Holes in the Experience
August 22nd, 2007
You’ve probably lived this scenario: You buy a product online — one you’re anxious to receive. The e-commerce vendor sends you a confirmation saying the product has been shipped and giving you a tracking number. You click on the supplied link with the tracking number you just received only to receive this message:
UPS could not locate the shipment details for your request. Please very your information and try again later.
[Note: UPS is not unique with this problem. FedEx has exhibited the same behavior and I'm betting the other major shippers all have flavors of it.]
Now, if you look carefully at this example, you’ll see there is a valid UPS number. It was delivered by the shipper to the user.
The user doesn’t need to verify the information — it’s perfectly fine.
The problem is what’s going on at UPS. The user’s mental model is the product is in the shipping system. And it is, in that the shipper has requested a number to attach to a package.
But it hasn’t made it to the server (dare we say “legacy mainframe”?) which serves the tracking system. There’s a lag between the systems.
And this is where the frustration begins. The e-commerce vendor wants to deliver a seamless experience, but here, out of the gate, we’ve discovered a big hole. The vendor tells me my package is on the way, but the shipper disavows any knowledge of it. The product (already paid for) is in some sort of shipping limbo, which is exactly what the tracking system was put on earth to avoid — it’s supposed to tell you where things are and not deliver this funny way of saying “We have no clue what you’re asking for.”
What could UPS do? Well, they could change the message to be more honest. They could say, for example, “You’ve tracked a valid package number, but our systems are slow and we haven’t moved the information we gave your vendor to give you into the computer that lets us tell you where it is. Sucks, doesn’t it? Imagine how miserable it must be for us!”
Or, they could do the right thing and upgrade their systems to give faster feedback. I’m sure that’s neither cheap nor easy, otherwise they would’ve done it already.
The result of not doing either is this hole in the user’s experience. If the user is patient enough (and tries again), the hole will be plugged. But, until then, they are left wondering if something has gone wrong when, in fact, nothing has. Not a good way to start a relationship, is it?
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:17 am
Same problem in Germany: Seems like we live on the same planet..
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:46 am
Same problem in the UK: and utterly frustrating.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Yes, this problem definitely bugs me. I am one of the patient users that will just check back later, but it does frighten me a little bit to think that there is that much of a disconnect between their servers. I’d hate to see what happens if one of them goes down.
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
[...] hole in the user’s experience. August 22, 2007 | Filed Under Web, Usability, User [...]
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Why not sending the mail a little later, when the server has been updated with the information ?
August 22nd, 2007 at 3:16 pm
It reminds me of how annoyed I get when my order is taking way too long at a restaurant, and the waiter or waitress is way too eager to blame the kitchen. Except this is worse because its effect is to blame the user, presuming the entered tracking number is wrong. That would be like the waiter telling me it’s my fault because I ordered something that was hard to cook!
August 22nd, 2007 at 5:02 pm
IIRC, the United States Postal Service goes for the honest message. Something to the effect of “if your package was sent recently it may not be in our system yet.” Which is annoying, but less disconcerting than the UPS error message!
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Don’t know the details, but another consideration: Are UPS and FedEx essentially disavowing responsibility for a package that has not yet actually been delivered to them? Th shipper may have a number and a label, but that doesn’t mean it’s been scanned into the driver’s device yet.
I’ve always kind of blamed the shipper for providing me a number immediately even though it seems unlikely that the package is on a UPS or FedEx truck yet. The shippers need to examine their language the same as UPS and FedEx do. Something like, “this will be your number once we actually get your book to our shipping agency.”
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:55 am
Completely agree with you. I feel, application should be design in such a way that it should 1st tell users that normally it will take # hours to update the information on site… or please track your product after # hours of order.
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
To make up for this hole, the vendor has to step-up to tell the customer that the number may not be tracked immediately upon purchase. In all e-commerce sites, it’s like that. Shipping info is usually available in end-of-day or early evening. For next day service, sometimes it doesn’t even show up until it’s delivered.
At this day and age, you’d think “real-time” is applied to every application like this. Not so.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
p.s. I just got this lovely message from Marks & Spencer (run on Amazon technology)
“You can track your delivery using this number 1234567890. (Please note your tracking information may not be showing yet as it is still being processed through our carrier’s systems)”.
Not resolved the tracking company’s issue, but at least they manage expectations.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:54 am
[...] What could UPS do? Well, they could change the message to be more honest. They could say, for example, “You’ve tracked a valid package number, but our systems are slow and we haven’t moved the information we gave your vendor to give you into the computer that lets us tell you where it is. Sucks, doesn’t it?” Source: [Link] [...]
September 6th, 2007 at 11:14 am
British Airways recently misplaced my bag on both the outbound and return trip — a new low in a field where expectations are already not that high. The online tracking pages for lost baggage happily stated a “delivery date”, though I clearly hadn’t received my bags. The BA agent also couldn’t tell where it was… apparently the last step, where the courier picks it up from the airport is not recorded, so it’s unclear if the bag is currently in possession of the airport or the courier.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Actually, UPS *does* have that message, and it’s displayed when UPS has knowledge of a package but doesn’t physically have it yet.
The disconnect referenced here actually happens on the side of the shipper - the shipper uses an offline system to generate labels and tracking numbers. UPS doesn’t actually know about these tracking numbers until the shipper uploads the data. When the shipper uploads is up to him or her, but is usually at close-of-business. So THAT’S the source of the disconnect - the time lag between when the shipper generates the tracking number and when s/he lets UPS know.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Kelley,
That could be true. However, the tracking number is definitely a UPS number. The messaging could still say something like, “We haven’t found this package in our system yet, probably because the shipper has only just put the label on the package. Within the next 24 hours, we’ll hear about it and can tell you when you’ll receive it. Would you like us to email you when our system hears about it?”
I’m betting there’s 100 ways UPS could make this work better.
The other option would be for the sender to delay sending the tracking number until they’re sure UPS has it in their system, since human nature would be to check the progress as soon as the email arrives.
December 4th, 2007 at 7:01 am
I’ve never had that happen before but I had that happen to me tonight. I’m hoping it’s a lag in the system and that I haven’t been ripped off.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Your opener paragraph was funny, because it was exactly my scenario. The ability to track these numbers was the reason that they have the “legacy mainframe,” right? So if it does lag, then it didn’t achieve the goal the product was built for. Maybe I’m too black and white, I don’t know. But, this differently sucks, this makes those times actually buying the more expense product from brick and motor stores, actually worth it.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:29 pm
thanks for this info.
Bought a game from gamestop and had this EXACT problem.
If you dont mind I quoted you over here:
http://forums.xbox.com/AddPost.aspx?PostID=23446556
dont want to get sued or anything lol…
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
[...] in Holes in The Experience, I talked about what happened if you asked UPS about a package that your e-commerce vendor has [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Funny, The shipper told me. Due to the holiday season in Asia, UPS is slow to update their website with new tracking information. There may also be a slight delay in their shipments. Sorry for the delay, you should be receiving your laser unit within a couple of days. one week has past and I still haven’t received my Package.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Yep, this just happened to me. My package could come tomorrow or anytime between then and Friday by my reckoning but since the UPS dope knocks once and then leaves my package sitting in front of the door, chances are good (since I live in a poor area) that if I don’t open the door and retrieve it within the outside of an hour at most, someone else will retrieve (steal) it. So I have a Doctor’s appointment tomorrow that I am going to have to reschedule because of this, or I run the chance of losing a $100 piece of hardware to some sticky-fingered little punk who happens by and sees my box just sitting there.