We just had an auth fail AVS with an address formatted like this: 123 4th Ln
We removed "4th Ln" (re-submitted the charge with only 123 in the address field) and it passed AVS.
This makes me think the AVS test script looks at the first four or five numeric characters and stops when it runs into an alpha or special character (like a hypen, maybe?). Can anyone verify that my assumption is correct? This would allow us to format house numbers to avoid these stupid false negatives.
02-02-2012 02:30 PM
I've worked extensively with address standardization software, and it's been my experience that what messes things up is having two adjacent numbers. Without sufficient context, how can the software tell what the numbers represent? When you have only one number, like 1234 Haberdash Rd, or two numbers clearly labeled, like 1234 Haberdash Road Apt 4, it goes through, but 4 1234 Haberdash Road or maybe even Apt 4 1234 Haberdash Road or 1234-4 Haberdash Road will die (depending on how good the software is). Your case is slightly different, but I'm betting it's the 123 4th that's throwing it off, since it's a bit ambiguous.
02-02-2012 05:08 PM