Eircode Anomolies

The_Conductor

My reading of what was posted- was that it had the right Company name and address- but the wrong EIRCODE. Perhaps I was wrong? If it had the right address- but the wrong Eircode- then the postman was right not to follow the inaccurate address- however, ultimately- the aim is to deliver the post to the correct person- not necessarily to the correct address. My favourite is from many years ago- a letter was sent by a cousin in the states to my grandfather- addressed 'Mr. Con XX XXXXXXX, Ireland'. He lived in Athlone at the time- but was in Dublin having some medical tests done. His name and 'Ireland' was sufficient for the letter to reach him (eventually).

An Post are quite remarkable at getting post to people- I don't think most of the public give them the credit that they rightly deserve.

Sheldons Brain

my3cents wrote: »

Not really because the postman could be disciplined for misdelivering the mail. The postmans job is to deliver the mail to the ADDRESS on the letter not the name. The only reason the eircode letters had any names on them at all was because that was the only way that the postman could deliver to non unique addresses.

If the companies address was non unique then fair enough but if it was unique then that was a fail.

No doubt the company had made arrangments with An Post for mail to be forwarded to its new address, they probably get dozens of letters sent to the old address.

There may well be implications here for the delivery of the "eircode letter" , this should first require postmen to validate the location before these letters are sent out.

murphaph

If you look for a house on say Aylmer Road in Newcastle, County Dublin, the Eircode is a D22 one. Interestingly checking the An Post address finder if you type in a house number on that road it offers either Newcastle County Dublin or Newcastle D22 as possible results, but selecting EITHER returns the actual address according to An Post as:

XX Aylmer Road
Newcastle
Co. Dublin

Adding Newcastle into D22 seems to be a decision taken by Eircode, rather than An Post it would seem, though it's entirely possible that An Post internally assigns Newcastle to the D22 postal district but when retrieving from the database for display in front end systems, some filter is applied and the D22 is replaced with "County Dublin" as nobody in Newcastle ever wanted a D22 in their address (the merits of that argument are for somewhere else). Eircode may have access to the "deeper" layer and believe that D22 is correct. Hard to say for certain without access to the DB.

This is one of the reasons the old postal districts should have simply died with the advent of Eircode. They should have made no attempt to bake in these legacy codes into the new system. That was a mistake.

The_Conductor

I imagine having D22 instead of Co. Dublin- effectively knocks 15-20% off the value of a property........ Plenty of property in the greater area (including much of the Lucan landmass) were deemed Co.Dublin- by a certain Liam Lawlor (who also managed to shift some of Leixlip out of Kildare altogether- and into Lucan- such as those Weston estates just off the Celbridge Road- which were always part of Leixlip- before they got recategorised geographically...........)

If I ended up with a D22 postcode- I'd be pissed.

murphaph

Could be "worse". Rathcoole is now in D24 apparently! A lot of people are going to get angry. My dad actually owned a property that was "reassigned" out of D22 as a result of Lawlor's interference. The funny thing is that property was really deserving of a D22 code. It was 5 minutes walk from Ronanstown. It now has a Lucan Eircode. Putting villages like Newcastle and Rathcoole into D22 and D24 respectively will cause aggravation I'm sure.

r3nu4l

So there is an eircode for my address, however, the address itself is incorrect on the map in that there is a company name on the house as part of the address. The previous owner ran his company from this property. How do I get that removed on the Eircode site?

threeiron

GerardKeating wrote: »

Our company moved last year, but the db eircode have still show us at the old location, but the "eircode" letter still arrived at the new place today.

That Eircode is for your old address, it is not actually for your company or any company or person. You should use the Eircode Finder to get your correct Eircode and return the original Eircode notification to An Post stating that it was delivered to the wrong letter box.

threeiron

r3nu4l wrote: »

So there is an eircode for my address, however, the address itself is incorrect on the map in that there is a company name on the house as part of the address. The previous owner ran his company from this property. How do I get that removed on the Eircode site?

I think there is an address correction link on the An Post website. An Post can check that the request is valid and update GeoDirectory. A procedure similar to that if not exactly that.

delahuntv

Why does everyone think eircode revolves around delivery of letters by an post? If anything an post are the least likely to benefit as they have their own system that has worked for years - but it's based on delivery routes.

I'm in a rural area. It is known by three different names, if I had to call an ambulance it would take me a minute or 2 to describe how to get to the house.

My eircode is now on the wall in kitchen and at door - if there is an emergency I now know that whoever calls emergency services, the location of my house is known immediately.

For that alone it is worth it.


As for those who think the archaic UK system is good - I don't know where to start on its faults. Good for post and junk mail and discrimination - no good for much else.

bee06

My house doesn't seem to have an eircode at all. All the neighbours got their letter already but nothing for us and the house isn't on the map on their website either.

my3cents

bee06 wrote: »

My house doesn't seem to have an eircode at all. All the neighbours got their letter already but nothing for us and the house isn't on the map on their website either.

So you've blown your cover for running a CIA safe house

murphaph

delahuntv wrote: »

My eircode is now on the wall in kitchen and at door - if there is an emergency I now know that whoever calls emergency services, the location of my house is known immediately.

For that alone it is worth it.

So it's useful if you have an accident in your home? Other codes would have enabled them to be assigned to every cross roads in the country as well, or to postboxes, telephone boxes, road signs etc. etc. as well as to your home. If you have an accident in a strange place, you'll need to go ask someone living nearby what their Eircode is (if they are home) for Eircode to be of any use to you.

Postcodes that don't uniquely identify your home can be seen as offering just enough detail about where you live but with a degree of anonymity. I can get a quote for insurance from a website using my postcode (here in Germany, old fashioned system) but I don't have to tell the website my actual address. With Eircode, you WILL be telling them exactly where you live. Expect a lot more crap in the post from your casual online queries!!

How can you use Eircode to search for flats to rent on daft? You can't, the routing keys refer to areas that are generally far too big to be useful for such a purpose.

threeiron

bee06 wrote: »

My house doesn't seem to have an eircode at all. All the neighbours got their letter already but nothing for us and the house isn't on the map on their website either.

If your address is not in the right location please email customer.services at anpost.ie with the correct information.

PK2008

The_Conductor wrote: »

Its not a failure on the part of the postman- if anything it highlights that the postman had the good sense to follow the address on the letter- and not the Eircode- which pointed to an entirely different (and no longer valid) address for the company........

An Post won that round.

I think this is wrong- the eircode is for the property, not the company. Companies come and go, its the property address that is assigned the eircode and this stays with the property regardless of the company. If you move property you dont take your eircode with you.

More than likely An Post havent updated their postal address which contains the company name.

GerardKeating

threeiron wrote: »

That Eircode is for your old address, it is not actually for your company or any company or person. You should use the Eircode Finder to get your correct Eircode and return the original Eircode notification to An Post stating that it was delivered to the wrong letter box.

Yeah, that's how we notice the issue.

In fact, the same postperson would deliver to both locations, they close to each other, so he just looked at the company name I assume.

my3cents

GerardKeating wrote: »

Yeah, that's how we notice the issue.

In fact, the same postperson would deliver to both locations, they close to each other, so he just looked at the company name I assume.

If there was a lot of mail that day then its also possible the Eircode letter was sorted by company name in the sorting office, put in a bundle of other mail for your company and not checked by the postman when the bundle was delivered.

my3cents

GerardKeating wrote: »

Our company moved last year, but the db eircode have still show us at the old location, but the "eircode" letter still arrived at the new place today.

I forgot to ask did you also get you correct eircode mailing?

GerardKeating

my3cents wrote: »

I forgot to ask did you also get you correct eircode mailing?

Nope. I suppose at one stage we will.

Maidhci

Does anyone know what database or other source is employed by Eircode to determine the householder name to which their notification is sent?

I see from their website that "Eircode use source data supplied by An Post GeoDirectory Limited, which sources information from Ordnance Survey Ireland, The Placenames Branch (Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht) and the Universal Service Provider for postal services in Ireland, An Post. Based on the information provided, Eircodes are generated, assigned and disseminated to the corresponding postal addresses."

This however obviously refers to addresses not householder names - in my case, a letter was delivered into my letterbox this afternoon, with an anglicised version of my name which I have never used for correspondencen or any other purpose, is not registered at any agency such as Property Registration Authority, Revenue Commissioners etc. etc. In fact, I have never received any mail with this incorrect version of my name before. I have however verified from the Eircode that it relates to my property - obviously, I will be returning this unopened notification to the post office tomorrow for return to source, but I am curious nonetheless as to where the name may have originated?

Any suggestions or similar occurrences?

my3cents

Maidhci wrote: »

Does anyone know what database or other source is employed by Eircode to determine the householder name to which their notification is sent?

I see from their website that "Eircode use source data supplied by An Post GeoDirectory Limited, which sources information from Ordnance Survey Ireland, The Placenames Branch (Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht) and the Universal Service Provider for postal services in Ireland, An Post. Based on the information provided, Eircodes are generated, assigned and disseminated to the corresponding postal addresses."

This however obviously refers to addresses not householder names - in my case, a letter was delivered into my letterbox this afternoon, with an anglicised version of my name which I have never used for correspondencen or any other purpose, is not registered at any agency such as Property Registration Authority, Revenue Commissioners etc. etc. In fact, I have never received any mail with this incorrect version of my name before. I have however verified from the Eircode that it relates to my property - obviously, I will be returning this unopened notification to the post office tomorrow for return to source, but I am curious nonetheless as to where the name may have originated?

Any suggestions or similar occurrences?

It might be addressed to Micky Mouse but if its the right address with the correct eircode then its pointless returning it unopened.

Maidhci

my3cents wrote: »

It might be addressed to Micky Mouse but if its the right address with the correct eircode then its pointless returning it unopened.

If that is the case, why is it addressed to a person at all?

PK2008

Maidhci wrote: »

Does anyone know what database or other source is employed by Eircode to determine the householder name to which their notification is sent?

I see from their website that "Eircode use source data supplied by An Post GeoDirectory Limited, which sources information from Ordnance Survey Ireland, The Placenames Branch (Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht) and the Universal Service Provider for postal services in Ireland, An Post. Based on the information provided, Eircodes are generated, assigned and disseminated to the corresponding postal addresses."

This however obviously refers to addresses not householder names - in my case, a letter was delivered into my letterbox this afternoon, with an anglicised version of my name which I have never used for correspondencen or any other purpose, is not registered at any agency such as Property Registration Authority, Revenue Commissioners etc. etc. In fact, I have never received any mail with this incorrect version of my name before. I have however verified from the Eircode that it relates to my property - obviously, I will be returning this unopened notification to the post office tomorrow for return to source, but I am curious nonetheless as to where the name may have originated?

Any suggestions or similar occurrences?

Was it the eircode letter that had your name or a different letter?

Maidhci

PK2008 wrote: »

Was it the eircode letter that had your name or a different letter?

It was the Eircode letter, delivered this afternoon. I live in a rural part of the country with no house numbers etc. etc. - that is why I am puzzled by this.

PK2008

Maidhci wrote: »

It was the Eircode letter, delivered this afternoon. I live in a rural part of the country with no house numbers etc. etc. - that is why I am puzzled by this.

Strange alright, would you ever have registered as a sole trader?

Maidhci

PK2008 wrote: »

Strange alright, would you ever have registered as a sole trader?

Any registrations undertaken by me have always contained my correct name, as registered on my Birth Certificate, Passport, Driver's licence, Property Registration Authority etc. etc.

PK2008

Maidhci wrote: »

Any registrations undertaken by me have always contained my correct name, as registered on my Birth Certificate, Passport, Driver's licence, Property Registration Authority etc. etc.

Might be worth asking your postman?
Either way though, I guess its the eircode fir the property so not much point in returning it.

Maidhci

PK2008 wrote: »

Might be worth asking your postman?
Either way though, I guess its the eircode fir the property so not much point in returning it.

I accept it is the eircode for the property BUT it states that it is addressed to a named householder - I am simply trying to ascertain where Eircode got the householder names for their database.

PK2008

Maidhci wrote: »

I accept it is the eircode for the property BUT it states that it is addressed to a named householder - I am simply trying to ascertain where Eircode got the householder names for their database.

Yeh, its a fair enough question, I had thought the letters were addressed to 'the occupier' or something like that. I assume though that its more a question of where An Post Geodirectory got the name given Eircode just take the data An Post give them.

MBSnr

Maidhci wrote: »

I accept it is the eircode for the property BUT it states that it is addressed to a named householder - I am simply trying to ascertain where Eircode got the householder names for their database.

I live in a rural location and mine said
Occupier
My Surname
The rest of my address

I found that strange as how did they link my name with the house if the database only supposedly has the house address in it.

PK2008

MBSnr wrote: »

I live in a rural location and mine said
Occupier
My Surname
The rest of my address

I found that strange as how did they link my name with the house if the database only supposedly has the house address in it.

Check the eircode finder to see what address is there. If the name isnt there then it may be an An Post addition to help the local postman distinguish between non unique addresses. I wasnt being smart before when I said check with the local postman - I assume they must have some way of distinguishing between non uniques (using a name perhaps?), but Id say if its not on the online tool you would be safe to say its not in the eircode database.

my3cents

Maidhci wrote: »

If that is the case, why is it addressed to a person at all?

Probably means you were one of the 30% of addresses in Ireland that were until your eircode arrived non unique. All the none unique eircode letters I've seen had the surname of the householder on them. How else could An Post deliver them?

Maidhci

my3cents wrote: »

Probably means you were one of the 30% of addresses in Ireland that were until your eircode arrived non unique. All the none unique eircode letters I've seen had the surname of the householder on them. How else could An Post deliver them?

If you read or had read my original post you would appreaciate that it had a name and surname ( an incorrect anglicised version of my name and surname ) which does not belong to me, as householder and property owner.

my3cents

Maidhci wrote: »

If you read or had read my original post you would appreaciate that it had a name and surname ( an incorrect anglicised version of my name and surname ) which does not belong to me, as householder and property owner.

I accept you must be on a database somewhere but at some stage there must have been some human intervention to check any addresses that were non unique and didn't check out across all the databases used. In that case an operator may have just used what they thought was the best name to get the eircode letter to the correct address.

The purpose of the name was only to get the correct eircode to the correct address and its done that.

moyners

I read somewhere else (can't find the post right now) that An Post has it's own database containing descriptions of houses along their routes put together using posties' local knowledge, to help train in new postmen and help deliveries where there was confusion. A postman from Galway said in another thread they were going to be using this when trying to get the eircodes out. Is there any chance some postman of yours past or present might have written down your surname himself mistakenly using the Anglicised version as a previous poster mentioned?

Maidhci

my3cents wrote: »

I accept you must be on a database somewhere but at some stage there must have been some human intervention to check any addresses that were non unique and didn't check out across all the databases used. In that case an operator may have just used what they thought was the best name to get the eircode letter to the correct address.

The purpose of the name was only to get the correct eircode to the correct address and its done that.

Thanks for your input! I would have thought that the Eircode postal code should have been sufficient to get the letter to its intended destination, after all, that appears to me to have the rationale for the Eircode postal codes in the first instance?

Carawaystick

You can make a data protection act request to ask crapita/eircode about your data source, and force them to correct it. It costs six euros 35 cents tops.

PK2008

Maidhci wrote: »

Thanks for your input! I would have thought that the Eircode postal code should have been sufficient to get the letter to its intended destination, after all, that appears to me to have the rationale for the Eircode postal codes in the first instance?

It is but I guess it was more for the postman as an added level of support for the first delivery. (Could be a bit of strain for the postie to try to memorise every eircode matched to every house on their very first delivery, particularly if there are multiple 'non uniques').

From this point on you now have a unique address and while you can still use your old address I have heard stories already of people just using their eircode and getting their post.

PK2008

Carawaystick wrote: »

You can make a data protection act request to ask crapita/eircode about your data source, and force them to correct it. It costs six euros 35 cents tops.

Id say its An Post you would want to speak to, unless the info is appearing on the online tool its more likely An Post added it to help with the initial delivery

Trick of the Tail

delahuntv wrote: »

My eircode is now on the wall in kitchen and at door - if there is an emergency I now know that whoever calls emergency services, the location of my house is known immediately.

For that alone it is worth it.

It's not, since the emergency services have said they will not be using it, at least in the short term.

The_Conductor

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

It's not, since the emergency services have said they will not be using it, at least in the short term.

Wunderbar. So what is the purpose of this Eircode. An Post aren't sorting post by it- and in any event- as the numbers are non-sequential- it wouldn't work anyway. Courier companies are using an alternate system (the Loc8 system)- and then any of us tradionalists- in addition to physical addresses- use GPS coordinates (the emergency beacon on my phone, my marine radio and my aviation radio- use GPS coordinates- which can map on Finder and Search and Rescue sites).

So- if the emergency services won't even use it for residential addresses- precisely what use is it?

Maidhci

The_Conductor wrote: »

Wunderbar. So what is the purpose of this Eircode. An Post aren't sorting post by it- and in any event- as the numbers are non-sequential- it wouldn't work anyway. Courier companies are using an alternate system (the Loc8 system)- and then any of us tradionalists- in addition to physical addresses- use GPS coordinates (the emergency beacon on my phone, my marine radio and my aviation radio- use GPS coordinates- which can map on Finder and Search and Rescue sites).

So- if the emergency services won't even use it for residential addresses- precisely what use is it?

Why do ask what use is it? Does it have to have a use? After all, look at all the other crazy concepts and projects undertaken at the taxpayers' expense that had no use whatsoever except feathering the nests of some consultancy firms, obviously selected by a very transparent selection process!!

Perhaps, this rationale - were we not the only modern developed country in the EU not to have a postcode system? - I think this is one of the reasons advanced for the electronic voting system - look where that got us!

The_Conductor

Maidhci wrote: »

Why do ask what use is it? Does it have to have a use? After all, look at all the other crazy concepts and projects undertaken at the taxpayers' expense that had no use whatsoever except feathering the nests of some consultancy firms, obviously selected by a very transparent selection process!!

Perhaps, this rationale - were we not the only modern developed country in the EU not to have a postcode system?

Just bought something of ebay a few mins ago.
I put my Eircode in their 'Postcode' box- and its coming up as invalid......
Sigh........

my3cents

I bet it won't be long before you have to use your eircode for online payment systems. What company isn't going to take advantage of using Eircode to vaildate an address when it adds to security?

my3cents

The_Conductor wrote: »

Just bought something of ebay a few mins ago.
I put my Eircode in their 'Postcode' box- and its coming up as invalid......
Sigh........

There may have been a hint in the URL amazon.co.uk, why would they have started using the eircode system that soon?

Sam Russell

The_Conductor wrote: »

Wunderbar. So what is the purpose of this Eircode. An Post aren't sorting post by it- and in any event- as the numbers are non-sequential- it wouldn't work anyway. Courier companies are using an alternate system (the Loc8 system)- and then any of us tradionalists- in addition to physical addresses- use GPS coordinates (the emergency beacon on my phone, my marine radio and my aviation radio- use GPS coordinates- which can map on Finder and Search and Rescue sites).

So- if the emergency services won't even use it for residential addresses- precisely what use is it?

It has a major use by the Revenue for LPT purposes. It will be used by Dept SP for anti-fraud purposes. It will be used by Irish Water to collect water bills as they cannot locate their meters in the 35% of addresses that are non-unique. Other Gov dept will use it because they are told to use it. That is about it.

It is as useful to the general public as an e-Voting machine or a water meter, or for that matter a water company.

Sam Russell

my3cents wrote: »

There may have been a hint in the URL amazon.co.uk, why would they have started using the eircode system that soon?

ebay are not on amazon.co.uk. You will find ebay on ebay.ie.

The_Conductor

my3cents wrote: »

There may have been a hint in the URL amazon.co.uk, why would they have started using the eircode system that soon?

I use ebay.ie - it refused my postcode.

my3cents

Sam Russell wrote: »

ebay are not on amazon.co.uk. You will find ebay on ebay.ie.

My bad I had amazon.co.uk open here and wasn't thinking :rolleyes:

I still don't understand how anyone can expect any online company to be up and ready for eircodes yet. Getting them out to people is only the first step.

MBSnr

The_Conductor wrote: »

I use ebay.ie - it refused my postcode.

Yes it's effectively the UK site, with just Euro conversion and with a .ie domain. They (unlike Paypal) seem to try and validate the postcode and expect it to be in the UK form if it is a certain character length. It does accept 'IE'.

I'd imagine it will change at some point. If you use Paypal and have added the postcode there, sometimes a paypal checkout (on any site) uses that address anyhow - or at least it seems to for me.

Trick of the Tail

Eircode wasn't designed to be useful to the general public, or to An Post, courier companies, emergency services. It was designed solely for use by government departments and so the database can be sold to junk Marketting companies.

Monetising was the main reason for eircode.