Ask HN: Do you do most of your shopping online? Maybe we have the same problem.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2200233

by vrikhter • 15 years ago

3 15 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I buy at least one item a week online. My fiancee may buy something every couple weeks as well. How do you keep track all the things being shipped to you? Any tools you use? I tried packagetrackr.com, but for some reason it never worked for me.

bigethan• 15 years ago

It'd be fun to have a tripit.com system for shopping.

TripIt has an email address (plans@tripit.com) that you forward any emailed itinerary to. They process the email, figure out where you're going, etc and then put that info into your account. Granted there's are many more formats of shopping confirmation emails than there are airlines, but hopefully you'd only have to teach it a new retailer once.

vrikhter6• 15 years ago

Ethan, that's exactly what I'm going for! If you're interested in connecting about it let me know (vladik dot rikhter at gmail)

xtac• 15 years ago

Simple, I don't. Most of my purchases are from amazon, and I order and forget. I get reminded once I see it at my doorsteps.

There are few services which you can forward tracking number, and they update you when the status has changed.

UPS shows you how many days till delivery now, and you can have them remind you but it does not work too well, always delayed, but never the else I don't see it being useful as something like tripit at all

mooism24• 15 years ago

I put a note in my calendar that <package> should have arrived by <date>, then chase it up if it hasn't.

But then, I don't buy that much stuff, so having to keep track of it all on a dedicated site would be overkill.

vrikhter6• 15 years ago

so a tripit like product wouldn't interest you? i'm less interested in going to a dedicated site, would much rather just get email/sms updates.

mooism24• 15 years ago

I don't want e-mail/sms updates. I'd want the information to show up on my calendar.

But also, I'd want the information to be accurate, and such package tracking information as is available where I live doesn't seem to be accurate.

homecoded2• 15 years ago

Mhh ... I move all confirmation emails from online purchases in a separate folder on my IMAP. So, I always have a list of all purchases I've made, ordered by date. I don't buy that much stuff online so keeping track using that list usually works fine. Except for xmas, I rarely have more than, say, 2 or 3 packages coming my way at the same time.

I simply keep checking that folder once in a while to see if I received what I ordered.

vrikhter6• 15 years ago

So a tripit like product for shipping wouldn't interest you?

homecoded2• 15 years ago

Mhh, not really but that's just me. The email folder works great for me. As I said: The effort of keeping track of my online purchases is not huge. So, another tool is really not necessary. Again, that's just me. ;-)

dagw• 15 years ago

Honestly, I don't. Over the years I've trimmed almost all my online shopping down to 6-8 sites that have basically never screwed me over. I order, I forget, stuff shows up without me doing anything.

Ask HN: Do you do most of your shopping online? Maybe we have the same problem.

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