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Deliveries App Loses Functionality as Shipping Companies Refuse to Participate
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I see this refusal by shipping companies as a really good thing. I personally don't want them to be handing out my delivery schedules to 3rd party developers or hackers! That seems like a recipe for disaster, and I applaud them for telling the developers to @#$%-off!
Good god.
Everyone hating on $5 subscriptions while they use $1000 iPhones.
It just cracks me the heck up.
Everyone hating on $5 subscriptions while they use $1000 iPhones.
It just cracks me the heck up.
I love Deliveries. I've been using it since it was a Dashboard widget, and as a one-time purchaser never needed the subscription. It's great getting notifications on my watch as my packages make their way to me. Losing this ability will suck. I'd much rather be told when a delivery status changes than have to go myself to a shipper's website (and another's and another's) and look it up every time.
I've been able to track Amazon orders by right clicking from the Amazon order screen and adding the order number to Deliveries. Once in a while (maybe every few weeks) Deliveries will prompt me to verify my Amazon login info, but it remembers it going forward for another few weeks.
If you’ve been using Parcel manually this whole time, prepare for your mind to be blown!
Parcel email forwarding for Gmail
Parcel email forwarding for iCloud
Set this up and Parcel will add incoming deliveries automatically.
Shipping companies aren't just handing out your info. These apps require you to voluntarily enter your tracking numbers or information.
Thankfully, I recently switched jobs to a position where I don't have to track packages as frequently and intently as I once did. I was constantly sending, receiving, or just monitoring shipments from all the major carriers, and Packages handled it all very well, aside from the wonky Amazon links where I'd always be signed into the wrong Amazon account. Seamless syncing through iCloud allowed me to keep up to date on my phone or my computer. The nominal subscription fee was more than worth it for me.
I too had been using Packages since the Tiger / Dashboard Widget days. Alas, progress marches on, even if that progress is sometimes decidedly backwards.
I too had been using Packages since the Tiger / Dashboard Widget days. Alas, progress marches on, even if that progress is sometimes decidedly backwards.
Another former widget user, this has been such a great app as I buy all of my stuff online, it really helps keep things wrangled. FedEx not working anymore is a big blow. I don't mind $5/year for a service I use more than anything else. $5 is literally nothing to 99% of people, the subscription hate is unjustified. Developers need to be paid too. I'll check in on Parcel, but I'm imagining they'll hit the same roadblock sooner or later.
Nice feature. Deliveries does the same thing if you forward to track@junecloud.com.
Its wasn't, but Parcel fixed it in the latest update. They even mentioned it on twitter.
I think Deliveries could be fixed also, this may just be the devs not having the time or not wanting to fix these issues. But Parcel seems to always fix all issues. I've used Parcel for years now and love it.
Sad news indeed. I've been using this app for years and absolutely love it. I noticed some lack of tracking abilities recently but assumed the team was working on fixing a few bugs.
I am curious what they will do to "keep making it as useful as possible for those who continue to use it" considering that it's being stripped off its main and only function of showing delivery estimates & updates.
I am curious what they will do to "keep making it as useful as possible for those who continue to use it" considering that it's being stripped off its main and only function of showing delivery estimates & updates.
Subscriptions are never justified. The developer is paid when the app is purchased. The argument that this app costs more to maintain doesn't justify a subscription rather it justifies a higher cost.
What about the people who already paid and can't use the service now? Will they get refunds? No, of course not.
AHHAHAHHAHHAHHHAHHAH
Sorry.
Have you heard of ongoing costs? Which in this case they have?
Do you think their servers run on Pixie dust? that they get from the pixie dust well in their backyard? and that they use a special pixie dust bucket to bring up and sprinkle on their pixie dust run servers that tell you at a moment's notice where your Amazon package is?
Good grief.
I use Parcel it works just fine been using it for a few years now it’s 2.99 a year
I don’t understand this mentality. So the developer should work for free? Maintain an app forever, which takes time and effort, and not be compensated for that? Should they clutter up the app with ads instead? What’s the end-game here? Especially considering the “everything should be free” mentality has driven app pricing in the App Store through the floor…
Agreed.
Anyone that says something like that is a customer I don't want, and I have no doubt I will be better off in the long run without them.
Sounds like all delivery apps are going the way of the dodo so enjoy Parcel while it lasts.
I've supported Parcel for years and one reason I stopped using it is exactly because many of my parcels could no longer be tracked with it due to delivery companies making it difficult to scrape their pages. Parcel even put up an FAQ listing a bunch that wouldn't work anymore and that was over 2 years ago.
A real shame.
I let my Parcel sub expire last year (I'm a grandfathered user of Deliveries, so no subscription fee) and it's now $4.99/month for a new subscription.
Funny how you only quoted part of my reply, opting to leave out the part where I said they should charge more if they need more. Let me guess, we live in unprecedented times and there is no way to predict cost increases so they have to charge a subscription to ensure they have the revenue to continue
Subscriptions are lazy and exploitative.