Your address doesn't exist

We've moved. We've notified the post office, and are sending out address change information to customers and friends. We've also tried changing our address on-line or by phone when possible.

Sometimes this was easy. Sometimes it wasn't. The worst was Cingular, which refused to change anything because, according to their computer, our new address doesn't exist. It's a new road, so it's not in their database yet. Their programmers apparently never anticipated this possibility, so the new address simply can't be entered. Let's hope that gets resolved before the Post Office forwarding expires.

I had the same problem with Discover Card. Their automated voice system wanted to find my address to verify that it understands what I said, and of course it can not. So I got stuck in "Let's try that again - please say the street address again" and several variations. This went on far longer than seemed reasonable to me, but I did eventually get to a human who apparently could type in an unverified address.

Searching maps on-line for the new address turns up some strange results. Yahoo maps politely says it can't be found, but shows a map of the center of town. Google maps pinpoints "Tac-9 Radio" on North Main Street in Randolph, MA, an entirely different street in an entirely different town. Typing other incorrect addresses into Google Maps produces the expected "Your search did not match any locations"; I don't know why my address sends it to Randolph.

Google Earth and other satellite views do show what might be the outline of the street, though faintly, so it was perhaps still unpaved when the satellite took its picture. Or perhaps I'm just seeing an old trail in the woods, who knows? Google says its sattelite data is approximately two years old, so it may be a while before I can see my house from space.

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3 comments

Wed Jan 4 13:32:33 2006: 1475   BigDumbDinosaur


In other words, all these computers are saying that Linda and you are homeless. <Grin>



Wed Jan 4 18:31:44 2006: 1476   TonyLawrence


I prefer to think that we are very well hidden..





Mon Apr 1 00:03:53 2013: 12001   anonymous




Some online services suck!!! exact same problem. I enter my zip code on a website, it then asks for my address and has the gull to tell me that my address doesn't coincide with my zip code? I just looked it up on the postal website. They know it exists, but the other website doesn't. Sooooooooo frustrating!!!

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