I have a shipping web application with fields that every shipment should have, for example “tracking number.” These people will prefix the value with “PRO#” or “#” as if the field isn’t already labeled correctly. I’ve fought for years with validation, sanitizing, etc. because having this junk data causes issues further down the line.

The same goes for other similar fields (reference numbers for example); they’ll also do everything they can to fuck up the address as much as possible so that it can’t be validated (unit number first, completely mismatched city and postal code, putting the street in a field that doesn’t belong to the address, etc).

I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt—they’re not developers. But is this something like, hard to understand for normal people? I’ve talked to them several times yet they can’t be fucked with to change their ways.