[rexf]

Address validation is not 100% reliable, so systems should have an override "Yes, this is my address" option. Unfortunately many forms assume address validation is foolproof, so there is no mechanism for entering in your actual address. It just gets rejected.

As a customer, I wanted to buy something and the website wouldn't accept my address (since it wouldn't accept any "/" characters). Guess what? There are plenty of addresses in the US with "/", such as 50 1/2 Foobar Street. Address validation does not always work, so companies shouldn't act that way.

[curiousgal]

Try living in a newly built building. Every developer seems to be under the impression that if an address doesn't exist in the Google maps API, then it doesn't exist at all.

[nibbleshifter]

Or streets subdivided into clusters of houses with their own numbering systems for legacy reasons.

"4 Blah Terrace", "4 Foo View", and "4 Bar Lawn" are all within 100m of each other, have the first half of the postcode the same, etc.

Google Maps/etc can't handle this at all.

[thejosh]

Or subdivided houses are common here in Australia, where it's suddenly 11B Some Street.

[collinmanderson]

Yes. I’ve stumbled upon some organizations in small towns in the US that want all postal mail going to their PO Box, nothing going to their physical address.

The small-town post office will sometimes _delete_ the physical address in the mail system so the actualy physical address is completely in-valid (or worse gets autocorrected to an address a mile away).

Turns out FedEx and UPS base their address validation off USPS and also don’t ship to PO Boxes.