t 'n t luoma

Now this is really useless. It’s 11:40 p.m. on Friday the 16th, and here’s what USPS.com says about my package:

Current Status

You entered 9102 0012 0693 2242 1290 05

Your item was processed and left our CINCINNATI, OH facility on September 14, 2005. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

Certainly something has happened in the past two days. Cincinnati is 3 hours from here. Two days with no updates? Come on.

Posted by TjL at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, so now this morning there’s an update. But it’s just as useless as always.

Note the estimated delivery date line is gone. Why is that important? Well, because it also says “On vehicle for delivery” ... but does that mean that they are going to try and deliver it today?

My guess is that the answer is no. Based on my previous experiences with FedEx.com, I know that what this really means is “Your package has been loaded onto the delivery vehicle, but it won't go anywhere until Monday.”

How could this be improved? It’s so simple I don’t understand why I have to explain it.

1. Keep the “Estimated Delivery” line. If it said either ”Sep 10, 2005” or ”Sep 12, 2005” that would be helpful.
2. Give a more truthful status line. “on FedEx vehicle for delivery” is probably technically true but is misleading. As it is, they have provided (probably) accurate-but-unhelpful information.

FedEx.com needs a link under the “Status” line “What does this mean?” If someone clicked on that link it would explain all the various lines in the “Activity” column. The explanation for “On FedEx vehicle for delivery” would explain that does not necessarily mean that the package will be delivered today.

The page would also explain what other updates to expect, and the last status line before delivery should be clear and unambiguous: “Left FedEx facility for delivery.”

Update: As Bill noted below, I was wrong about my guess and I did receive it on Saturday. I've meant to post a followup, so I'm glad that he reminded me. I would have posted a comment instead of editing the post, but I wanted to include the screenshot of the delivery notice:

And here’s something that FedEx did really well: you’ll notice that the time of delivery is 6:06 p.m. At approximately 6:10 p.m. I had received a text message that the package arrived.

I had signed up for their package status subscription and it worked perfectly and in a very timely manner (the sign up information is right below the tracking information, so once you have tracked a package there are the fields you need to fill in to track, it asks for format (HTML, Text, or Wireless) and gives it to you all on the same page. (If you click on the image just above you will be taken to the tracking page and can see for yourself. Note: link will open in a new window.)

So they did deliver on Saturday, which surprised me.... which underscores the problem with the site: “On vehicle for delivery” has, in the past, meant “but not today”... they need a status update of “Out for delivery” or some such to make it more clear.

Here’s something a little strange... the contents of the package were damaged (I do not think it was FedEx, I think it was shipped that way) and the company gave me a return label... using UPS. So the story continues... I guess now I’ll have a chance to test their tracking from the other direction.

Posted by TjL at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sigh.... once again FedEx.com is useless.

Useless as in the wrong information and not updated in anything approaching a timely fashion.

(For those who can’t see the image, the estimated delivery is September 9th and the current date is September 10th, and the last update is 5:30 a.m. “Arrived at FedEx location”)

For those of you who are in the business of providing time-sensitive data: it is useless if it isn’t kept up to date. Don’t tell someone ”It will be there by “X” and let “X” pass without some sort of an update. At that point, no information would be better than wrong information... but my guess is that your job sorta depends on providing that information, so it had better be right. Otherwise... what is your job again?

Posted by TjL at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I recently had to completely reset my Airport Extreme and Airport Express base stations.

I had a heck of a time trying to configure the Airport Express properly. I don't know if it was a problem of knowing too much or too little, but nothing worked. Fortunately I was able to call Apple and they helped me get hooked up, but I wanted to make note of how this works in case I ever need to do it again.

These instructions assume that the Airport Extreme is already setup and that your Mac has joined that network.

1. Unplug the Airport Express
2. Hold down reset button and plug it back in
3. Wait for 4 flashes
4. run Airport Setup Assistant
5. Choose: Setup a new Airport
6. Join existing network
7. Extend range

Boom, 7 simple steps... simple, if you do them in the right order.

Posted by TjL at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)