AVS simple question, I think ...

[rsia23]

If AVS failes with a (addr bad, and zip bad). Does this mean that the "Bill to" address is invalid? Does it mean the credit card is a fraud? or just maybe the owner moved and didn't change his/her address? What should I do to process this sale? just decline or ask for more info? ask her to fix her bill address? The address is within the country, state is VA. Any tips or info is great, thanks again.. -Romeo

[boxman]

AVS failure could mean many things:
-- typo by the customer. If it's also the shipping address you need to correct it or the shipment might go astray.
-- billing address is really the customer's office, or parents' house, and the customer did not pay attention to the instructions on your order form.
-- the billing address is a PO box but the customer input her street address because she thinks you will ship UPS which does not deliver to PO boxes ... and she did not pay attention to the instructions on your order form.
-- the address is Aunt Betsy's house because it's a surprise for her mother ... or it's the office and the billing address is home ... or it's a neighbor's house who is home during the day ... and the customer did not pay attention to the instructions on your order form.
-- customer recently moved, and has not bothered to update the address in the issuing bank's records.
-- the address is a PO box or has an unusual format, and the issuing bank's system has not parsed it correctly, so that the AVS system can't return a match.
-- bank records are wrong. A few years ago, this was a constant problem with small banks and credit unions, though now false negatives have become very rare for me at least. But it's still possible.
-- the order is fraudulent (though most fraudsters know the billing address, and fraud is not the most likely scenario.)

Your likely remedy is as follows:
-- check the address: does it exist? What is the real zip code for that street address? (Sometimes you can spot a typo and fix it without even calling the customer. People can absent-mindedly type their business zip code instead of home or whatever.) Does the address reverse-lookup to someone, and if so, is it the customer?
-- call or email the customer as a courtesy to inquire, stating politely that your bank requires an accurate billing address to be on file before you ship orders. To simply drop the order without comment would be very bad customer service. Unless you are selling in a high-fraud category, 90% of the time you can sort it out, and the order will turn out to be legitimate.
-- get the real billing address, and send a written order confirmation form there if the risk is high.
-- if it looks fishy after investigation, don't ship

[rsia23]

I forgot to include this info, both the billing address and shipping address is the same, only the name is different. I guess husband and wife? Yahoo saw the street but flaged it as street not found. But we all know how yahoo sometimes misses some streets. I will try and contact the customers just to verify. tnx

[martyt]

AVS uses *only* the numeric portion of the address, up to the first non-numeric character, plus the ZIP code (5 or 9 digits). Nothing more, nothing less.

Authorize.net allows you to configure the AVS check so that it will reject on any of several combinations of bad address and/or bad zip. Other gateways may do the same. The signifigance of this is that you *might* have your gateway configured to reject orders where the Zip+4 doesn't match while allowing orders where the ZIP alone is OK. So the customer could enter 99999-1234, get the ZIP correct, screw up the "1234" and still get a rejection.

Review your AVS reject settings and make sure they make sense.

Beyond that, send an e-mail to the customer and ask them to verify that the address they provided is *exactly* the same as the address to which their credit card statement is sent -- even if it's not the "correct" address. Ask them if they recently had a ZIP code change (which happens *frequently* these days) -- maybe it changed and the bank still has the old ZIP.

If the customer replies that everything is OK as-is, then it's your call as to whether you want to process the order or not. I usually override the AVS reject after talking to the customer to verify the order is legitimate.

If you want to look up the address, use the USPS web site www.usps.com and make sure the address and ZIP match and are correct for the city given. It's a lot more accurate than anything you'll find on Yahoo or elsewhere.

[rsia23]

Yeah, after emailing the customer she said that they moved last december and the credit card had the old address.

The AVS did fail on the address and zip btw.

At this point, i will just go ahead and ask her to give me the old address. Just so I can verify that she is telling the truth and email her the item.