[I also tweeted this here (my second tweet about the issue) but Twitter is going through a rough time right now so I figured I should blog it, too]
Before moving in June of 2021 I created a list of every service or organization that had my address so I knew what I needed to update after moving. The update process was a huge pain in the butt, as one might expect. It took about two weeks for Loudoun County to process the paperwork for the sale so it was well into July before most 3rd party systems were up-to-date. USPS was updated pretty quickly and I have a feeling that was due to the builder submitting that information ahead of time. There were a couple items that took some extra time and action on my part, though:
- A Bank
- Best Buy
- FedEx Delivery Manager [the topic of this blog entry]
After 6+ weeks Google still did not have my street address in the system. It had the street itself but not the unit number, which was a little weird. After awhile I just submitted an update to Google Maps and manually placed my unit number on the map. Within a day it was updated. This unblocked a variety of services that use Google Maps data for address verification. I noticed another builder in the area had this pre-populated on Google Maps even though the homes were still under construction.
A bank (out of many others that I had no issue with), which will remain nameless, required me to call to their technical support line to update my address. They kinda blamed me for doing things wrong to begin with but then magically it was updated.
Best Buy, of all things, took a few months to recognize my address. I’m not sure what 3rd party system they use for address verification but this one remained on the list for awhile.
The last one is still broken but I don’t think it’s just broken for me. FedEx appears to have a few different uncoordinated systems that can store user profiles and FedEx Delivery Manager appears to be a standalone one. It’s similar to UPS My Choice in that one can select preferences for where packages are held or delivered and some other options. It doesn’t appear to have all the functionality of UPS My Choice (e.g. the notifications when a label is created for an inbound package, which is really useful) but still is nice to have. It wouldn’t accept my address for months and I went back & forth with someone on Twitter about this who indicated I needed to call technical support, which I did but then I couldn’t figure out how to speak to a human. I finally just left it on the list as “broken” and called everything done.
Over a year later after FedEx randomly delivered a package to my garage, which is kinda stupid since the front of my unit is directly on a street and package thefts are not prevalant in the area, I decided to give it another try. Nope, it still gave me an error. I decided to try it without the suffix (Sq or Square) and it accepted the address! I was able to successfully complete the sign up. However, this wasn’t right because I know for a fact there’s another street with this name in the surrounding area and the suffix is different (although the ZIP code is different, too). I decided to try other things, too. It turns out I can make up addresses and it’ll let me sign up!
My only conclusion is that Sq or Square (yes I tried both) is not recognized as a valid suffix in the FedEx Delivery Manager system. I ended up canceling the account for the address without the Sq becuase I didn’t want it to somehow affect my shipments, which seem to work fine (guessing it’s using FedEx’s official address verification system). Square is not too typical of a suffix I suppose but not as odd as some of the other ones in NoVA like Terrace (Ter).
Ultimately, I suppose I’m not really missing out. The bulk of my packages are delivered via USPS, AMZL, and USPS. I’m not really interested in expending the effort outside of this blog entry to try to get this fixed because at the day, I’m really only a gnat.