How do I remove (very) old postal addresses?

RichKS
New Community Member

Hi there,

 

I've had this problem for ages and cannot find a solution anywhere online.  It seems a lot of other people are having the same problem, but with no response or solution presented.

 

In my paypal account, under "profile" and "add or edit address" I have listed exactly two addresses: My home address where my bank account and credit cards are registered and my work address where I have everything I order online shipped.

 

However, when I check out using Paypal, I am offered a list of over a dozen addresses dating back several years.  Some of these addresses are duplicates of current my home and work addresses and some are historical, places I haven't lived or worked for 10 years in some cases.

 

I REALLY need those historical addresses to go away, I cannot afford to have goods shipped to the wrong address.  I have already contacted Paypal support via email on a number of occasions and each time the just link me to a FAQ pagwe whcih says I should go to "profile" and "add or edit address" and remove the addresses... whcih aren't there!

 

Please help, this has been driving me crazy for years!!!

 

Rich

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102 REPLIES 102

Protonus
Contributor
Contributor

Just another vote for a way of getting rid of these old shipping addresses without having to call... it's kinda ridiculous you can't do it yourself.

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famoushurley
Member
Member
You can add me to the growing list of very unhappy customers. It seems that paypal doesn't want to give us the opportunity to update OUR information as and when WE need to. As others on this thread, I have addresses from over 6 years ago, its becoming a joke that there is still no solution 2yrs on! Talk about customer service! PayPal, sort it out, its been far too long!
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JohnnyBaloney
Contributor
Contributor

+1

 

I have 7 addresses in my profile.

 

"Small good news is that PayPal UK telephone customer support do just sort it in a few minutes."

 

Small bad news is that you have to call a premium number.

 

"I do hope this helps answer all of your questions and post

Paula"

 

No it does NOT.

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xavchow
New Community Member

Seriously..2 years. How long do they need to sort this thing out?

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Noone025
Member
Member

Ah! I found an open thread on this issue.

 

In my case, I have 2 addresses only in ebay and paypal. I went to check out on a new website today, it selected by default an address I have not used in about 4 years and still listed many old adresses I have removed from both Paypal and ebay.

 

I called, spoke to a rep who told me i was wrong and tried to walk me through how to remove them.

 

After persisting, I was put on hold and then asked to clear my cookies.

 

Serisously? I've changed browsers, deleted cookies, etc over the last few years, in fact I didn't even own this laptop when some of those addresses were relevant.

 

Anyway, please fix this, I cant imagine that with the variety of posts, threads, forums related to this exact issue that its a low priority.

 

- just noticed the 1st reply from a PayPal rep on this issue is over a year old. Wow -

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USER1412
New Community Member

Is anyone at pyal looking at this issue which was raised over two years ago? Time to email some high ranking pypal executive, does anyone know of any name?

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kelly1596
Contributor
Contributor

Just bumping this as it is STILL a problem.  I can't find an old address anywhere but I just made a purchase on a website with PayPal and this list of old addresses popped up.  Where are they coming from?  All credit cards are changed, eBay is changed and I can't see these old addresses anywhere on the PayPal site and yet the pop up on my purchase screen (www.tweedandhickory.com) showed several old addresses?  What the hell?

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cecr
New Community Member

I came across this thread when looking for advice in how to stop PayPal emails even though I don't have an account anymore. I re-registered simply to reply.

 

The first thread is almost 3 years old. Previous replies from someone saying the "website is very complicated" and that paypal are "investigating" "looking in to it" etc is disingenuous to say the least - they onviously think everyone is stupid enough to belive it takes 3 years to change a website. At the worst, they could remedy the situation in the short term by simply purging the relevant address details. Depending on how the database is constructed they could check for addresses updated more than 6 years ago and delete them.

 

However, paypal might have a good reason to keep the details - they share info (buy/sell) with Credit Refernce Agencies like Equifax who in turn share (hbuy/sell) to banks, mail order companies and other lenders. The more info a profile has, the more there is to cross reference. So if you change your name slightly - Tony Smith rather than Anthony Smith, or Jonathan rather than Johnathon which can sometimes happen by mistake when data is collected and entered eg Electoral Roll, then if addresses and other info is the same, they can see its actually the same person. So the more info the better. Everyone who deals in this info likes to get as much as they can and to keep it.

 

What can you do? Well, everyone who keeps data on a person for this kind of purpose is subject to the Data Protection Act. By law, all info collected on a person must be accurate and up to date. The accepted duration is 6 years, simply because debts are valid for 6 years (5 in Scotland) after which they cannot be recovered by legal action, and it can amount to harrassment to ask for payment of a debt after that time (simple explanation). Since banks and lenders keep records for 6 years, everyone else has adopted the practice. Any information collected must be accurate and only the information actually required should be collected/stored.

 

So, all you need to do is to write to the Data Registrar for Paypal who is a nominated emplyee with the responsibility of maintaining they personal information they collect, and tell him the info they hold is out of date. Give him the info you want removed. You may get a reply which hums and harrs about reasons why they can't change it. They may even say they don't own that info because they got it from Equifax or someone. Take no notice. Simply complain to the Information Commissioner about the retention of out of date information, and ask him to instruct Paypal to remove it. You might also want to print out these pages and say that this is a long standing problem and ask the Commisioner to prosecute paypal for deliberately breaking the Data Protection Act. You can complain to the ICO on line

 

General advice about complaints

http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/handling.aspx

 

Forms and email and office addresses to submit complaints (don't worry very easy to do)

http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/handling/complain.aspx

 

A quick search shows that the details for Paypal held by the ICO is:

 

Registration Number: Z2408197

Date Registered: 23 November 2010     Registration Expires: 22 November 2013

Data Controller: PAYPAL (UK) LIMITED

Address:

WHITTAKER AVENUE
WHITTAKER AVENUE
RICHMOND
SURREY
TW9 1EH

 

That is the address you should write to.

 

General advice about controlling your info is never give it to anyone who doesn't need it - surveys about your holidays etc. All the info you give is collected and sold to others so if you get junkmail, its because they bought your info from someone, and if they get info from more than one source, they are combined to build a bigger picture of you. Always opt out of any offer to send you 'special ofers of things of interest to you' or from 'specially selected partners'.

 

 

You can get a copy of your credit reference file from the likes of Equifax, just do a search. There is a standard procedure and it costs about £2 and a lot of you will be surprised about the amount of info they hold on you and how much of it is out of date or just wrong.

 

Hope that helps someone, now I will close this account and hope that paypal don't remove this post.

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fuzzi_bear
New Community Member

I cont believe this is still not fixed, 3 YEARS after it was first reported. Come on PayPal what are you doing?

 

You need to first accept there is a problem before you can successfully manage this problem. Let me make things abundantly clear:

 

There additional postal addresses are:

 

- Not those listed in eBay

- Not old billing addresses that need to be updated

- Not found anywhere 'editable' within one's eBay or PayPal accounts.

 

At teh point of checkout with PayPal, it shows my billing address as a default. If i slect 'change postal address', it presents with with a long list, one of them being my current and correct postal address. All the others are addresses which at one point in the past i slected 'Add address' and added it.

 

Now... ALL that we are ALL asking is.... please allow us to delete those addresses which we added in the past.

Its THAT simple!!

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gjeffrey
Contributor
Contributor

I too would like to remove old addresses - there are still addresses in there that relate to a place I worked at 4 or 5 years ago.  I really don't want anything accidentally going there!  We really should be able to tidy up our own accounts.

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