Shout out to businesses that email tracking information and link to their own systems instead of the package delivery service’s tracking system. These third party tracking site plug-ins often lag behind the information provided to them by the delivery service’s site.
Special shout out to those who hide tracking information behind a required account login when they could simply provide the tracking number in the email.
Most special shout out to sites that do not allow you to know anything about a particular order unless you click through to their site and log in. It makes tracking past orders a nightmare.
My side business is a transportation management system (TMS) that communicates with shipping carriers. Because I got so frustrated with this exact problem I developed a series of “hacks” so that when this happens customers don’t actually see it marked shipped until someone confirms it.
It’s very annoying but I think it’s worth it to convey accurate information. A lot of misunderstandings and pissed off customers come from shitty tracking APIs. My other favorite is “out for delivery” when it’s not; they don’t want to get in trouble for delivering it late but by lying to people you’ve just pissed them off even more.
I’ve had more than a few Out for Delivery shipments that take two days or Undeliverable, No One Home when I’ve been home with dogs who tell me when a bird farts so yeah. Those deliver folks are overworked and underpaid but heck it is frustrating.