Incorrect Zip Code Sort

[GDeiChurch]

I have several members who go to Florida temporarily during the winter months, so I use the Alternate Address function to store their winter address. When creating a mail merge file, sorted by Zip Code, these people's address sorts by their main address even though the alternate address is in use and is what appears in the mail merge file.
In other words, when looking at the sorted records I'll have:

Bristol, CT 06010-4801
Indian Shores, FL 33785-2135 (Main address is Bristol, CT 06010-4805)
Bristol, CT 06010-4822

The zip-code sorting program seems to ignore the alternate address, but the rest of the program does recognize the alternate address.

Has anyone else noticed this problem and is there a fix in the works? This has actually been happening at least since version 8, but I never took the time to report the problem. I can't believe I'm the only one to experience it!

[GDeiChurch]

I have several members who go to Florida temporarily during the winter months, so I use the Alternate Address function to store their winter address. When creating a mail merge file, sorted by Zip Code, these people's address sorts by their main address even though the alternate address is in use and is what appears in the mail merge file.
In other words, when looking at the sorted records I'll have:

Bristol, CT 06010-4801
Indian Shores, FL 33785-2135 (Main address is Bristol, CT 06010-4805)
Bristol, CT 06010-4822

The zip-code sorting program seems to ignore the alternate address, but the rest of the program does recognize the alternate address.

Has anyone else noticed this problem and is there a fix in the works? This has actually been happening at least since version 8, but I never took the time to report the problem. I can't believe I'm the only one to experience it!

I'm just wondering why I never seem to get any responses to my questions...

In January I posted the above as well as another question about an incorrect date used in Attendance Data... but no reply from anyone to either question... can someone please help me

[NeilZ]

You're not being ignored, its just that many of us who are users, don't have an answer.

However, I will ask the obvious questions:

1. Are you on the latest (11/2006) maintenance release?
2. Have you tried reindexing your files ??

[GDeiChurch]

You're not being ignored, its just that many of us who are users, don't have an answer.

However, I will ask the obvious questions:

1. Are you on the latest (11/2006) maintenance release?
2. Have you tried reindexing your files ??

Thank you soooo much for responding! I was beginning to think I was the only one seeing my questions! The answers to your questions are yes, and yes. As I said in my original post, it's been happening at least since version 8, if not before that. I just never had the time to question it before.

Again, thanks for responding!!

[Zaphod]

January and February are our busiest times here in the support trenches, so we aren't able to drop in on the user forum as much as other times of the year. Sorry about that - you didn't get ignored on purpose! Neil is right though, this is mostly a forum for users to discuss amongst themselves. Whenever you have a bug report, you should contact us directly, either at (800) 486-1800, or at support@powerchurch.com.

That said, I took your issue to development, we looked at the code, and it is indeed a bug, and it has been there since 8. However, this is the first time we've heard anything about it, since that particular combination (alternate addresses + mail merge) isn't an everyday thing for a lot of people, and it's not something that would be immediately obvious, unless you were really paying attention (which you obviously are!). I don't want to sound like I'm finger wagging or anything, but why didn't you tell us sooner? We would have had it fixed two versions ago if we'd known. We do testing inhouse, and we even have public beta testing to help make a very solid product. However, no amount of testing is going to turn up everything that folks who actually use the software every day can find.

I've got it listed in our bug tracker now, and if it's not fixed in the next maintenance release (I'm not sure how close that is to being ready), it should be included in the following one.

Thanks!