I have not been shipping things long, so I don’t have a lot of experience. However, the things I have shipped have all been a pretty similar pattern. Except for the last two. Both times I dropped off the package with the shipping label. The first took two days before it ever was “picked up” and started into the tracking system. Then it was 1 day later than they had listed when I bought the shipping label. Not a big deal.
Then this last week, I dropped off another package. It took two days to get into the tracking system and say that it has “left the UPS facility”. With a note that “The delivery date will be provided as soon as possible.”. Today would be the date that it was delivered according to the date given me when I bought the label (and I know that is just an estimate). Yet, even today, there are no updates on the progress of the package during the shipment.
The last entry in the tracking update is: 04/15/2024
11:51 P.M. On the Way
Departed from Facility
Haslet, TX, United States
Yesterday the UPS site was down almost all day on and off. Is this normal or expected from time to time? I can’t imagine that UPS has the room to just pile up boxes for 4 days at a time and not move them through their system. And, of course, the chat is just an AI bot and there is no one to call.
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The location at which you drop off your package should scan the package, and give you a printed receipt. If they don’t, call them out on it.
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Yes, they did that. I got the receipt.
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Then you call UPS, and ask why their online system does not match the fact of receipt by the authorized UPS agent - that scan on the printed receipt should appear as the first entry in the log of scans showing the package progress.
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do you have a number for UPS I can call that a person answers the phone?
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And maybe I did a poor example of explaining my problem. The entire listing on my tracking right now is this:
04/15/2024
11:51 P.M. On the Way
Departed from Facility
Haslet, TX, United States
8:11 P.M. We have your package
Haslet, TX, United States
04/15/2024
9:38 A.M. Drop-Off
Haslet, TX, United States
04/14/2024
6:49 P.M. Label Created
Shipper created a label, UPS has not received the package yet.
United States
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If it was going somewhere far away, 4 days on a truck before the next scan is not unusual.
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In addition to what @packetfire has noted …
Was it going to a region where there has been severe weather or might have been on a route that went through an area that has had severe weather?
The upper mid section of the country has had some weather events recently.
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It started in Fort Worth and is headed to New Hampshire.
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I had a weird one that shipped last week, or maybe it’s just the new normal. It should have been delivered Tuesday, but when they missed that date, it changed to “The delivery date will be provided as soon as possible.”
It sat at a UPS location for 3 days before it was checked out and moved to the Amazon warehouse 150 miles away. That little map on the Amazon shipments page never had an image the 8 days it took to reach the warehouse.
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I have not noticed UPS tracking/site going down yesterday. It worked during our business hours.
UPS deliveries to Amazon FBA warehouses (Send to Amazon) may track a little differently than standard packages shipped directly to buyers.
A package from TX to NH should have had another location scan by now.
The “8:11pm, We have your package” update on 4/15 makes me think the package really went out on 4/16 due to driver dispatch times.
Has the tracking shown anything new since your last post 5 hours ago?
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I finally got an update today. It arrived at a hub in Mass. and it finally posted me a delivery date of Monday. The estimated date of delivery when I bought the mailing label was this past Thursday. So that’s 4 days later than estimated. Its good to be getting updates at least.
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Also, looks like UPS has had some server problems in the last few days. Not sure if that would be related to the slow tracking updates.
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I think I figured out my issue today. I had to ship another product, so I went to Pirate ship and got several selections for UPS. The cheapest was “Ground Saver”. Which is around $4 cheaper than “UPS Ground”. Now I don’t know the difference in any of these, the only thing that I notice is that Ground Saver estimates the delivery on Saturday (4 days from today) and UPS Ground estimates delivery on Friday (3 days from today).
The date isn’t critical so I chose the cheaper option. When I got the package to UPS, the guy told me to take a picture of the other tracking number on the label because they hand the package off to USPS. The UPS tracking number doesn’t really track the shipment. This was the first time anyone had told me this and I’m too new to any of this to pick up on it myself. I thought if I was buying a UPS shipping label that UPS was shipping it.
He told me that USPS is typically a few days later than estimated. I wish this was more clear when purchasing labels, or maybe I don’t know what to look for.
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USPS has a new contract for UPS to start handling their packages. This sounds like the old program where by USPS was the “last mile” for UPS.
FedEx SmartPost (yes it is still being used by some contracted companies) is the same type program where FedEx handles the package and then hands off to a USPS distribution center for delivery. FedEx SmartPost will track through FedEx; however, the estimated day of delivery is always 2 days longer than the FedEx original estimate (which is the duration of time USPS has the package during delivery). It makes sense because the original estimate date of delivery by FedEx is the time FedEx is in possession of the package.
UPS use to have a program like the FedEx one but it went away when USPS went to only FedEx planes for transport of packages. Now that USPS is flipping and going to UPS only for transport of packages, the “last mile” service with USPS for UPS is probably being restarted (remote rural areas never lost this UPS type service).
When we see this type of delivery service being used as a customer, we figure delivery is at least a week at best and typically a 10 to 14 day thing (we are rural but not remote).
If you decide to use this often, we would suggest watching the actual delivery times and adjust your shipping templates to reflect the additional time to avoid late issues with Amazon.
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These are Etsy shipments. But I might decide to eat the $4 additional to upgrade to UPS all the way. If this shipment is delayed like the last one was, its just not worth it. Its frustrating because I thought if I was buying a UPS label and that meant it was UPS shipping it.
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These hybrid shipping alternatives get attention because of the pricing but lower cost generally results in slower delivery times.
We don’t sell on Etsy and missed that. Still watching actual delivery times with these type services and adjusting customer expectation parameters could be needed on any platform to limit customer “where’s my package” issues.
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