Adding tracking codes after marking an item as shipped

Hi,

There seems to be a flaw in the process for marking an item as shipped and adding a tracking code.

I had a customer cancel an order recently just as I was about to ship the item, so it seems that I need to mark items as shipped BEFORE I ship them i.e. when I am heading out to my local Fedex store so that I don’t have the customer cancel while I am in the process of shipping.

The issue that there seems to be no way to add the tracking code after I have marked the item as shipped. In fact there is no way for me to send any message to the customer via Tindie so I have to email them directly and they may not recognize my email address.

I’d appreciate any tips on this.

Thanks,

Andy.

Having a new state “Processing” would solve the issue. Seller would set this state before shipping the item. Order with this state could be cancelled only if the seller agrees. After the item is shipped the order would be updated to “Shipped”

All good points - this definitely can be improved for these cases. I think the tricky part would be so lets say we add “Processing,” how long does that last? Is there a time limit on it? We wouldn’t want a seller to just mark an order real quick as processing to freeze an order for a week or more.

What do you all think about that?

Emile

Yes, this is a very good idea. In my case I would be fine with a processing window as little as 2 hours but I’m sure other people have different situations and may need a longer window.

I pick up a stack of Tracking Codes from USPS and add the codes to Tindie as I pack them up. So in my case I would like to be able to skip the “processing” step and go straight to shipped. Having the option for a processing state does seem reasonable and I think 24 hours is the max I would give the seller to actually ship and 12 hours would be the shortest time I would give them. I wouldn’t do 3 hours because life happens and 24 hours would be a reasonable amount of time for a seller to correct an unforeseen event such as getting to their post office and finding out the office is closed because of Veterans day.

What about a custom work, that requires a week or longer to finish? Once you start manufacturing custom item for a customer, you don’t want them to cancel the order in the process because you spent resources on it and can’t resell it.

I’d like to get this conversation going again … I still have a choice of marking items as shipped without a tracking code (which annoys people) or risking customers canceling their order while I am standing in line at the post office and not knowing… it does seem sensible to be able to mark an item as “preparing to ship” for a small amount of time (24 hours seems reasonable).

Alternatively, can we have the option of adding the tracking code post shipping?

Thanks,

Andy.

I second Andy. This is more of an issue for me now since USPS changed their International tracking forms. I use to provide the customs number for tracking purposes but now the customs forms don’t contain the tracking number. Since I don’t offer tracking for most international orders I have simply been leaving the field blank. Even when I don’t purchase tracking I am able to track the customers order for them so long as I have the Customs number. I have contacts in special places who can look things up for me.

Would like to be able to add it after the fact.

Hi, just to add my two cents on this… It seems like from your “My Orders” sheet, you don’t have the capability to add a tracking number, and so it assumes there isn’t one and I can’t add one later. This is frustrating, since I then have to manually reach out to my customers to tell them the number. It also gives the impression, at least for a few minutes, that I’m a cheapskate and didn’t pay for tracking with my shipping. I’d rather have the Tindie system communicate the number automatically. It seems like only when I click on Order Details and mark it shipped from there can I add a tracking number.

Until I can add a tracking number after the fact, I guess I’ll write a Chrome extension that prevents me from clicking the “Shipped” button on the My Orders page.

I’m disappointed that 4+ years later this still hasn’t been resolved. Just the ability to add a tracking order after the fact is all we really need. How hard can that be?