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Ask HN: Do you do most of your shopping online? Maybe we have the same problem.

3 points by vrikhter ↗ HN
I buy at least one item a week online. My fiancee may buy something every couple weeks as well. How do you keep track all the things being shipped to you? Any tools you use? I tried packagetrackr.com, but for some reason it never worked for me.

15 comments

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bigethan
It'd be fun to have a tripit.com system for shopping.

TripIt has an email address (plans@tripit.com) that you forward any emailed itinerary to. They process the email, figure out where you're going, etc and then put that info into your account. Granted there's are many more formats of shopping confirmation emails than there are airlines, but hopefully you'd only have to teach it a new retailer once.

vrikhter
Ethan, that's exactly what I'm going for! If you're interested in connecting about it let me know (vladik dot rikhter at gmail)
xtac
Simple, I don't. Most of my purchases are from amazon, and I order and forget. I get reminded once I see it at my doorsteps.

There are few services which you can forward tracking number, and they update you when the status has changed.

UPS shows you how many days till delivery now, and you can have them remind you but it does not work too well, always delayed, but never the else I don't see it being useful as something like tripit at all

mooism2
I put a note in my calendar that <package> should have arrived by <date>, then chase it up if it hasn't.

But then, I don't buy that much stuff, so having to keep track of it all on a dedicated site would be overkill.

vrikhter
so a tripit like product wouldn't interest you? i'm less interested in going to a dedicated site, would much rather just get email/sms updates.
mooism2
I don't want e-mail/sms updates. I'd want the information to show up on my calendar.

But also, I'd want the information to be accurate, and such package tracking information as is available where I live doesn't seem to be accurate.

vrikhter
Where do you live?
mooism2
London.
vrikhter
Wow, actually quite surprised. I uploaded my most recent FedEx shipment and what it looked like. You don't get this level of detail: http://img832.imageshack.us/i/fedexq.png/
mooism2
With some companies I'd get that level of detail, but it wouldn't be timely. E.g. the page not mentioning that the package had been put on the van until a few hours after the package had been delivered.

Then there's that knowing the package has been loaded on a van doesn't tell you anything helpful. Once I had a package that was loaded on a van three days in a row.

Maybe it's a question of market segments. FedEx does operate over here, but I imagine they're more expensive than the delivery companies commonly used by UK shopping sites. If I tell you that ParcelForce and CityLink are commonly referred to as ParcelFarce and ShittyLink, that should give you a clue as to the quality of their service.

vrikhter
It may be something as easy as just telling you that package X will be arriving on day Y in your calendar. In this case it's helpful if you have roommates or significant others living with you so they know. It would also be quite helpful for small businesses, or at least the few that I've spoken with. I'll do a bit more customer dev and see what happens.
homecoded
Mhh ... I move all confirmation emails from online purchases in a separate folder on my IMAP. So, I always have a list of all purchases I've made, ordered by date. I don't buy that much stuff online so keeping track using that list usually works fine. Except for xmas, I rarely have more than, say, 2 or 3 packages coming my way at the same time.

I simply keep checking that folder once in a while to see if I received what I ordered.

vrikhter
So a tripit like product for shipping wouldn't interest you?
homecoded
Mhh, not really but that's just me. The email folder works great for me. As I said: The effort of keeping track of my online purchases is not huge. So, another tool is really not necessary. Again, that's just me. ;-)
dagw
Honestly, I don't. Over the years I've trimmed almost all my online shopping down to 6-8 sites that have basically never screwed me over. I order, I forget, stuff shows up without me doing anything.