I should have mentioned I'm using the macOS version. I have not tried it on iOS.
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Package Tracking App 'Deliveries' Switching to Paid Subscription Model Across iPhone, iPad, and Mac
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This is infuriating me. I paid for this app on iOS years ago. Earlier this summer I purchased a MacBook, and this was one of the first apps I purchased... literally days before the 90 day window to submit a refund. Not really because I needed it on my MacBook, but I thought it would be nice to support them after having used their app for so long... well that was a slap in the face. I paid for their apps and now I get features removed from both apps that are locked behind a paywall. You really can't trust any developer it seems. This sort of practice should be frowned upon by Apple. Yes, on one hand Apple would generate more income from apps being subscription based. However, it causes consumers to have a lot more hesitancy when they don't know if an app is going to change their model and lock what they had already paid for behind another purchase, or worse a subscription.
Also to add... they go by your first Deliveries purchase when providing the "complimentary" subscription. Like I said, I purchased it on iOS a long time ago... but just bought it on MacOS over the summer. They gave me a paltry few months to "enjoy" their subscription. I get to use this app that I paid for in full, twice, until February 2021.
Also to add... they go by your first Deliveries purchase when providing the "complimentary" subscription. Like I said, I purchased it on iOS a long time ago... but just bought it on MacOS over the summer. They gave me a paltry few months to "enjoy" their subscription. I get to use this app that I paid for in full, twice, until February 2021.
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Because you already paid for it, you’ll still be able to use the app to track new deliveries, just with some limitations. I’m displeased with the change to the subscription model but the apps will continue to work the way I use them now.
That is one aspect that remains the same, they did remove other features that were included in the paid app that I, and others, purchased multiple times to sync between devices. As a standard, a dev should never remove ANY feature when moving to subscription model from "early adopters"... I mean it wasn't even early adopting. We were customers who were provided a product for a specific dollar amount, and then robbed from those features. They need to ADD new features to incentivize us to move to subs.
Of course it is fine to switch to a subscription model for new users.
The complimentary sub ended yesterday and I elected to not pay for it for 1 simple reason.
I bought the app for $4.99 with a list of features, including the ability to forward emails and have them added automatically. That core feature has now been removed unless you subscribe. This to me is beyond shady. Keeping new features for subs only would be fair and make sense. Removing features from original supporters of the product is wrong and I am betting I am not only one thinking that way today.
I bought the app for $4.99 with a list of features, including the ability to forward emails and have them added automatically. That core feature has now been removed unless you subscribe. This to me is beyond shady. Keeping new features for subs only would be fair and make sense. Removing features from original supporters of the product is wrong and I am betting I am not only one thinking that way today.
When you're dealing with multiple delivery companies and shipments daily, it is handy to have it all in 1 place.
The USPS offers 'premium tracking' for packages. It's actually funny to think that people would pay for tracking when the link just above that does tracking for free. I don't need 'premium tracking', but a little premium rush would be nice.
If you look closely as to what USPS premium tracking entails, it doesn't give you any more detail into where your package is going but instead just gives you access to the tracking history for longer than you'd get by default. It seems like something that might be valuable for legal documents but not much else.
So my quick read was right. Hmm. Pay for history you can screen cap yourself? I'd rather have my mail be delivered as quickly as it was before the deliberate election malfunction.
I’m not paying for the subscription as I too paid the $4.99 for the app. I’ll just continue using the free features and keep looking for another tracking app.
Update on the future of this app:
junecloud.com
They are claiming FedEx cut off API access to apps like theirs:
But other tracking apps such as Parcel are working fine with FedEx packages.
The Future of Deliveries
Deliveries began as a hobby—it was first released as a Dashboard widget named “Apple Order Status” on January 22, 2006. Over time more services were added, and the name and icon evolved along with it. Eventually it became an iOS app named “Delivery Status touch” on September 19, 2008, shortly…
junecloud.com
They are claiming FedEx cut off API access to apps like theirs:
But other tracking apps such as Parcel are working fine with FedEx packages.
Thanks for the info. What a bummer! I don't recall using FedEx all that often (it's more common among businesses, not consumers), but Apple sometimes ships via FedEx.
Perhaps Parcel and others screen scrapes FedEx website, and not make API calls. That's not a sustainable operation either.
I was a long-time supporter of Deliveries, recommending it to many along the way, until more and more bits of it stopped working, or stopped working automatically (some of this is on Apple) - having the app send me push notifications that, instead of being about a package, were "open the app to continue getting updates" was... kind of the opposite of what I wanted.
These days, I have the UPS and FedEx (and DHL) apps installed, and I set up customer accounts with them (free), and now I get notifications directly from them - I don't have to tell UPS (for instance) about an incoming package, they know my address and they tell me as soon as they receive a package destined for my address. I also signed up for "Informed Delivery" (free) from USPS - every morning they send me an email telling me what mail I will receive that day and what packages are on the way. And the Amazon app gives me similar notifications for anything they ship to me, including by their own delivery service (they'll actually tell me when it's N stops away from my house, and send me pictures of the box on my porch).
All of these services involve a shipping company that knows what packages they have in their hands and what addresses they're destined for, and are pushing to their app as that information changes, rather than the Deliveries app constantly polling to find out if anything has changed with relation to a handful of tracking numbers that the user has manually entered. So it's more efficient, and doesn't miss things by depending on a manual step on my part - indeed, often I find out a package has shipped from a push notification from UPS, before the store sends email to say it's shipping.
I'd much rather have a single app interface that shows all the incoming packages in a uniform way, like what Deliveries had, but this new way, you know, actually works, and without me having to copy/paste tracking numbers. In fact, this combination of apps has alerted me to things I had no idea were coming (e.g. unannounced packages from relatives, and a kickstarter project that finally completed years later).
Reading that last paragraph, it's occurring to me that the app I'd like for this (essentially a new generate of Deliveries that communicates on-device with the various delivery service's apps and presents a unified interface), is very similar to what I want from a TV app (that communicates on-device with the various streaming services apps and presents a unified interface). Apple's TV app misses the mark by trying to be all things at once ("maybe you'd like to watch this or this", rather than having a simple list of just the things I've chosen - I don't need suggestions, just remember what I was watching / want to watch), while WatchAid seems to have not updated their catalog of shows in a long time, and JustWatch and ReelGood always seemed more interested in helping me decide on something to watch, rather than just showing my list, and had messy interfaces (maybe I just didn't like the UI). Now Plex is entering the game, but initial reports don't sound promising yet. I'd pay a (small) subscription fee for an app that had a UI closer to WatchAid, but with Apple level of data exchange with the streaming apps (so it actually kept track of my place in current shows/movies - in a non-creepy on-device Apple sort of way).
These days, I have the UPS and FedEx (and DHL) apps installed, and I set up customer accounts with them (free), and now I get notifications directly from them - I don't have to tell UPS (for instance) about an incoming package, they know my address and they tell me as soon as they receive a package destined for my address. I also signed up for "Informed Delivery" (free) from USPS - every morning they send me an email telling me what mail I will receive that day and what packages are on the way. And the Amazon app gives me similar notifications for anything they ship to me, including by their own delivery service (they'll actually tell me when it's N stops away from my house, and send me pictures of the box on my porch).
All of these services involve a shipping company that knows what packages they have in their hands and what addresses they're destined for, and are pushing to their app as that information changes, rather than the Deliveries app constantly polling to find out if anything has changed with relation to a handful of tracking numbers that the user has manually entered. So it's more efficient, and doesn't miss things by depending on a manual step on my part - indeed, often I find out a package has shipped from a push notification from UPS, before the store sends email to say it's shipping.
I'd much rather have a single app interface that shows all the incoming packages in a uniform way, like what Deliveries had, but this new way, you know, actually works, and without me having to copy/paste tracking numbers. In fact, this combination of apps has alerted me to things I had no idea were coming (e.g. unannounced packages from relatives, and a kickstarter project that finally completed years later).
Reading that last paragraph, it's occurring to me that the app I'd like for this (essentially a new generate of Deliveries that communicates on-device with the various delivery service's apps and presents a unified interface), is very similar to what I want from a TV app (that communicates on-device with the various streaming services apps and presents a unified interface). Apple's TV app misses the mark by trying to be all things at once ("maybe you'd like to watch this or this", rather than having a simple list of just the things I've chosen - I don't need suggestions, just remember what I was watching / want to watch), while WatchAid seems to have not updated their catalog of shows in a long time, and JustWatch and ReelGood always seemed more interested in helping me decide on something to watch, rather than just showing my list, and had messy interfaces (maybe I just didn't like the UI). Now Plex is entering the game, but initial reports don't sound promising yet. I'd pay a (small) subscription fee for an app that had a UI closer to WatchAid, but with Apple level of data exchange with the streaming apps (so it actually kept track of my place in current shows/movies - in a non-creepy on-device Apple sort of way).
Likewise... long time user and promoter of Deliveries... now they sleep with the fishes as far as I am concerned... of course they didn't bother to share this BEFORE they collected the $5 annual subscription fee... beyond dead to me.
No one mad at FedEx? Not only has their actual delivery service been extremely unreliable lately, but if you watch a recent Jon Oliver episode you’ll see that they are as icky as Amazon with how they operate. Moreover now they are deliberately cutting off customers from a convenient way of tracking their packages. That sucks. F FedEx!
