Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Shipping Apps....

Being the voracious online shopper that I am, I thought that it would be most prudent to download all of the shipping apps known to man...or at least those that are available to North Americans.  There are four that I know of...USPS (United States Postal Service), UPS (United Parcel Service - I think), FedEX, and Canada Post.

Personally, I try and NOT use UPS or FedEx if I can help it.  As in, I try not to order from places that use UPS or FedEx.  Not because they are more expensive (which I'm sure that they are) but because of two things - I live in a condo so if there's nobody home to sign, then I'm not getting the package.  They leave a nice little note for you, telling you that they will try again (but like 95% of the population, I have a 7ish-5ish job) or I can call to arrange to pick it up.  And guess what?  Their operating pick up hours are between 9 (I think - either way, it's not early enough for me) to about 5:30pm.  Now, for someone who works way in the south and who often gets off around 5pm, how am I suppose speed my way across town within half an hour?  Especially now that this darned city is choked with cars?  So..if those two are options and I have no choice but to purchase them, I will get the purchase sent to my husband's work, where the front office people are awesome for signing for all the crap that I buy and for his bosses for laughing at my crazy shopping habits.  Obviously, I don't want a new package to arrive at his work EVERY week, I think that it would just start to ignore his bosses.  The biggest thing is that now my husband KNOWS that I purchase something.  I guess, not that he wouldn't know even if I got it sent to my house.  He would ultimately be the one driving to the post office to pick it up I suppose The nice little korean lady that works at the post office near our place LOVES my husband.  It's hilarious.  She always asks him what his wife is buying now.....I'm sure that he answers that she's a professional shopper.  Or something to make me look bad.  :P.  

Anyways, so that leaves me with two shipping apps left - USPS and Canada Post.  I used to think that CP sucked.  Royally sucked.  The tracking online didn't always work when you entered in your tracking number, it wasn't consistent with sending you emails on the status of your shipment.  USPS...well, all you every got was your initial tracking number and then it was all up to the fates.  Now, it's great with these apps, I don't have to worry about constantly logging into my email to check on the status, or typing in the bajillion alpha-numberical sequence that they call a tracking number.  I type it in once into the app and done!  Or so you would have thought!  Alas, the last status update I have on something I ordered on the 3rd is for the 7th.  And today is????  Nice....

Canada Post, I've just started using and so far, it's been fantastic.  It even tells you when someone has signed for it, or it's been successfully delivered.  It's easy to use.  Open app, click on tracking and you enter in your tracking number once and it's saved.  When you've received your package, you can delete it.  It's been up to date for the three packages that I've received and tracked through CP so far.  And I mean, it's updated in pretty close to real time.  Or at least in a couple of hours of the actioning.  

So...perhaps..USPS....you should take a cue as to what CP is doing, because obviously they are doing it better.

No comments:

Post a Comment