Office1000 Blog June Archive

Online Shopping Tips; Package Tracking

By Office1000 at 06/15/2006 12:15

When you order something online one of the most useful bits of information you can get is the package tracking number. Our advice is to track your package at least once a day. This will take just a few seconds of your time. It will let you know when to expect your package, and inform you immediately if something has gone arwy with the shipment.

We often receive emails to our customer service department asking "where's my package" after the package has already been delivered! A quick check on the tracking usually shows that the package was delivered to a neighbor or the mailroom (and often includes the name of the person who signed for it). In other cases it indicates the package was left on the customers porch or in the bushes!

By checking the tracking information yourself, you can eliminate any delay in finding out where your package is. You will often be informed in advance what day you can expect delivery. You will also see any delivery "exceptions" that sometimes occur. In those cases you can contact the shipping company directly to resolve them.

When tracking your packages keep in mind that the day a package ships, the tracking information is often missing or incomplete. The following day it should be clear where your package is and when it should arrive. Most shipping companies update the tracking information in real time. The U.S. Post Office is still a bit behind and only updates once a day.

By checking the tracking once a day you can help make your online purchase a smoother transaction.

Office1000.com

The Problem of Colors

There are several problems that arise when it comes to color. Selecting the desired color, assorted colors, and matching colors.

Office1000 carries thousands of items from hundreds of different manufacturers. The information and method of selecting colors can vary considerably between them. On our website, we try to provide the color name that goes with each item number. When you view your shopping cart it will show the color associated with that item in ()'s, ie: (BLACK). There is no further color selection than clicking on the buy now button next to a colorlisted on our website.

Some items are listed as "assorted" for the color. Unfortunately, that means you have no choice (and we have no choice) in the selection of colors you will receive. On some items we are able to list exactly what colors will be included and in some cases the quantity of each color. On other items we have the color information, but aren't provided with information on exactly how many of each color are included.

On yet other items we are provided with no information about what colors are included at all. Now as strange as that sounds, it does make sense from a different perspective. If you were shopping in a retail store instead of online and there was shelf with many differnet colors of item X it would make little difference to you whether the packages all had the same item number or different item numbers! You could see and choose the colors. Online, where everything is based on an item number we aren't so lucky.

Office1000 is a small business and we unfortunately don't have the resources to repackage items into different color selections, or manually check all items to better describe the colors that are included. However, some of our product listings have very limited information and we are happy to try to get additional information to update our site upon request.

Matching colors can be even more difficult. With differences in photos and computer monitors, it simply becomes impossible to match an item color to an object you have. When the exact color of an item is extremely important, it is best to purchase a very small quantity to make sure it is suitable, or make your purchase at a retail store where you can see the color first hand.

We hate to suggest you not make a purchase with Office1000, but realize that we can't meet everyone's needs all the time.

We welcome any and all comments here about how we can better help you get the colors you want.