Ship to billing address... drives me nuts!

Ship to billing address... drives me nuts! EDIT- no more half.com for me!

I'm all for the added protection of only having vendors ship to the billing address... but there's gotta be another way!

I'm at college. My shipping addresses can either be my PO Box, or my dorm (physical address), or my parents' house, which is an hour away. I had to change my check card and my credit card's billing address to my PO Box... not a big deal.

So, lets go to newegg! Damn, they only send fedex or UPS, meaning no PO Box. Ok, fine. Change billing address to my dorm. Oh snap son, USPS won't deliver to my dorm, just the campus post office, so if Wells Fargo needs to send me something about my check card or credit card, I never recieve it.

Last week, ordered 2 textbooks off half.com. They don't list who they ship by, just 'media mail/expedited'. Naturally, as I NEED these books, I pay for expedited. I found out TODAY that my dorm doesn't accept USPS packages, and that USPS doesn't even try... Still no word from the 2 half.com vendors on how they ship. If they ship USPS, it'll be returned to sender. FedEx or UPS, all is good.

The big problem is that they give an EIGHT DAY window as to when it will be delivered. AND they say it could be up to TWO days longer. So, I have to wait till between Feb 7th or the 9th before I can OFFICIALLY file for a refund or what have you.

I NEED these books ASAP. I'm already supposed to have read 3 chapters out of one, and half a test coming up on monday in the other subject. I don't have the money to buy the books locally now... And who knows how long it'll take for a refund.

How has Amazon survived?! I ordered various things from their last semester... from an Antec computer case to CD's, to a few books. Each case I had them bill to the PO box address, and ship to the dorm via UPS/Fedex, and everything was awesome!

This was my 2nd go around with buying books off the net to save some bills... yeah the first time I was sent the wrong edition... This SUCKS!

mdameron said:

I found out TODAY that my dorm doesn't accept USPS packages, and that USPS doesn't even try... Still no word from the 2 half.com vendors on how they ship. If they ship USPS, it'll be returned to sender. FedEx or UPS, all is good.

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That's crazy...

I'm also at college, and I've gotten stuff from Newegg fine. I have my box number as simply "#x", not "Box X". Haven't had any issues with non-PO Box shippers yet.

Yeah.. Thats pretty typical. Often they wont ship to P.O. Boxes... Often because someone needs to sign for it..

We write MS# on it.. Cause we have a mail stop. But when they get deliveries they can usually sign for it.

My roomies Opty can't be shipped here.. AND its signed signature confirmation to his house.. which is no good cause there probably won't be anyone there...

All this kinda sucks huh?

thats sucks, the off campus dorms i live in have people always in the front office who will accept packages and then they call us letting us know that we have a package to pick up in the office, and pretty much every place will bring stuff here. also i normally am able to order from ZZF and get it sent to here even though my billing address is still back in PA about 1000miles from here. just don't use paypal. thats about the only thing i can do unless the seller is willing to ship it to me where i'm at because of it.

mdameron said:

Oh snap son...

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Who says this?!

MonroeM said:

Who says this?!

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Bernie Mac? LMAO

Along these lines, I had a guy today put in an obviously fraudulent $1,100 order. His IP was in the Netherlands, his customer info was some guy in Kentucky, the credit card billing address was an RV park in Texas, and the shipping address is some place in Pennsylvania. To top it off, he/she tried 3 different cards before one finally worked.

This is a prime example of why we don't like to ship anywhere but the billing address. Scammers aren't always as amazingly stupid as this one, so they aren't always easy to spot. The only way for us to be completely safe is to refuse to ship anywhere but the billing address - as annoying as that is!

I know with my CC you can put multiple addresses on the card for such these cases. Or at least I could a while back so I could have it shipped to my parents place if I was going to be there or to my APT when I was there. Either way it was very nice when I had to do that.

Might want to check and see if they have such an option, because then the billing/shipping address would be the same even if its not your primary address.

TankGuys said:

Along these lines, I had a guy today put in an obviously fraudulent $1,100 order. His IP was in the Netherlands, his customer info was some guy in Kentucky, the credit card billing address was an RV park in Texas, and the shipping address is some place in Pennsylvania. To top it off, he/she tried 3 different cards before one finally worked.

This is a prime example of why we don't like to ship anywhere but the billing address. Scammers aren't always as amazingly stupid as this one, so they aren't always easy to spot. The only way for us to be completely safe is to refuse to ship anywhere but the billing address - as annoying as that is!

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Bingo.

In a nutshell, this is standard vendor practice in an effort to protect you and themselves. Believe it or not, you have little-to-no online protection from theft unless you use a credit card (and I don't mean a debit/"check" card with a VISA logo). I'm sure that this can be a little inconvenient for some, but it is a necessary measure to make everyone's lives (and our pockets) better.

deception``

MonroeM said:

Who says this?!

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I do when I'm feeling overly ****ed off and sarcastic.

UPDATE

1 of the 2 half.com shops have responded to my initial question. They ship media mail, which is USPS. Which means the box is on its way back. Instead of using ebay messages, i used that email address they sent to me to try for a refund.

The other shop hasn't responded two 2 different messages, and I just sent the third.

Neither shop has a phone number or email address listed, and one of them doesn't answer the only form of communication thats possible!



New rant... to send an ebay message, you get one of those dumbass "Type the series of number you see to the left into this box". WTF does that prevent? Automated fill out thingies? Ok.... so why in the HELL do they make it so hard to read the characters? I have to do 2 or 3 of the tests because I CAN'T EVEN READ THEM! Do automated fill out thingies scan pictures and input what they see? So, a few lazy asses make everyone else's life harder. Swwwwwwwwwwwweet.

mdameron said:

New rant... to send an ebay message, you get one of those dumbass "Type the series of number you see to the left into this box". WTF does that prevent? Automated fill out thingies? Ok.... so why in the HELL do they make it so hard to read the characters? I have to do 2 or 3 of the tests because I CAN'T EVEN READ THEM! Do automated fill out thingies scan pictures and input what they see? So, a few lazy asses make everyone else's life harder. Swwwwwwwwwwwweet.

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Those are to prevent spam and other annoying mass-messages. No offense, but those take all of 2 ~ 3 seconds and they make your inboxes a lot less full. Moreover, it seems as if you are making it a pattern to make large complaints about what are considered by many to be minor annoyances.

deception``

deception`` said:

Moreover, it seems as if you are making it a pattern to make large complaints about what are considered to be many to be minor annoyances.

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Like dark-blue text against a dark-gray background. =P

MonroeM said:

Like dark-blue text against a dark-gray background. =P

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Edited for clarity

deception``

deception`` said:

Those are to prevent spam and other annoying mass-messages. No offense, but those take all of 2 ~ 3 seconds and they make your inboxes a lot less full. Moreover, it seems as if you are making it a pattern to make large complaints about what are considered by many to be minor annoyances.

deception``

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Making them hard to read aids in prevention of spam? Tell me how!

mdameron said:

Making them hard to read aids in prevention of spam? Tell me how!

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No offense, but I don't respond very favorably to the sarcasm of others. All you need to know is that there are tools in place for a reason, and they are more than likely there to protect yours (and their) interests with no itent to annoy.

deception``

mdameron said:

No defense, but I don't respond very favorably to e-people telling me what to focus my attention on. The tools in place could be done another way. I'd like to know how a jpeg with blurry text with lines through it helps stop spam better than a clear jpeg. Enlighten me, I'm all ears on this effective tool. It's not a minor annoyance if you keep getting it wrong because they make them hard to read.

It is great that it stops spam, sure. I love the guy who made the idea. Spam sucks, I'll have his babies. But when the only way you can talk to someone is sending petty ebay messages... with which you have to read scattered, blurry text with lines through it, it becomes more than a minor annoyance.

At the end of the day, I'm pretty sure you can find something else in life to focus your attention on besides a few hints of e-sarcasm. In light of my issue here with these two half.com store, I found another thing that bugs me... and decided to post about it in my own 'Vendor Discussion' thread. You respond 'You're stupid because they are effective tools', with no mention of how they work or why they look like they do.

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Sorry pal, but I did not attack you nor did I accuse you of being stupid; all I stated was that, in my opinion, there's really more things on the net to complain about (for example, paypal holding funds unfairly) than your little issue here. You are welcome to express your opinions (as you did here), and I should be able to express mine without you going on the defensive.

And to be fair, I did not properly answer your question - these tools I spoke of obviously are not fool-proof, but the general belief is that a person with a long list of e-mails or user-names cannot send mass-messages through them when you have to use that sort of authentication. Granted, an individual could literally sit there and squint through each one in order, but this is a very simple (and arguably effective) measure which is meant to deter spam of a more automatic nature.

deception``

Deleted my apology on accident

Sorry again deception.

mdameron said:

Deleted my apology on accident

Sorry again deception.

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No problem. I edited my post as well.

deception``

Well I ordered two books. One is $20, one was $90.

The shop that I bought the $20 one through just emailed me saying that I gave a bad address, so the refund will be partial. They didn't say WHEN or HOW MUCH partial means though... irks me a little bit. This game of email tag has got to go...

EDIT: And I don't disagree with the partial payment since this is technically my fault... really depends on how much "partial" means. No way should they take half the price of the book, thats for sure.

Wish there would have been clarification to exactly WTF 'Media Mail/Expedited' really means... If they would have posted USPS instead and shipped to an address other than billing, I could have just had it go to the P.O. Box and be studying right now

Since most crap I buy online is through newegg/zzf and whatnot... and they use mainly FedEx and UPS, i'll STILL keep my billing address at the dorm I guess...

TankGuys said:

Along these lines, I had a guy today put in an obviously fraudulent $1,100 order. His IP was in the Netherlands, his customer info was some guy in Kentucky, the credit card billing address was an RV park in Texas, and the shipping address is some place in Pennsylvania. To top it off, he/she tried 3 different cards before one finally worked.

This is a prime example of why we don't like to ship anywhere but the billing address. Scammers aren't always as amazingly stupid as this one, so they aren't always easy to spot. The only way for us to be completely safe is to refuse to ship anywhere but the billing address - as annoying as that is!

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That's great! I'm glad this system does work... Just for us college kids it can be a kind of a pain, though it's better than no protection!

deathman20 said:

I know with my CC you can put multiple addresses on the card for such these cases. Or at least I could a while back so I could have it shipped to my parents place if I was going to be there or to my APT when I was there. Either way it was very nice when I had to do that.

Might want to check and see if they have such an option, because then the billing/shipping address would be the same even if its not your primary address.

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Wells Fargo (who has both my checking account/check card and my credit card) doesn't do this unfortunately. It would be awesome if they did though! I even went in and talked to a banker... no go.