USPS Confirmation Delievery Problem

[Gatekeeper]

Is anyone else having problems Confirming and Tracking USPS orders? I shipped orders Priority Mail to Oregon, Arizona, Washington and New York all on the same day. Oregon, Arizona and Washington were all easily tracked. The New York shipment arrived over a week late and there was NEVER a daily update on the progess of that shipment. As a courtsey, I sent another order to her at no charge.

They STILL haven't arrived and AGAIN no tracking infomation, other than the time eggs were accepted by the post office and where they were shipped from. (POI) The second order was shipped from a different PO to see if there was a problem on this end.

HELP!!! Can anyone share information or suggestions, their experience?


Gate

 

[newnanchic]

Sometimes mine do not show up correctly !!! I think they don't alwayws scan them in at the P.O. so they don't havean arrival date and time for tracking. I sent some out last week express ( overnight) come to find out express is guarnteed 2 day by 3pm not overnight . My eggs got there at 2:52 they were signed for 8 minutes shy of the cut off time and refund of my shipping money . That's the P.O. for you !!!

 

[CovenantCreek]

Is NY having bad weather? I had some serious problems trying to track down a shipment that I sent to TX right before Hurricane Ike hit. Even after the TX po's were reopened I couldn't get any information for over a month.

 

[Chef]

Dont know why

but I sure hate it when that happens

It wont tell you anything and then all of a sudden it says it's delivered. Thats the post office for ya.
Maybe someone will actually know why this occures? Anyone?


Chef

 

[ugly ducky]

Delivery Confirmation is NOT a tracking service. By rights, all they have to do is scan the package when it is delivered. My PO does scan when I drop them off, which puts the package in the system, but some don't. It just depends on what service center they go through whether they scan or not. But they should ALL be scanned on delivery. I went through all this when I first started selling on eBay 11 yrs ago, so I speak from experience.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Ugly Duckling, I appreciate your input. The PO does call it "Track and Confirm".

http://www.usps.com/shipping/trackandconfirm.htm

If they are going to offer a service and call it T&C and not TRACK the progress of the shipment; then why offer it? That is crazy. They say, "Priority Mail is 2-3 days". Yet this package arrived over a week late and there was NO updated info on where the shipment disappeared for that duration - And now a second package to the same location and the same occurance - I find that a tad strange. The other 3 packages WERE tracked and ARRIVED on time.

Perplexed,
Gate

 

[minna]

Yeah, the post office will tell you that it is delivery confirmation, not real tracking, even though it claims to be both. I rarely bother checking until the shipment is late anymore.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Minna, you gotta love it !!

Gate

 

[Bettacreek]

If you sent them Priority mail, then you only have a delivery confirmation number, not a tracking number. Tracking numbers can only be "purchased" with Express packages. Tracking numbers are generally scanned at every "main" postal stop when they arrive and when they leave the facility, while delivery confirmation numbers are scanned at the drop off facility (your post office), then again at the destination facility and lastly when it is actually picked up or dropped off at the destination address. They do sometimes get scanned at random places along the way, but usually not.

If you shipped them out "manually" (ie, you didn't print the label through an online service) and used the little sticky labels, then the delivery confirmation tag should have had a nice neon green label. The tracking stickies are neon pink.


Here's an idea of what the basic Delivery Confirmation will show:
Delivered, January 09, 2009, 2:04 pm, MANCHESTER, NH 03102
Arrival at Unit, January 09, 2009, 3:02 am, MANCHESTER, NH 03103
Acceptance, January 05, 2009, 2:21 pm, BELLEFONTE, PA 16823

Yes, this was a late delivery, it should have been a 2 day, and it contained LIVE snails, but they did make it just fine. For some reason, the other packages that were sent out the same day to FURTHER states (all the way across the nation) arrived earlier than this woman's package. Just a fluke, it happens once in awhile.


As far as "Track & Confirm" goes, you use the same box for Tracking numbers as well as Delivery Confirmation numbers, so they just made a shortcut instead of having to type it all out.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Ahhhh so they are different. I still don't understand why the 3 other shipments were tracked and arrived on time (I used the lime-green Confirmation Delivery labels :-s) And now for a second time this shipment to NY is in a black hole, exactly like the first and late.

Shrug
Gate