i got an email from Verizon, confirming my order shipped. If i want to track the order i had to create an account. then i create the account and click to track it and theres no tracking info, just trying to upsell me warranty and accessories. i go to chatbot support and it tells me to go to the same link without tracking. so i call verizon and fight through the terrible voicebots to get a person who gives me the tracking number.. which actually doesnt exist for 3 more days, since it hasnt actually shipped yet. when it actually ships via UPS the website offers to hold my package for pick up if i click a link.. but then i need to create a ups account first. then i do that and it says oh we cant hold this package because of the senders rules.
The tracking number is on the label. There's a tracking number as soon as the label is created, before it's ever printed or slapped on a box. Whether or not a customer is given the tracking number when the label is created is a different story.
I've had plenty of tracking numbers that just take me to a page that says "label created - USPS/UPS/FedEx awaiting item" until the carrier receives it. Some won't give me tracking until it's been picked up by the carrier, because there's no point tracking an item that hasn't shipped, but the number still exists.
Unless something changed in the past 3-5 years, that is not true. I used to sell a lot on Etsy and eBay and both created a tracking number as soon as you generated the label. If you checked it right away, the USPS site would say they hadn't processed the package at the post office yet.
Okay in any fulfillment operation tracking occurs when an order is placed. You need to know when a label is printed, often when specific items are packed, and when that order leaves the building. Bigger operations will have more steps for the fulfillment chain and delivery if they do that part.
From a customer perspective, even your mom and pop shop doing UPS pickup will create a label with tracking so the customer knows when their shipment has entered the delivery chain.
The order goes to the warehouse. The item(s) are picked. When every thing is completed the shipping/tracking order is printed, stickered, scanned, and put on the truck. That's when the tracking number is sent out.
I don’t know your shop. Everywhere I’ve worked when an order is placed there is an order ID and fulfillment ID and shipping label created automatically, so the order status can be tracked both internally and externally.
At any scale without these you’ll never be able up identify errors in the process.
And that certain point is earlier than you are saying lol.
Most customer facing shipping tacking numbers are generated as soon as the order is placed, then is updated when the order is prepared, and again when its shipped out.
Unless we live in very different countries and have completely different shipping companies anyways.
yep thats when they should announce that it shipped. not when the order was entered. and it shouldnt take a $177Billion dollar consumer company 3 days to get a box out the door.