  I had that once too and had to wrangle with USPS about the address.  They agreed the update to the database was just then hitting the database.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

And just to add sometimes I couldn't correct so I shipped and the items got there quickly with no issue.  Judgement call of course.

[AmoreTreasure]

this is a bug in ETSY software! For whatever reason, their validation software isn’t triggered when you first go in to generate shipping labels.  The work around as mentioned in my above post triggers the code. Once triggered it appears to work just as it had prior to this bug.

[cutebutton]

@ArtDollsbyJD 

This isn’t what you are mentioning.  The addresses are 100% correctwith no changes needed, not even simple changes. The problem isn’t  that they are showing unverified, it’s that they don’t show anything but if you click edit and make no changes it all the sudden it will show verified. 

[BagmakerSupply]

This issue sounds like Etsy is saving on API calls (and possibly money) by not automatically verifying addresses.

[cutebutton]

@BagmakerSupply 

I doubt that’s it. in my situation about 50% of the addresses will show verified and the other 50% nothing but when you do the”fix” for the problem they are verified. So it’s not that Etsy hasn’t verified the address.  It’s just some orders don’t initially show the info correctly. 

[GielDesigns]

I ran into this a couple of weeks ago and learned to use the same work-around as @AmoreTreasure .

It's most definitely a bug.

[TheDogsCollarsUK]

I don't use Etsy labels but this glitch appears to stem from USPS. Checking a correct address on the USPS Zip Code Lookup is returning  'Unfortunately, this information wasn't found. Please double-check it and try again' error.  If the page is reloaded and the address resubmitted, only then it will be verified.  This issue is almost certainly being replicated via Etsy's shipping integration with USPS. 

[AmoreTreasure]

OR it's a coincidence since USPS software has always seemed to be glitchy yet this Etsy bug is relatively new.  If this were within USPS then why, when you use the workaround, that is hit "edit" on the address, do nothing and save, it ALWAYS triggers the validation edit?  Something on Etsy is not triggering as it should.

[GielDesigns]

I just had a set of duplicate orders come in (waiting to hear if the buyer wants 1 or 2 of this item). The orders have the same info for the same item and are going to the same address. One came in verified but the other came in with the "Unconfirmed!" warning??  Of course, when I used the work-around, without making a change, it switched to verified.  smh.....

[HeritageDecor]

I have been having the same issue. Hit "EDIT" then scroll down to save without touching any of the info and it will then work to verify or not the address.

[Hertfordweaver]

I had just one the other day. I checked it on google maps and it was valid. I guess that will be my procedure should it occur again.