Maybe I’ve had bad luck, but whenever I order something online (generally from Barnes & Noble or Amazon) it never seems to be able to track my package. Has anyone gotten this function to work? Maybe its just those websites, or a coincedence (I don’t order a ton of stuff online). It is kind of annoying to have a feature that doesn’t work.
I track my packages all the time, so, it works for me.
I have never had a problem with it. In fact I usually use it to check to see if it would be faster for me to go to the UPS branch to get the package rather than wait for delivery.
SSG Schwartz
UPS and FedEx tracking seem pretty accurate. I’ve had few if any issues. USPS tracking, on the other hand, is nearly worthless. I’ve had it show stuff as “delivered” which didn’t show up until the next day.
I’ve had enough problems with it to know what you are talking about - but most of the time it is good for me.
I don’t recall ever having a problem with it.
Works for me.
I’ve never had a problem with UPS and Fedex tracking.
USPS tracking always fails me though. Usually by not updating anywhere near as quick as it needs to.
The reason USPS “tracking” sucks is because for Priority Mail (the most common USPS method for internet retailers) it’s not really tracking, but Delivery Confirmation.
They don’t tell you where it is, nor do they intend to. They tell you it’s arrived once it’s arrived. It’s for the good of the shipper more than the recipient, since it provides proof that it didn’t get lost in the mail. For the buyer waiting eagerly on their now toy, it doesn’t provide much.
No, they really don’t. See my earlier post.
UPS tracking has worked well for me. USPS though – I checked on a package from Amazon last week, and was told that the package had been picked up and was in transit. It still said that the next day, after I’d received the package.
Call your postmaster and complain. If a postal worker scanned the delivery confirmation tag as delivered when it actually was still sitting on his truck, he or she has the potential to get in Big Trouble. Delivery confirmation scans are taken fairly seriously, at least in my experience.
Never had a problem with FedEx, UPS or USPS tracking services.
I track FedEx and UPS into work all the time, and out to customers often enough. It has always worked well for us even when the package was misrouted. (It didn’t go where it should have, but we knew where it was.)
The only times we’ve had problems (box not showing up in the tracking system) was those occasions where the originator hadn’t entered the correct info into the tracking system in the first place.
Yeah, USPS “tracking” is worthless. Each time it starts with getting electronic confirmation that shipper has a # for package (but which in no way means that it has been shipped) to package delivered (one day after I already got it). Provides zip additional info.
I think Q.E.D. is just “lucking out.”
Works fine for me most of the time. I can usually predict when an Amazon package will get to me based on when it hits certain milestones along the way. Sometimes though, it’s empty up until the day the package is delivered, at which point the entire history shows up all at once, retroactively. 
I’m convinced FedEx and UPS both hate me, so take this for what it’s worth.
I have never had a package tracked accurately. The most recent instance had the FedEx website showing it as being out for delivery as of 5:00am. Okay, cool, I’ll get it sometime that day.
No delivery… at 5:00pm I check the website yet again (it hasn’t changed all day) and lo and behold, it’s no longer out for delivery, now it’s sitting in a warehouse in Phoenix.
Near as I – and the FedEx lady on the phone – could tell, it somehow got scanned to be out for delivery, then got put on the wrong truck (?) and sent back to the hub it had come from, where it was dutifully marked as being recieved, turned back around, and tossed on the pile to go back to Spokane. Straightforward, if stupid.
At 7:30, the FedEx guy shows up, hands me my package, I sign off on it, and he zooms off.
The next morning, just for grins, I try to track the package again. It’s now sitting in Seattle, apparently. I don’t know what I’m holding in my hands – it can’t be my package, because my package is in Seattle – but I have to admit I’m curious as to what exactly is going to be delivered to me when it finally arrives… :rolleyes:
I think the USPS thinks of tracking packages the way veterinarians think of microchipping dogs: it’s helpful if the thing gets lost. They don’t really seem to have any concept that people might actually want updates on where their package is en route.
I used FedEx tracking to track my new PC from HP. I found it useful as it let me know what day I should work from home so I could be there to sign for it. Had I just gone by the "estimated delivery date’ I would have come home to a ‘We just missed you!’ note.
I sent my father a cheesecake for his birthday and since it was crazy hot where he was, I compulsively checked delivery status. Ah, delivered! Called Mom and she confirmed that she had just closed the door behind the delivery guy.
That was sweet.