We are a B2B company and consistently have residential addresses given to us for delivery. Looking for how others are handling these issues.
I built an Epicor function that calls out to UPS to get address validation and class for addresses. Melissa Data is better if you have $s to spend. UPS indicated to us that drivers do the classing in the field so errors can happen, but conveniently they charge you the assessorial 
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You can also do Avalara Address Validation. Its built in, there is a price per transaction.
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I mentioned that one, and they donāt want to pay the price for it. I honestly think this is the way to go. Just wanted to see if anyone else had anything else.
USPS (US Postal Service) has a free API that does API Verification. I played with ideas for #automationstudio a few months back, and it worked well. USPS frowns on doing mass validations, but doing one at a time is fine. If you dont have Automation Studio, you can write C# code in a BPM to pass the data to the APIā¦ check out: https://www.usps.com/business/web-tools-apis/
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Neat I might have to revisit my integration. When I did this USPS didnāt have an API to work with. Very long time ago.
@Will79 if you use QuickShip I believe they have an address validation feature too but I could be wrong.
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I use SmartyStreets, which was rebranded to Smarty earlier this year and is what the USPS uses. I like it because itās got some nice features.
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smarty looks coolā¦ but it doesnt look free. It does look like it provides more info than the free USPS version.
It was originally based on number of requests per month. Ours is low, and Iāve not gotten a bill so Iām assuming my āgrandfatheredā account is doing just fine
ā¦but now I need to check up on that. 
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Got to love my users!
Iām using http://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/V1/Routes for Distance calculations (to prove that my freight folks are not overcharging) and Iām using https://api.smartystreets.com for the address validation BUT my user (only one person does Customer creation/validation) said sheās been getting errors but failed to tell me about it since we only do new customers a few times a month.
My current error is that my API key is legit but I donāt have an active account. Must mean I have to start payingā¦
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We connect to the FedEx api, and use that. Our main LTL carrier (XPO) doesnāt have anything, and their drivers also manually class the address! Thatās just nuts these days.
Why doesnāt anyone use Avalara? Is it actually REALLY EXPENSIVE? If its like 10$ thats nothing!
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We use Avalara, its much more than $10, but we are paying for sales tax calculation (which is not a per transaction fee, it is volume based though). I donāt know if you can buy just address validation without sales tax.
Point of clarification: Smarty uses the USPS database/API (among others). USPS does not use Smarty. (Why would they need to?)
My company uses Avalara for taxes, but doesnāt often do address validation by itself. We have the option and use it occasionally, though.
Even if Avalara is 200$ to develop something and maintain it, you are up to 200$/yr 
its a wash.
We use Avalara for taxes and address verification. When our agents are entering in a new ship or billing address they to Actions (or whatever the Kinetic button is named) then Verify Address. I kinda want to automate on save but weāve got bigger fish to fry so itās still on the to-do list.
Does Avalaraās address verification return residential / commercial? I didnāt see it in their API page.
Our LTL (XPO) also classifies farms, schools, and home-based businesses as non-commercial (aka residential). Yet they donāt provide an API to know that ahead of time.
If you have Avalera and arenāt verifying addresses, youāre just begging for a call from accounting late on a Friday or at EOM, asking you why invoices with sales tax wonāt post because the address is invalid.
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Our products were often shipped to a location without an address. Typically oil wells or somewhere along a pipieline. An address like:
5.7 miles Access Rd #107
Off of Rt 206, by MM 75.2
East Bumblefuq, Flyover State 66666
Was not uncommon. Although not nearly as common as āTBDā.
And donāt get me started about the issues of entering the customers warehouse as the ship to, but sending it to the actual job site. Thereās inevitably a tax jurisdiction difference.