It’s a question I’ve wondered about on other occasions; thus an otherwise irrelevant service review of Barnes & Noble, in the form of an email inquiry dispatched earlier today.
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To: service@barnesandnoble.com
From: B.D.
Date: March 29, 2011
Subject: Barnes & Noble order/shipment tracking technology
Just a brief question, if you please: What is the purpose of giving us a tracking number that doesn’t work?
I have two orders allegedly in shipment, covering three boxes. I have three emails from B&N telling me the packages are in transit, and offering tracking numbers as well as a hyperlink to DHL’s tracking system. In no case do these tracking numbers lead to anything other than an apology from DHL for having no record of said tracking numbers.
In truth, it’s not the biggest deal to me, as long as the packages arrive. But my eight year-old daughter was excited over her first foray into electronic commerce, and I’ve had to disappoint her by explaining that B&N sent us bad tracking numbers, so she can’t see where the books are. Why did they send us bad tracking numbers? she asks. And, in truth, I can’t figure an answer to that.
So I thought I’d ask you.
What’s up, guys? Is this a DHL thing? A tsunami thing? A Barnes & Noble “nobody ever checks, so put some random number in there” thing?
I just don’t get the idea of the benefits of technology when that technology is entirely useless, and therefore irrelevant.
-bd
B.D.'s Last Refuge 