What is shipping?

This is not your normal blog post from me by a long shot! Having a small business selling products internationally, I have learned a lot about shipping packages. I have also developed strong opinions about business practices around shipping. Very recently, I ordered several products from a popular hobby electronics company with a "sparkling" reputation. I got a shipping notice within a day and yet 3 days later US Postal Service tracking says they still have not received the package.

This triggered my biggest pet peeve - how many businesses use the term "Shipped" in an utterly loose fashion. From a customer's perspective, the ordering and shipping process is simple. You place your order, get a confirmation, wait a while and then get an email (or text or whatever) that the product has been shipped. Internally, the process is more complex: your order is received, payment is processed, shipping address is verified, a packing list and shipping label is created, the ordered items are pulled from inventory, shipping container (box, envelope, bag, whatever) is pulled, order is packed and finally handed off to the shipping carrier (USPS, UPS, FedEx,...).

Where in this process do you think most companies notify you that the package has shipped? If you said "when handed to the carrier" you would be wrong more often than not. In fact, the shipping notification is often sent when the label is printed. In my own business, the first shipping label software I used sent the customer an email saying it was shipped when I bought the postage and printed the label. Being a one-man-band, I print the label, package the order and take it to the post office within a reasonably short period of time. But larger companies that have multiple departments (and people) involved can't claim the same. I do send out a shipping notice with the tracking number when I actually take the package to the Post Office. If you order from me, that notice means the carrier has the package.

I had another situation where I bought a "kickstarter" product, waited 6 months and got a shipping notice. However, the USPS tracking number kept coming back as "awaiting package". When I contacted the company, they hemmed and hawed and finally said that they were out of stock and I would have to wait another month for the next production batch. Clearly their internal processes are a mess. This was not the first time their poor processes have cause problems for me. Great products, crappy business. Oh well.

Why do companies do that? The simple answer is they want you to think that they are on top of your order and jump to it as soon as you place it. Perhaps it is also to cover up the fact that their order fulfillment is a creaky, sloppy process that the company underfunds. I wish they would just be honest and tell me when the package was handed to the carrier, not when they printed the label. Printing does not equal shipping.

So, what can you do? Well, frankly not a lot. But you can use the tracking number to keep an eye on the shipping process. I think all shipping carriers have a waiting for package ("label printed but package not received") status. If after 24 hours, the status is still "waiting" contact the company. If after several days, escalate your concern. It may not get your package to you any faster but it can catch shipping errors. And, if enough people complain to customer support about long delays between "shipped" and actual shipping, companies may improve their processes.

About Me.

I'm Phil Barrett, a long time CNC enthusiast. I run a small company, Brookwood Design, that makes several breakout boards for grblHAL and love to help people get the most out of their CNC machines.