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This seems like an area where there could be a lot of improvement.
I was recently tracking a package by UPS, and it was expedited 2-day shipping.
They shipped out of California, and I'm two states north, in Washington.
They flew the package to Ottawa? If I recall, somewhere in Canada that wasn't BC, for some reason.
From there it wound up in one of the nearest "major" (200k+ people + airport) cities to me.
Then 2 days of nothing from UPS. That's about an hour away from me up the interstate.
I actually contacted them about that, because the only update I got was when they switched the date from "Monday" to "Tuesday" without updating anything else at all.
As a customer who paid extra to get it in 2-days and has a lot out waiting on this package, I was very unhappy with UPS. Enough to contact them.
The tracking actually made the situation worse in terms of how I felt, in this case, because of all of the above.
Some observations:
What made me frustrated was that there was not even any checking in for 2 days. I understand the weekend being what it is, but it went dark yesterday too.
What compounded that frustration was that they inexplicably flew the thing to Canada first, and then they let it sit for 2 days an hour from me without telling me why.
What they could do to improve these applications I think, is
A) Make sure to notify customers at least once a day, and try to give them news. Even if it's just a reason for a delay (inclement weather, or whatever)
B) Attach reasons to things that don't make sense on their face. Why did my package end up in Canada? Why was it sitting for two days?
B might be more difficult, but if the software on UPS employees end had fields for reasons (even dropdowns) any time they had to enter anything into the system, and they had to mark delays with reasons, it could facilitate B. I can think of some ways to do it that probably wouldn't slow down the existing workflow much if at all.
But like, this isn't the first time, or the only shipper that I've found could stand some improvement.
I mean, this actually made me lose some faith in UPS, and I'm sure that's not what they hoped for when they added package tracking features to their site.
Edit: Okay the two days was more like 1 and a half but still.
Real programmers use butterflies
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You'd think they were good at that.
I received my new laptop.
In the morning FedEx said it was in the local warehouse and was "delayed".
5 minutes later, it was dropped at my condo lobby.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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At least in that case they were wrong in your favor.  But yeah, could be improved.
Real programmers use butterflies
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I generally get notifications from Amazon that my package "will be delivered today" the day after it is handed to me ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Maybe if you're in Vancouver WA, something went wrong and it got tagged as a Canadian shipment? In which case UPS might do all their customs clearing in Ottawa - though I would have thought Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver BC much more likely. But often tracking packages, I'm sure that that what the tracking software says and reality are different. Particularly when customs is involved, it gets weird, at least in terms of US/Canada shipments. I've seen the tracking location change back and forth across the border several times, when in reality, I suspect it was just moving through a customs office,somewhere.
Keep Calm and Carry On
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Yeah I thought that was weird. I'm really suspicious that I misread it somehow, but I remember doing a double take on it because it was so odd.
Real programmers use butterflies
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USPS aka Snail Mail is no better.
I shipped a couple of books in a package from Cincinnati to suburban Toronto.
The package went to Charleston, West Virginia, then to Chicago and then stayed in Chicago for 3 weeks before going to Toronto!
Another two packages, shipped from Chicago to Fremont, California had a strange history. One was delivered in 5 days and the other went to Spokane and made its way leisurely to Fremont. Both were to go to the same address in Fremont but I guess one package took the scenic route.
Yet another package shipped out of Chicago to San Jose, CA just disappeared. The package could not be tracked with the ID that the USPS had assigned to it. After complaining to the post office in San Jose, they managed to locate the package and delivered it.
We are talking July and October timeframes, not the busy Christmas holiday season.
I swore I would not USPS again except that the alternative of UPS is seemingly no better. 
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I had a similar experience with USPS where a tracking went “dark”. The vendor confirmed and graciously sent a replacement at their expense. About 6 weeks after the original order, the original shipment arrived. It took 2 attempts, but the local post office sent it back to the shipper. They were still out a few dollars for the reship, but they should be able to resell the part.
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I got my recent laptop from amazon about 2 months ago. FedEx was the same way. I think that amazon told me I'd have it in 7 days. FedEx told me I'd have it on two day. It sat in a 'warehouse' for those two days. On day 2 Fedex changed it to day 3, but it was still showing in California. (I'm in Oklahoma.) On day 3 they changed it to day 5. On day 5 it appeared to be sitting in a 'warehouse' in Dallas, and they changed it to day 7. On day 7 it was shown to be in a 'warehouse' in Edmond, about 30 minutes away. And that never changed, but about 2:00 on day 7 it showed up on my doorstep.
I thought, obviously incorrectly, that the packages are scanned at each location and as it is put on the truck. I'm guessing that they miss the scans a lot. They need a CodeProject dev to help them out.
Ron
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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Ron Nicholson wrote: They need a CodeProject dev to help them out.
NEEDZ SCANNIN APP. SEND CODEZ URGENT
(but don't send it via UPS / FedEx / Amazon etc)
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honey the codewitch wrote: What they could do to improve these applications I think, is
A) Make sure to notify customers at least once a day, and try to give them news. Even if it's just a reason for a delay (inclement weather, or whatever)
B) Attach reasons to things that don't make sense on their face. Why did my package end up in Canada? Why was it sitting for two days?
Those would be nice but would require a different system from what they currently use. It would require people.
It was sitting there for two days because it was probably waiting for more packages to places near you.
Once I saw a documentary on how major shipping companies work (with actual footage of their systems) and, I am sure there is room for improvement but, their tracking is a lot more complex than someone realizes at first thought.
I will try to describe the process if anyone is interested but be warned, it is long
First: Almost everything is automated with no human intervention. Trucks with packages arrive at the processing centers, humans unload to an unloading conveyor and the packages follow on to a computer guided main conveyor from where they are guided to a "same destination" storage. While on the main conveyor they are also often x-rayed and go through a chemical detector, specially international shipping.
If a package does not have a label visible, the computer sends it on to another conveyor where it is flipped and sent to the beginning of the track (the main conveyor). If the package circulates the system too many times, because the label is too damaged to be read by the computer, it is diverted to an "unreadable label" storage where it will wait for a human to get there and input the data manually and print a new label.
The new label is glued to the package and the is package sent to the beginning of the main conveyor. This is the part where most of the packages get "lost" because the data is input incorrectly. Others get lost because the computer misread the label.
When enough packages are gathered, they are picked up by humans into trucks/planes for the next leg of their journey.
That "same destination" are usually major distribution centers. Lets say you buy something on CityA to be delivered on cityB and those two cities are next to each other with a common border. Your packages will still go to CityC where the distribution center is, even if that center is far away. The reason for this will be clearer later.
The tracking is only updated when a package enters or exits a distribution center because those are the only times when the label is scanned. But it is not immediate to a user because the database they use for their internal tracking is not the same that is used to display information for an user. That information must be mirrored and that takes time due to the size of the database (and is probably on a timer).
Second: Their software must track many millions of packages worldwide with route planning on top. As you might know, route planning is taxing. Finding all solutions for the traveling salesman problem is complex. What they do is use approximations. One of the approximations is to make all packages go through/leave the closest distribution center.
This implies that a "clean" route can be calculated faster by having the same starting/end point, instead of calculating for every pickup and dropout point. The side effect is having stupid routes (from the perspective of whom is following the package tracking).
Another approximation, which is related to the previous, is to use local routing. Each city is divided by areas that have complete "circular" routes in them. This means that there are no paths that go directly in and out, providing trucks with paths that allow them to circle back to another street inside the same area.
This leads to another "stupid route" in which packages in adjacent streets are picked by different trucks and end up in different distribution centers. And, because those areas keep changing depending on where packages are, this might even happen to packages that are picked up from the same place at different times (sometimes minutes apart).
All those decisions they make on how their system works are obviously money driven. They try that those routes, the amount of trucks/planes, and the grouping of packages are minimized so that they can have less employees, less trucks/planes, spend less fuel, etc. This too is computed by their tracking software.
Hope this helps enlighten why some things happen to packages.
That said, I hope no one will let the carriers get away with it when they do not deliver what they promise when they promise. It is our way to force them to improve 
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The worst experience I had and it was with UPS.
I had ordered a hitch mounted crane which is really heavy. The tracking showed that it made to the distribution warehouse in my town and then it said it out for delivery. Then later in the morning a new tracking entry showed that it was "Refused by customer". I was at work at that time and it was being delivered by my mom's house because she was going to be home all day. I called her and she said that no one attempted to deliver anything.
So I called UPS's phone number to find out what the deal was and I couldn't get past the "please enter tracking #" part of the automation. After about 30 minutes of that, including getting hung up on and me almost throwing my phone across the office I finally realized that I was missing a few numbers of the tracking #. I called again and this time entered the correct / full tracking # and then I finally got a real person. They transferred me to the warehouse that had the package and they said that they had the package and it was damaged. I said I would come to the them and inspect the package and if it was all there I would accept it. While I was at the warehouse I asked why the driver would say that I had refused the package when they hadn't even attempted to deliver the package. They said that the driver just selected that as the reason from a dropdown list. 
I also hate USPS (US Postal Service) for package tracking. It is hit or miss. I've had packages show that it was shipped and then several days later it was delivered and then the tracking shows delivered, nothing in between even though it was sent half way across the country.
Kelly Herald
Software Developer
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Delivery issues are not exclusive to the US.
On December 11 one of my monitors failed and after searching for a suitable replacement I ordered two* that afternoon from my usual supplier.
*Two, a) to provide a spare and b) because the existing ones were 24" and I could only find 27" at a reasonable price.
The order was acknowledged the same day, and their confirmation email said they expected them to leave their warehouse on December 13. But then...
Decmber 18. The delivery company finally picked up the monitors from their Melbourne, Victoria warehouse at 1:25pm.
December 21. They left Melbourne at 4:03pm.
December 22. Arrived in Sydney, New South Wales at... hello, what's this? One arrived at 8:42am, the other at 9:37am!!!
They were both delivered later that afternoon, by different drivers, in different trucks, several hours apart.
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Sounds like there's a price to pay for this drink (5)
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Well, there is a cocktail called "Atoll" - also known as a "Bikini Atoll"[^]
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Near enough , I was looking for atole but I believe it has various spellings YAUT
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Are brand names allowed? - COSTA
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Ha ha - nope 
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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What is your preferred way to back up personal data like photos, videos etc? I am confused between buying a SDD vs using online services like Google Drive/Dropbox. Any suggestions?
Edit - I read SDD are more fragile compared to HDD and I do have disks which have lasted decade or more so even HDD is fine as I do not really care about read write speeds.
Edit 2 - I created another google account to store photos and video back ups there. Meanwhile, if I get a good deal, I will might get an HDD for offline backup. Based on price factor, I would choose between multiple smaller disks over one big one.
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
modified 21-Dec-21 11:58am.
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For code I use GitHub, for documents (pictures, videos and such) I let Google do the backup...
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Are paid services cheaper for long run compared to buying hardware? I have over 15 GB of media and I see that Google and cheapest and most lenient with free storage. Of course I can have multiple free accounts which would then lead to question - what's a good password manager?
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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When you buy a piece of hardware you loose any warranty the moment you first use it... and even you do have warrant on the hardware there is no guaranty that you will actually able to retrieve your data...
As I see cloud backup has more chance to be there for the long run, because the annual fee you pay gives you a bit better guaranty without you spending time (and time is money)
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Except that there is no guarantee that the cloud service will be accessible when you want it (see GOV.UK/Amazon/Google outages passim) or that the service won't be shut down in a weeks time and all your data lost.
Even IBM (the largest company in the world at the time) nearly went bust a few years ago.
If the data is important to you, then multiple copies on local storage is the only way to be reasonably sure that when you need that info it will be available. And testing/refreshing the backups too!
Cloud storage is fine as an extra backup, but relying on it totally is just asking for trouble.
BTDTGTTS!
It's been a good few years since SSDs were less reliable than hard-storage. The main difference being that data can sometimes be recovered from failed HDs, less so from failed SSDs as they have different failure mechanisms.
The only known media to last for millenia are some forms of paper, parchment and vellum, and inscribed clay or stone!
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