Why

[TB Roye]

I think this has been answered before. Why does USPS even bother with Track and Confirm with priority mail? The never update it. FedEX, UPS and even DHL does a better job. I am expecting 2 packages and have been notified by Shippping by PayPal that they are expecting the packages and nothing since. The will both probably show up today but whye even bother going through the process. Being retired it livens up my day tracking packages. Opps AC just kicked on 6:51 am PDT 108F today. It is dry heat thought but real smokey.

Tom

[Pappy]

I think this has been answered before. Why does USPS even bother with Track and Confirm with priority mail? The never update it. FedEX, UPS and even DHL does a better job. I am expecting 2 packages and have been notified by Shippping by PayPal that they are expecting the packages and nothing since. The will both probably show up today but whye even bother going through the process. Being retired it livens up my day tracking packages. Opps AC just kicked on 6:51 am PDT 108F today. It is dry heat thought but real smokey.

Tom

I work for them and have the same question. The only thing our system does is provide and after-the-fact timeline of the delivery. Useful in showing wheteher or not an express package was delivered on time.

[TB Roye]

Don

There was one time and only one time did the track and confirm actually worked. It told me the package had been processed at the main office here in town. But that is the only time. I know they process a lot more than UPS, FedX et al. but the computer system must be low bid or high bid junk like other gov. contracts. I am a former worker for the State of Ca so I know how that goes.

Tom

[cwithboat]

Go ahead, complain, but there is something about living in a small town and being able to go down to the PO where the postmaster knows the name of every one in the community. A friendly hassle in good humor and sometimes he can figure out where your package is.

[dkerfoot]

I think this has been answered before. Why does USPS even bother with Track and Confirm with priority mail? The never update it. FedEX, UPS and even DHL does a better job. I am expecting 2 packages and have been notified by Shippping by PayPal that they are expecting the packages and nothing since. The will both probably show up today but why even bother going through the process.

Actually, USPS does a pretty good job of updating the delivery confirmation for Priority Mail, but only if the sender provides a SCAN Sheet to the Post Office when they drop the package off. Most don't bother, so the record shows only that the label was printed and then delivered.

But, it is important to understand that USPS doesn't promote it as a "Tracking" number like that of UPS/FedEx. It is a "Delivery Confirmation" number. It is there so that the sender has a record if the receiver claims it was never delivered. In that capacity, it has proven very useful to me on several occasions.

[TB Roye]

Doug

Thanks for the information. I understand, but now my rant is ruined. Guess I rant on the Temp. and Smoke.

Tom

[jonmulzer]

I was considering starting the same thread yesterday. I have a package that left Amazon on the 3rd and it still only says that the "Electronic Shipping Info Has Been Received." Six days later, no updates. Six days from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, about a 3 hour drive.

They don't provide updates because then you would know that your package was shipped to the other side of the continent, sat around for a few days and then came back, sat it your local depot for a week, went back across the continent and then made a quick u-turn only to deliver the package in three weeks for a 200 mile journey. Government efficiency at its finest.

[jonmulzer]

Actually, USPS does a pretty good job of updating the delivery confirmation for Priority Mail, but only if the sender provides a SCAN Sheet to the Post Office when they drop the package off. Most don't bother, so the record shows only that the label was printed and then delivered.

But, it is important to understand that USPS doesn't promote it as a "Tracking" number like that of UPS/FedEx. It is a "Delivery Confirmation" number. It is there so that the sender has a record if the receiver claims it was never delivered. In that capacity, it has proven very useful to me on several occasions.

My package is coming from Amazon.com, I doubt they would not dot their i's and cross their t's. Also, when you go to the USPS website you click on "Track and Confirm" to get to the page to enter the number. It is supposed to be for tracking also. I always get tracking info......AFTER the package has been delivered. Then I know that the trip from Ohio to Indiana includes a stop off in Washington state. I had been going the wrong way all these years.

[LCHIEN]

so based on my similar experience and that of those who responded here, USPS should really just call it on-line confirmation rather than track and confirm.
They'll tell you a printing of a label ocurred (the shipper has announced his intention to send it by printing the label or it was accepted at the P.O. and a label was printed) and then they'll tell you they delivered it. Nothing really in-between.

[jonmulzer]

You nailed it Loring. Someone should sue for false advertising, lol.

[Im A Little Petunia]

You nailed it Loring. Someone should sue for false advertising, lol.

At the very least USPS should stop charging for a service they really don't provide. True, it's a small amount, but why pay extra for nothing? I was frustrated with the last package I sent a couple of weeks ago - payed extra to be able to Track/Confirm. I learned it arrived in Little Rock, AR on it's way south, but the info ended there!

Lynn

[footprintsinconc]

so based on my similar experience and that of those who responded here, USPS should really just call it on-line confirmation rather than track and confirm.
They'll tell you a printing of a label ocurred (the shipper has announced his intention to send it by printing the label or it was accepted at the P.O. and a label was printed) and then they'll tell you they delivered it. Nothing really in-between.

that is what i said to usps when i did one of those. the name is misleading. you have to ask to know what it really is.

[dkerfoot]

Hate to rain on everyone's "USPS Sucks!" parade, but the Track & Confirm is accurately named.

Priority Mail includes "Delivery Confirmation" for no additional charge. You can add it for a trivial amount for 1st class, etc... Again, very useful for the shipper, less helpful for the recipient.

Express Mail (starts at $16 and is delivered overnight to 95% of the country) includes "Tracking." For our convenience, you can check either "Delivery Confirmation" or "Tracking" numbers from the same online box. Hence the name "Track & Confirm."

I ship between 5 and 30 packages a day via USPS. All I have to do is print out a single SCAN Sheet that contains a single bar code containing the information on all of the packages. The Postal Worker scans the bar code and every package is instantly updated as being received.

Generally speaking, my customers get their products faster and at about 1/2 the cost via USPS than with either FedEx or UPS.

[leehljp]

Go ahead, complain, but there is something about living in a small town and being able to go down to the PO where the postmaster knows the name of every one in the community. A friendly hassle in good humor and sometimes he can figure out where your package is.

My home town is about 1800 people and the PO there is the pits. Everyone knows everyone but if the wrong box number is on the letter, it goes in the wrong box even though they know the correct box. Our box number is one box from the city water dept and a few people send payments that wind up in our box each month.

Many companies will NOT ship to "PO Box" numbers, and the local PO will NOT deliver to a street address, so I have had things returned to the shipper. Now, I cannot order from companies that ship to a street addresses only.

If no "box number" is on the letter or package, they send it back as undeliverable, even if it is registered, confirmation or special kind of notice. Not just for me but for even the mayor.

Their response is: "Just following rules. Do it right and there should not be a problem."


When I was home for a year between 2005/2006, I had a problem with the driver's license bureau. They did not want to put a PO Box number on the DL or use a "PO Box" at all for contact information on renewed licenses. I asked how they intended to contact me if there were some problems. They said they would send via USPS to the street address. I told them that the local PO will not deliver to the street address. They said - Well, they will put it in the PO Box. I replied that the USPS in that town returns anything that does not have a "box number" on it. I finally convinced them and they had to get someone trained in how to manipulate the computer to have the PO Box number as part of the address.


Back in March, my intelligent daughter offered a solution to this mess above. Even Amazon will often reject "P.O. Box" when written into the address system. Her solution: Simply write in "Street number" + "Box number" and leave the "P.O." off. That seems to work fine. The local USPS will have a box number, and companies/agencies do not know that the "box number" is not part of the street (physical) address.

[TB Roye]

Third day no packages, so much for priority mail. I think the holiday weekend screwed them up.

Tom