USPS tracking # = worthless?

Chiro75

Chiro75

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I've been sending and receiving most packages lately with Delivery Confirmation and the tracking # on them. Is it just me, or when you look up the tracking #, is there absolutely ZERO info on the website? It'll say "recieved in Alaska" or whatever on the day the person dropped it off, then it never gets updated and then you have it in your hands. What a waste of money.
 
UPS is an old company and how they do business is an old and well-established model.

When FedEx is a young company. FedEx got to design their systems from the ground up using new technology. One of the technologies that they put into their system from day-one was real-time tracking. Real-time tracking is an integrated part of the system.

Consumers like the idea of tracking. UPS had to do something. So, they tacked tracking onto their system. But their system was never designed with tracking in mind.

In the past, I've used the analogy of factory-installed AC on a modern car vs. trying to cobble AC onto a Ford Model-T.

Truth be know, UPS has very little idea where you package is day-to-day. There system was never designed to track that. FedEx, on the other hand, can tell you to within a few feet exactly where on the face of the earth your package is RIGHT NOW!

FedEx's system is real-time. Scans go into the central computer right now. UPS's system is a "batch" system. Scans go the central computer overnight.

FedEx scans a package virtually every time they handle it. UPS only scans it at major points such as when it's picked up and when it's delivered.

So, basically, UPS's "tracking" is something that was cobbled onto a system that was never designed to have it and it works about as well as AC would in a Model-T... not very well.
 
Do you mean USPS or UPS?

USPS tracking isnt the same as the kind you get from ups and fedex, it should only show when sent and when recieved. If you mean ups then you are getting screwed.
 
At least the UPS's tracking gives you some vague idea of where it is or was. The USPS one never tells me spit. With Priority anyway, maybe I'm not using the right service. But unlike UPS, Priority gets to me within a day, 2 at the most, so tracking isn't really as necessary. Whereas with USPS, it always seems to get stuck in some podunk town in Illinois or in Phoenix for 2 days.
 
USPS has the same problem that UPS does. It's a 225+ year old system that was never supposed to have any kind of tracking. They cobbled some minimal tracking on.
 
i've used USPS for years now, and it was always my understanding that delivery confirmation was just that -- it is used to confirm that a package has left the sender and was met by the receiver. i think any crude tracking ability should be seen as a bonus, rather than a standard.

abe m.
 
I emailed the Postal Service a while back when I thought the Delivery Confirmation number was a tracking number. The response from them is precisely what some have said here. It is not a tracking number. That service is not available for Priority Mail. Is is, technically, only to confirm proof and date of delivery.

Sometimes I find a little more like received at such and such a place on a certain time. But it is not advertised as a "tracking number". Although that is what many believe (me included until I emailed them).
 
allyourblood said:
i've used USPS for years now, and it was always my understanding that delivery confirmation was just that -- it is used to confirm that a package has left the sender and was met by the receiver. i think any crude tracking ability should be seen as a bonus, rather than a standard.

abe m.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly right. The USPS service is named for exactly what it does. I'm not sure why people think something called DELIVERY CONFIRMATION is supposed to provide tracking info. :mad:

Jeremy

EDIT- I'm not sure why this gets under my skin- bad day I guess. No offense to anyone intended. :o
 
in all my days i have NEVER tried to track a package thru the USPS site and gotten ANY info at all, well, maybe that the said item shipped/was in the system(sometimes not even that), but as far as info like UPS, forgettaboutit, aint happening, thats my experience anyway FWIW
 
I've been doing alot of shipping lately for some Ebay auctions and find the USPS DC to be an asset. I know the person recieved what I sent even if they don''t let me know.

On packges that are insured I don't purchase a DC because the insurance ticket is trackable by USPS. This only applied to $100.00 or more in insurance.

Win
 
To be realistic, delivery confirmation may provide a little deterrent to theft but it isn't very reliable. I remember taking a package to the post office that had been returned as undeliverable. I gave it to the person there and asked them to check delivery confirmation. The system confirmed it as delivered. And, not DC doesn't provide any tracking information.
 
I've had items show as "delivered" several days before I received them. Don't pay for DC, it's worthless.

TR
 
i have used DC for 100+ packages on eBay and otherwise, and every single time i've checked it online, it has worked flawlessly.

abe m.
 
I use Delivery Confirmation about 99% of the time, and I use Priority Mail about 98% of the time, and I've never had a problem with either. Sometimes Delivery Confirmation "tracking" can be alittle "slow", but usually it'll let me know when a package was shipped, and when it has arrives, and when it was delivered, and all that can be done via an email notice...Not too bad for less than 1/2 a dollar.
 
I think BFC should also have a USPS/FEDEX/UPS tutorial! LOL!!!! :D

Y'all crack me up... although the ignorance of how those carriers operate is widespread and full of myths... like the ability of USPS to track a shipment in comparison to FedEx/UPS/DHL...

USPS has always had a way of tracking a shipment... long before any of the big overniters came along... if you know what service to use...

Up until the past two years (excluding Express Mail which only started within the last 10 years..,) Registered mail was the only reliable way of tracking something in the USPS system. Express mail came on as a result of direct competition with FedEx/UPS - Express Mail became the only way to overnite thru the USPS system with full tracking ability (and it remains the only way to overnite anything to a PO Box!)

Certified*/Insured/1st Class/Priority/Deliv.Conf./Sig. Required. etc... none had, nor now have, the ability to "track" a piece of mail. At best, DC and Sig.Req. will tell you that something was delivered... Won't say where or recieved by whom (I can't tell you how many packages with DC on them are delivered to my apartment building with the wrong address... heck, one was for a different state!)

{*Certified Mail has now become a way to sort of track a mailing: the piece is scanned when it is recieved by the PO, and it is supposed to be scanned at the other end.. So info should be on the system stating where the item entered the system and where it exited the system... But again, like DC and Sig.Req... it still won't tell you who accepted the item unless you also asked for a Return Reciept...}

If you want to track a shipment, and know where it is at about any time... you'll have to go with a Courier other than the USPS unless you want Express Mail levels of service...

Hope that helps?
 
don't try to make USPS Delivery Confirmation something that it ain't! It is called Delivery Confirmation (rather than Package Tracking) for a reason, i.e. it was designed to "close the loop" for the fulfillment industry who previously never knew if an item was delivered or not. With Delivery Confirmation a shipper would receive notification that a parcel was delivered and they could close the book on that transaction. They don't care a hoot in hell about tracking the parcel - they only care that it was delivered. It would cost much more than $.45 to track a parcel - it could be done but it would cost more.
 
Usually the hand scanned DC's will show up at intermediate steps but not always. This has come in handy several times for me as it has sat in a PO and been "lost". Constant pestering with the DC# showing where it's supposed to be helped it get "found" by the PO.
 
For a nice label printed out with FREE delivery confirmation, use this web site from USPS Here

Click on the dot that says Create an online label for shipping a package
Then scroll down and fill in the required info below and click submit. If you don't have the Zip +4, don't worry, they system will check and search it out for you, I then highlight and copy the Delivery Confirmation number from the resulting label on screen, near the bottom and paste that into an email to the buyer.

You can buy full sheet label paper or just print on regular paper and tape over it onto the package.

I use this all the time, for a couple of reasons;
It provides a legible label so there shouldn't be a mixup in delivery
It checks/verifies and provides you the zip +4 for both your address as well
as the person you are sending to, several times I've ran into where the address showed up as not good, going back to the buyer it turns out he had transposed something, so that is a great catch to prevent lost packages.
and of course, you get FREE delivery confirmation, as noted in the above posts, it doesn't always get you much, but if everyone is on their toes, you'll have an estimated time when it arrived to there house. If they don't scan it on arrival, there's nothing to be helped with that, but my post office says they are monitored to be sure they do the scanning thingy.
 
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