FedEx Tracking?

[llew]

Is it just me of has FedEx tracking gone sideways lately? I ordered a replacement grill and the tracking information has been crazy at best? Just plain weird...

[Mr. Jelly]

I have noticed that tracking of the big three evolves all the time. Sometimes it's done really well and other times it magically arrives at your door. Or not!

[rllink]

Originally Posted by llew

Is it just me of has FedEx tracking gone sideways lately? I ordered a replacement grill and the tracking information has been crazy at best? Just plain weird...

Weird in what way? I have noticed that it seems all the shippers want us to know if our package crossed to the other side of the room it seems, but I would guess that is driven by customer neurosis. I have a bottle of guitar cleaner coming. Yesterday it went from, "we set it out to be packaged," to "it's packaged now and setting on a shelf to be picked up," to "it got picked up," to "it is on it's way to the carrier's facility," to "it got to the carrier's facility but not the one where they ship it," to "it got picked up," to it is in route to the facility where it gets on a truck to somewhere," to "it got there", to " It's on the truck." A little exaggeration in the interpretation, but nine notifications and it hasn't left town yet.

[ghostnote]

We only have ourselves to blame. As someone who spent decades in the supply chain business, I can say that the current state of package tracking is directly due to customers who simply HAVE to know where their stuff is, even though better than 90% of items arrive exactly when they are supposed to. Before today’s system of multiple scans, customers would call the vendor, who’d call the carrier, who’d track the item down, then call back. That’s expensive and frustrating for everyone involved. Back in the day I sometimes had to search for that info myself, and it is very counterproductive. But that bar code is right there - might as well use it. And the hardware/software systems that carriers use is vastly more capable than it used to be. So now the package is scanned at every step of the process and the info is available to all parties in the transaction without human involvement. But don’t be concerned - soon AI will be controlling everything, and these will be the good old days.

[RP]

Originally Posted by ghostnote

We only have ourselves to blame. As someone who spent decades in the supply chain business, I can say that the current state of package tracking is directly due to customers who simply HAVE to know where their stuff is...

HUH???? A delivery company provides a tracking service so that customers can check on the status of their package being delivered and the inaccuracy of that system is the fault of said customer when he/she uses that tracking system??? Customers have lives and need to know when expensive (and other) packages are scheduled for delivery. This seems like a variation of the Observer Effect - In physics, the observer effect is the disturbance of an observed system by the act of observation. Should we call it the FedEx Effect???

[Methos1979]

FedEx is the best of the best in my area. I can even 'watch' where the truck is on a map to see when he's near me and make sure I'm there to sign if I need to. The downside to that much detail is when you watch the guy totally skip your road and move far away because the idiots that shipped the packed messed up the address so egregiously that the street didn't even exist in our town. After that UPS is pretty good with accurate and timely updates and last and certainly least is USPS which is just pretty much terrible in every aspect of package delivery imaginable including and especially tracking.

[Talk2Me]

FedEx is ALWAYS the WORST option in my area. Terrible ship times and the tracking, well, to say it's "lacking" would be far too kind. I've had items arrive at my door that still say in transit or awaiting pickup from the shipper. A definite no from me.

[llew]

Originally Posted by rllink

Weird in what way? I have noticed that it seems all the shippers want us to know if our package crossed to the other side of the room it seems, but I would guess that is driven by customer neurosis. I have a bottle of guitar cleaner coming. Yesterday it went from, "we set it out to be packaged," to "it's packaged now and setting on a shelf to be picked up," to "it got picked up," to "it is on it's way to the carrier's facility," to "it got to the carrier's facility but not the one where they ship it," to "it got picked up," to it is in route to the facility where it gets on a truck to somewhere," to "it got there", to " It's on the truck." A little exaggeration in the interpretation, but nine notifications and it hasn't left town yet.

Yeah...weird just like that?

[ghostnote]

Originally Posted by RP

HUH???? A delivery company provides a tracking service so that customers can check on the status of their package being delivered and the inaccuracy of that system is the fault of said customer when he/she uses that tracking system??? Customers have lives and need to know when expensive (and other) packages are scheduled for delivery. This seems like a variation of the Observer Effect - In physics, the observer effect is the disturbance of an observed system by the act of observation. Should we call it the FedEx Effect???

Wow, you sure misinterpreted that. Nowhere did I say the customers are responsible for any information or misinformation. I said that the customers are ultimately responsible for the existence of the tracking system, not the actual info within it. The OP was commenting on the constant updates of his package, even though it wasn’t actually moving far. I was simply explaining how/why that came about.

[RRuskin]

Originally Posted by llew

Is it just me of has FedEx tracking gone sideways lately? I ordered a replacement grill and the tracking information has been crazy at best? Just plain weird...

If they miss the delivery date, FedEx tracking is worthless. Their idea of information is, "no delivery date at this time."

[llew]

Originally Posted by RRuskin

If they miss the delivery date, FedEx tracking is worthless. Their idea of information is, "no delivery date at this time."

Yep...I've experienced that as well.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by ghostnote

Wow, you sure misinterpreted that. Nowhere did I say the customers are responsible for any information or misinformation. I said that the customers are ultimately responsible for the existence of the tracking system, not the actual info within it. The OP was commenting on the constant updates of his package, even though it wasn’t actually moving far. I was simply explaining how/why that came about.

I've repeated here before how there's also a difference between using someone's prepaid rate and one's making an explicit choice to pay for a premium service thus becoming the shipper.

This is something I see often. At work we a lot of packages at large scale. For some items and shippers I choose and pay for the rate almost always getting it on time and with more straightforward tracking info.

There is also a whole lot of nonsense on the way may pronounce one shipper as best or horrible. At this larger scale and several delivery spots 24x7x365 we see they all do a pretty good job.

Some exceptions to the pre-paid not always as good or direct are the 4 hour and next day from vendors such as Cisco, HPE and Apple.

[RP]

Originally Posted by ghostnote

Wow, you sure misinterpreted that. Nowhere did I say the customers are responsible for any information or misinformation. I said that the customers are ultimately responsible for the existence of the tracking system, not the actual info within it. The OP was commenting on the constant updates of his package, even though it wasn’t actually moving far. I was simply explaining how/why that came about.

And hopefully that's the biggest mistake that I'll make today. I think the phrase the current state of package tracking is open to interpretation....

[rllink]

Okay, this was yesterday. USPS, for the record. It had quite the day. I'm happy, whenever it gets here so no big deal. It is interesting though, it looks like two packages now. It wasn't like that the day before. It's just a bottle of guitar cleaner. I wish I could tell them to just give it up if that's the best they can do, it's okay.


Wednesday, May 31

10:26 PM Package arrived at a carrier facility.
10:02 PM Package arrived at a carrier facility.
4:29 PM Package left the carrier facility.
3:46 PM Package left the carrier facility.
3:18 AM Package arrived at a carrier facility.

[Mr. Jelly]

I asked and received a refund from eBay for an item that's been in route for two months. I guess it's still in route. I quit looking.