Why is click-N-ship confirmation so poor?

[dpd1]

I used the normal USPS priority confirmation slip on hundreds of packages for years, and I don't recall ever having one that didn't get logged in after it was delivered. Since we finally switched to click & ship, I've found that maybe 1/4 of them don't get logged when delivered. Some never get past the "we were notified" stage. What's up with that? Why would it be so different? I asked the postal workers and just got a blank stare of course.

[Conard]

If your using Click and Ship there is a way to print a "scan sheet".
You would give that to the carrier or counter person to scan and all the packages in that batch would be scanned into the system.

With the old confirmation tags, each package was or should have been scanned in when you dropped them off at the Post Office.

[dpd1]

I don't really need it tracked from the start, but that affects whether it gets scanned when delivered too?

[Conard]

For some reason, on some systems, if the package isn't scanned at acceptance no further scans are shown.

I have never been able to get to the bottom of the issue with any P.O. official but some of them do know that it happens.

[dpd1]

Wow, that's really lame. There's companies sending out way more stuff than I do. I can't believe they expect people to do a whole separate document just to make the confirmation work the way it's supposed to.

[HRoth]

I found the same thing with click-and-ship. Not to mention the number of screens, the length of time it took to print a label, etc. I switched to stamps.com and like it a lot better. And the address parser is not such a hardass as the one at USPS either.

[sun818]

Retail delivery confirmation (the green form) is always scanned at the counter. For electronic delivery confirmation (eDC) which we use in conjunction with the SCAN form, about 10% of packages not scanned as "delivered". The 25% you state would be true for us if we also counted the packages enroute. It makes me wonder if the color on the retail delivery confirmation encourages the carrier to scan the package.

[dpd1]

The fact that they look at the confirmation as being 'free' probably doesn't help either. Can't really complain about something that's free. But still, it's really weird how reliable the green sticker was in comparison. Honestly, the main reason to use it for me is being able to drop off. Other than that, it almost seems slower. Plus, it throws things out of wack, because we use to print orders with the address and item and stick it on the box, then use that as a simple way to keep orders straight through the process. Can't really do that now, unless you're positive you know what day it will go out, but even then, you still don't know the weight. So a note has to be put on the box with the name and item, which seems like a waste of time.

I guess we're out of luck on the stamps.com, since we use Mac.

[sun818]

There is always parallels. Endicia also has a Mac version of their software which would be a competitor to Stamps.com. Priority eDC is free, but we pay $0.18 for First Class Mail. I don't know if mail carriers even know or care about the fee difference between the two. It does make you think that thermal printers could print green in some places, that could conceivably change the delivery scan rate.