Why do online retailers send you an email that a product was “shipped”, when the status is just label created or carrier awating package etc.
In: Other
I actually write shipping software. Usually, the label getting created is one of the last step as it goes out the door. Once the label is applied, it’s put on a pallet, and that pallet is put on a truck that UPS/FedEx picks up at the end of the business day. A few minutes after that, we send out the shipping confirmation email.
The pickup occurs at about 6pm, but it doesn’t get scanned into their system until 10pm-midnight. That’s when the status changes from label created. UPS doesn’t know what’s actually on the truck until they unload it. They can make a guess about it based on what labels we created, but if it didn’t actually end up on the truck, they don’t want to be blamed.
It’s not uncommon for a package to be ready, sitting in a FedEx trailer at 10am, and the status is “carrier awaiting package”… and the status won’t change for another 12 hours.
Latest Answers