This argument was already dumb for Reddit but in this case they already made the money. Shipping is paid up front. They gain nothing from where the shipping information is displayed regardless of where it is.
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Deliveries App Loses Functionality as Shipping Companies Refuse to Participate
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Agreed. I was using Deliveries for a long time but it lost so much functionality I jumped over to Parcel have been very happy with it. It even pulls in my Amazon packages automatically, which is something Deliveries just never could figure out.
I've been thinking of switching over to Parcel... can you explain how this works?
Not 100% sure behind the scenes, but I guess it some kind of token?
The user-facing screen looks like this. You add your Amazon account, and if I recall it takes you to an Amazon web screen that asks you to authorize the app. Once set up it just periodically seems to pull in whatever packages are in transit. It will prompt you to renew the authorization from time time, like a few months or so.
And if the package is handed off to another carrier for delivery (as Amazon sometimes does), it will automatically offer to switch tracking. It also does this with international shipments, in my experience, when they are handed off from the overseas carrier to USPS.
Do Amazon orders show up in the app as soon as you place an order, or not until they ship.
Thanks for the explanation.
Thanks for the explanation.
I purchased Deliveries for Mac and iOS years ago. I've been using it since day one. Fantastic app. Now it's lost even more functionality. Parcel came out years after Deliveries and frankly completely ripped it off. Kind of like how Alfred ripped off Butler from Many Tricks but then got much more popular.
I purchased Deliveries too, quite a few years ago. It stopped being useful because it lost the ability to track a growing number of my packages. So I moved on to Parcel. I owe Junecloud nothing if they can't deliver a functional product.
And I have no idea what Butler is/was and do not care at all. Alfred is actively developed and supported. I get a ton of utility from it day in and day out, and I'm happy to pay for it.
Being "first" is just irrelevant. The iPod was not the first MP3 player at all, but the ones that preceded it were crap, so it quickly displaced all of them.
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Parcel shows Amazon (at least for Amazon France and Amazon UK) orders from ordered status, before shipped.
I thoroughly recommend Parcel app, not had any issues with a wide range of big and lesser known delivery services.
Interesting! I tend to see mine (US) only after shipping. Anyway, it's a well implemented feature.
Deliveries had some very janky faked Amazon integration where I believe it was screen-scraping order info after asking you to log in via their in-app browser. It was truly bad, and one of the reasons I abandoned it.
Deliveries was #1 for me because of a simple feature that NO other package tracking app has (if someone knows of one, I'd love to hear it!)
And that feature is the ability to enter in a "placeholder" entry without requiring a tracking number. My process is this: I place an order for an item, then I immediately enter the item into Deliveries using the placeholder feature. Then when I get tracking info, I update the entry with the #.
No, I don't want to use the auto tracking feature where I give access to my email.
Yes, I am willing to pay for the app (up to $5/yr that Deliveries was charging)
But now that Deliveries doesn't work with Fedex and UPS anymore, I am on the hunt for a new app that has the same placeholder feature. I've downloaded and tested probably 10 or so tracking apps from the app store and none of these have the feature. (But somehow those apps work with Fedex and UPS?) Not sure why it won't work with Deliveries but works with other apps (ie. Shop works with those carriers).
Parcel is mentioned a lot on the thread and it's nice but no placeholder ability.
And that feature is the ability to enter in a "placeholder" entry without requiring a tracking number. My process is this: I place an order for an item, then I immediately enter the item into Deliveries using the placeholder feature. Then when I get tracking info, I update the entry with the #.
No, I don't want to use the auto tracking feature where I give access to my email.
Yes, I am willing to pay for the app (up to $5/yr that Deliveries was charging)
But now that Deliveries doesn't work with Fedex and UPS anymore, I am on the hunt for a new app that has the same placeholder feature. I've downloaded and tested probably 10 or so tracking apps from the app store and none of these have the feature. (But somehow those apps work with Fedex and UPS?) Not sure why it won't work with Deliveries but works with other apps (ie. Shop works with those carriers).
Parcel is mentioned a lot on the thread and it's nice but no placeholder ability.
Could you just manually add something with a dummy tracking number? Like name it with the correct title of the thing you're expecting, but put in 0000000000 or whatever as the tracking. You'll get an error, but you'll know to put in the real number when you get it. In Parcel you'd get this:
I still use Deliveries for now. It at least gives me a place to aggregate my tracking numbers so I don't have to hunt through email first.
Can we somehow coax them into updating their app for use with the newer FedEx and UPS APIs?
The developer JuneCloud can be 🔗emailed🔗. I wrote them this:
The developer JuneCloud can be 🔗emailed🔗. I wrote them this:
Please invest some of the revenue from our subscription into updating the app, so that it will be able to again track FedEx and UPS packages inside the app.
Pretty much dead for me also but at least I can show all my shipments in one app. Hopefully this gets fixed or another app comes along.
It's now October 2024 and I doubt anybody's here that cares anymore. UPS and FedEx reporting had long since disappeared from Deliveries. And now after you add an Amazon purchase, it no longer populates with detailed info from the Amazon site including Amazon's estimated delivery date. Now you get "Not Found" every time and it asks you to check if you entered it correctly when the app itself entered the copied order number and allows you to verify that it's Amazon. Only when it's actually shipped MIGHT you see it differently with any other information.
Cue the Carly Simon 007 song with a change of tense: "Nobody did it better. Made me feel sad for the rest…" Now I'm sad for Deliveries.
Cue the Carly Simon 007 song with a change of tense: "Nobody did it better. Made me feel sad for the rest…" Now I'm sad for Deliveries.
I am wondering, whether the developer will possess the temerity to have the subscription available, still, when it comes up for renewal for me, in January. He has not put any effort into keeping up with shippers’ changes to their APIs.
I switched to Parcel a couple years ago. I didn't want to but I had to. Parcel isn't bad, it's just not great, and not as good as Deliveries when it was at its best. If Deliveries came back with the same feature set it had when it was at the top of the delivery tracker 5 years ago I'd re-subscribe immediately and just let my Parcel sub — which I just renewed a couple weeks ago — run out, unused. That's how much I loved Deliveries. Parcel requires me to perform more steps to get the same functionality Deliveries used to give me, and it just doesn't feel as good as Deliveries; less Mac-like. For example, I remember being able to copy an entire paragraph with a tracking number buried in it and Deliveries would parse the number out of it automatically.
I'd had support conversations with Mike of Junecloud a decade ago and as recently as 2019 and he was always personable and helpful. I'm not sure what happened because he didn't seem like the kind of person would would just let these issues linger on nor allow his brilliant app to waste away without a good reason; either monetary, or health or mental health concerns? That's just conjecture, of course. I'm debating emailing him again to ask.
I'd had support conversations with Mike of Junecloud a decade ago and as recently as 2019 and he was always personable and helpful. I'm not sure what happened because he didn't seem like the kind of person would would just let these issues linger on nor allow his brilliant app to waste away without a good reason; either monetary, or health or mental health concerns? That's just conjecture, of course. I'm debating emailing him again to ask.
If you have an email address other than the one from the Junecloud website, please do contact him, as service to all of the fans of ca. 2021 Deliveries. I have had no feedback to messages I left there in the past two years.
Unfortunately all I ever used was support@junecloud.com.
Not replying to message for so long is what makes me think mental health issues. Maybe he's struggling?
Junecloud LLC renewed its registration with the Michigan Corporations, Securities, and Commercial Licensing Bureau in early 2024. We could write him a snail mail letter at the registered business address…
It is really sad that this happened, however there are other third-party apps such as Parcel that still allow you to see data from FedEx and UPS directly in the app. I think that there was another issues and the developer opted to blame the carriers.
Package tracking app Deliveries is losing functionality because shipping companies are not willing to provide the shipping data that the app needs to work, according to developer Mike Piontek.
In a blog post penned earlier this week, Piontek said that Deliveries is no longer able to maintain the same service that it used to provide because it relies on shipping companies, and "without their help" the app is not able to work the way that customers expect.
In time, the Deliveries app will likely stop showing direct tracking information in the app for additional services. Delivery date, map route, and other details will not be available, nor will notifications about status changes. To see tracking information, customers will need to use the "View Online" button to see tracking information on the shipping company's website.
According to Piontek, Deliveries understands that the app will become less useful to users, but the Deliveries team will aim to keep making it as useful as possible for those who continue to use it.
At the current time, Deliveries seems to be able to show shipping information from major U.S. shipping companies like the United States Postal Service and UPS, but over the course of the last few months, Amazon deliveries have stopped working.
Deliveries used to be able to track Amazon shipments just from an order link, but that is no longer possible. Tracking either does not work, or it requires logging in to Amazon with a login and password, which is a hassle. The app also recently stopped working with FedEx tracking numbers, and there are also complaints about DHL shipments not being able to be tracked.
Prior to when these changes were made by shipping companies, Deliveries was a very useful package tracking app, but for many, it may no longer be worth the $4.99 per year subscription price.
Article Link: Deliveries App Loses Functionality as Shipping Companies Refuse to Participate
