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I’ve used a well known and trusted bike retailer for years with no problems. An order I put in on Monday has just been delivered to my previous address, despite me living here for 3 years and having had loads of stuff sent here from them in that time. I also used Apple Pay, which uses this address as my billing address.
Ive emailed the retailer to ask them to sort it as I assume the issue is at their end. Am still awaiting a reply so won’t say who it is - mistakes do happen and the proof in the pudding will be how they deal with it.
My question is for any nerds who might know what sort of problem might cause something like this? What could cause their system to default to an out of date address (including clearing the billing to the wrong address)?
Alpkit did it to me once. Invoice and everything was correct.
Old address will just one keyboards slip away whne printing would be my guess.
Apple Pay is the likely suspect, I've been caught out before filling in the correct address only for it to default to whatever ApplePay was feeling at the time.
Depends on the ecommerce platform, but they might not see the billing address details from Apple Pay (just "paid by Apple Pay"). As joshvegas said, just a slip when packing it.
Apple Pay is the likely suspect, I've been caught out before filling in the correct address only for it to default to whatever ApplePay was feeling at the time.
I had this happen to me - I'd used Apple Pay for months at the new address and then one day it reverted back to the old address for some reason. I always double check addresses!
The weird thing is that neither the order confirmation email nor the dispatch notice have an address on them so I'm not sure how I was supposed to know where they were sending my stuff.
I had this when I'd accidentally clicked through and used PayPal, it defaulted to my work address which I had left a few months before.
Well, time to name and shame. Emailed Merlin about it last week and their response today is ‘we have that address on file, bad luck’. No attempt to figure out what the problem is. Not even a hint of contrition. Have looked over their emails and there’s no address confirmation in there so I don’t know how I’m supposed to know a mistake has been made until I realise the stuff hasn’t arrived.
A bit of a poor show from them.
I can see on the website that they’ve used the wrong billing address - will this give me redress to at least get my money back?
eBay is terrible for this.
As a user your address is held in 3, possibly 4, different data fields.
Nerxt time you print a postage label, double check the teeny tiny return address. I'll give you a clue, its not the same as the address your eBay account is registered to, or your chosen postage address, or the address you have specificed in your payment account, or the address for your cardholder details etc.
We moved into this house 10 years ago. eBay still, somewhere completely mysterious, has the old postcode in its system and gives it as the location for some (not all) things I sell. I've just tried creating a listing here and it's correct, so maybe it only does it when I create them on the phone or iPad [shrugs]
As they have sen t to the correct address before then they have no excuse IMO - have you got the stuff? If not chargeback or paypal dispute
OP - have you checked your Merlin account for the available addresses?
They will be under 'my account' > 'my addresses'
Which ones are highlighted as the defaults (radio buttons selected)? The current address or an old one?
Dunno - but maybe this was a simple case of ordering without fully checking the details?
I would delete from your account any old addresses, which should help in future?
I have just tried a purchase through to the checkout screen. It has chosen the addresses for billing & delivery that have radio buttons next to them in the 'my addresses' section.
It also has the option to edit addresses if they are not correct. It would be very strange if those details were correct at the time of order, that they would then be changed prior to despatch. But, perhaps not impossible.
You can also go into your orders & see the details for a specific order. Have you checked in there that they are the correct details?
To be clear, I definitely did not select any other addresses and my current address is the default on their system. I also used Apple Pay which has only this address saved. I’ve used them 15 times since I moved here and everything came to the right address. The only record I have of the address that they sent it to is in the account section of their website. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect me to check that every time.
I just delete old addresses. After one major retailer merged with another and managed to royally screw up ALL the addresses.
Ended up with either my uk street and number and Swedish Town, County and Postcode. Or maybe the other way round. Anyway, i noticed as my bank here does some sort of a sniff test on name and address matching and flagged it up (refused payment).
Also means i can't order from some UK retailers as the payment portal they have won't accept åöä, so my home address is either spelt wrong to the retailer and *they* reject it due to a gibberish address, or i use aoa and my swedish bank rejects it...
I've had a few weirdnesses happen over the years
Once got a box of books sent to me out of the blue from a wholesaler. Not someone I'd even knowingly done buisness with - called them to query and seemingly a book I'd ordered years previously via an Amazon Marketplace seller had been dispatched by them and my address had seemingly lurked in their system since then - and then years later somehow may address and the address of a major London art gallery had somehow got swapped over. But only for dispatch, not for invoicing. So if the gallery ordered stock they'd be billed for it but the books would be sent to me. Should have kept schtum 🙂
Also once ordered some equipment to be delivered to a site I was working at on the the other sided of the country. So delivery address was the site address and billing was my home address where the card was registered.
It took longer to arrive than expected - when it did turn up the delivery address was a weird jumbled mix of both addresses - street name from one, town/city from other - even the postcode was half home address half site address. I'm not actually sure how it even got delivered
Best one though was a letter my partners mum received which didn't have and address on but described her as an artist 'the nice lady artist' and a description of the sort of paintings she paints, that works in the studio with the wooden shutters by the harbour and the name of the town. And not only did it arrive, but instead of going the 'the studio by the harbour' (where there are actually a couple of dozen other art studios) it was delivered to her at home several miles away. The can't be many people the post office could to deliver to simply by describing the recipients attributes.
The onus is on the retailer to ensure safe delivery. You don't have the goods. Seems cut and dried to me.
The onus is on the retailer to ensure safe delivery. You don't have the goods. Seems cut and dried to me.
and the Retailer has ensured safe delivery to the address they have. Was that the fault with retailer, Apple Pay or OP for inputting the wrong address?
the issue is why was the address incorrect. Not blaming the OP but maybe (for whatever reason) the website or Apple Pay defaulted to the old address and the OP never noticed at check out? The onus is on you to check you have input the correct details. My Amazon account has various family members addresses saved for birthdays etc and a couple of different payment methods so I always check I have selected the correct address/payment method when ordering and not assumed it will be correct. Once or twice I have ordered on wrong payment method or had something go to my mum by mistake as I didn’t check properly at checkout. it happens. The Op said above “ I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect me to check that every time.” I think telling the retailer where to send your order is kinda important for every order, hence the need to double check each time.
Are you saying that with every online purchase, even with retailers who have regularly sent you stuff to the same address for 3 years you click through to your account settings, find your order and double check they haven’t randomly chosen the wrong address just in case?
No, I think he's saying that you should always double check it through the checkout process, as it could be pulled through from different places (including Apply Pay) into the address fields linked directly to the order. Thus it gives you a chance to double check that those fields have been populated correctly.
Are you saying that with every online purchase, even with retailers who have regularly sent you stuff to the same address for 3 years you click through to your account settings, find your order and double check they haven’t randomly chosen the wrong address just in case?
Well usually whenever i order something, at some point it will show me or allow me to change the address im sending it to. I do my best to check its accurate. TBH I can sometimes be a bit slapdash about it, but I understand its my responsibility to provide accurate instructions to the retailer.
The can't be many people the post office could to deliver to simply by describing the recipients attributes.
i got a postcard delivered that was addressed to a description of where i lived
I feel I need to say this again. I did not give the retailer the wrong address! I have my current address set as a default on their website and used a payment method that only has my current address attached to it. I spent a good half an hour on the phone to Apple today and they cannot find a trace anywhere of my old address in my account. THE APPLE PAY POP UP HAD MY CORRECT ADDRESS ON IT.
eBay is terrible for this.
Huh? eBay clearly shows where an item is being sent to a couple of times in the checkout process.
The only times I've every had something sent to the wrong address is when I've not been paying attention.
No, I think he's saying that you should always double check it through the checkout process, as it could be pulled through from different places (including Apply Pay) into the address fields linked directly to the order. Thus it gives you a chance to double check that those fields have been populated correctly.
Which is fine but when it happened to me every single step had the correct address. Invoice etc all correct. The error happened somewhere back of house. The problem the OP has is they can't find any address anywhere isn't it? So if they can't find the address, there is a history of correct delivery, there os no record of old address on applepay who is at fault?
I'd say shop. If they don't have a written record that has been "accepted by the customer" its their word against them. Which would be the invoice not whether or not something was checked on screen. As the customer is not privvy to the system the shop can't turn roind and say "you accepted it" without having some evidence of what was accepted.
Which is fine but when it happened to me every single step had the correct address. Invoice etc all correct. The error happened somewhere back of house. The problem the OP has is they can't find any address anywhere isn't it? So if they can't find the address, there is a history of correct delivery, there os no record of old address on applepay who is at fault?
Some systems just seem to get haunted by stray data I think. Since moving house about 3 years ago I've updated my account info with amazon everywhere I can find to update it - delivery address, billing addresses for the various cards linked to it (its a Prime Business Account), overall account holders info. Never have a problem with deliveries going to the old address, but roughly 1/3rd of the VAT invoices they generate have my old address on them rather than the current one but theres nowhere left for me update info to correct that and there doesnt seem to be to any pattern to suggest why it happens with some transactions and not others.
I mean we get examples of that on this site - my user name, as entered when I created the account, should be capitalised - 'MacCruiskeen'. But it doesn't, and has never, display with capitals in the forum. However it does if I comment on a story on the front page. Thats only something that only happens to people who created their account around the same time as me. Older and newer accounts don't behave in the same way.
STW did exist as two sites really rather than one, with forum and front-page being different entities and thats what made rebuilding and relaunching the site so onerous. But its persisted as a 'thing' through the various mark eating his shorts rebuilds and relaunches of the site so somewhere theres a bit of data pertianing to my profile, and profiles of the same era, that is haunting the new version of the site
After reading this thread, I've just checked my Merlin account and for some reason, it has three addresses listed for the same address we've been in for years while buying from Merlin, with the middle one being selected for both billing and delivery!
I've never had Apple Pay, but I was under the impression that paying by PayPal defaults to the delivery address held at PayPal.
I mean we get examples of that on this site - my user name, as entered when I created the account, should be capitalised - 'MacCruiskeen'. But it doesn't, and has never, display with capitals in the forum. However it does if I comment on a story on the front page. Thats only something that only happens to people who created their account around the same time as me. Older and newer accounts don't behave in the same way.
IIRC there was a move to simplify usernames for IMHO fairly contentious reasons, so I think you're right here in that "newer" accounts got stripped of things like spaces and capitals in a way that older ones did not.
Of note however is that username and display name are two different things. You should be able to change it in profile settings, though the site handles this inconsistently.