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Old 02-14-2018, 12:25 PM   #1
mike3644
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@FedEx Tracking: pasting correct tracking # causes error; typing same works


Ubuntu 16.04.2
This has been happening for quite some time - when pasting correct tracking info into FedEx or UPS window it generates error: #No such number or #Incorrect tracking number.
Yet if tracking number is hand entered the process works.
... Have 'erased' and 'commented out' from both sides of entry against potential for invisible characters; no joy.
Must wonder if this anomaly is stemming from delivery carrier and/or Walmart; ebay, etc., as related to web kit?
In numerous instances i note that Java and/or html code on many web sites is truncated and often obscured, even though Ubuntu v16 has been recently updated with latest java release.
It remains unfortunately true that some html coders only bother with Windows web kits.
Clamtk scans come up clean.
 
Old 02-14-2018, 02:22 PM   #2
jefro
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Paste the number into an editor and see if it is adding in any spaces or after the number to prove your cut and paste with the os??

I'd think it is simply a matter of cutting text. The system ought to know what the numbers are. The only possible thing I could guess is some non US character set as default and you are pasting into a US page or something like that.

Last edited by jefro; 02-14-2018 at 02:24 PM.
 
Old 02-14-2018, 02:41 PM   #3
RandomTroll
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I've done what you have trouble doing often; I've never entered a tracking number to fedex (or ups or usps) by hand, always by pasting. Spaces count: if I mark a space at the beginning or end then that gets pasted, making it invalid.
 
Old 02-14-2018, 05:00 PM   #4
mike3644
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jefro,
in, "Paste the number into an editor. . ."; I do, almost always, because most of the time i'm copy/pasting from Sylpheed. Sylpheed will not allow copy/paste once closed, as at that point all on the clipboard is erased. So as work-around i pull up TextEditor and paste the tracking number into a new document, then minimize the latter and close Sylpheed, to navigate via Firefox to the FedEx or UPS Tracking site. Then, clicking on TextEdit again to bring it back up i re-copy the pasted tracking number and re-paste it into the tracking window.
. . . Sounds more complex than it actually is; but by this method it is possible to use email notifications that list shipping/tracking info for doing an indirect copy/paste, which beats no paste at all, thus avoiding the potential for human error.

RandomTroll,
As mentioned in my post both ends of the pasted tracking number were erased, assuring that there were no hidden characters, including blank spaces. When doing the select-all i use the double-click method, which insures a perfect copy every time.
Additionally, there's something weird going on at FedEx because the tracking software acts like my system is being curtailed. No two attempts at pasting and initiating search for my package come out the same and i find myself being forced to refresh the page so as to re-enable the tracking engine.
 
Old 02-15-2018, 07:21 AM   #5
sundialsvcs
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While I appreciate the enormous burden that the FedEx (I.T.) people have to deal with every day – I actually know some of them – their end-user software is not the best in the world. Silly things, like not removing spaces from what the user has entered, will bollux them up. It's been that way for a long time, and UPS is not much better.
 
Old 02-15-2018, 11:11 AM   #6
mike3644
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sundialsvcs LQ Guru: Thank you for commenting on shipping carriers.
Thanks also to jethro and RandomTroll.

Sheep. Slaughter. I've discovered that the double-click method mentioned above leads to the stated anomaly, whereas 'hand' selecting the tracking number by running cursor over same from precise margin to margin and then pasting into the tracking window. . . initializes a correct search.

Therefore, it is not unreasonable to assume that some type of hanky-panky is being deployed by corporate sellers who wish to prevent end purchasers from checking order status by any method other than logging into seller's web site (in this case, Walmart's web site) and using Seller's corporate tracking engine to receive that information.

Perhaps the purchaser will 'bring money' and be willing to part with some of it?

At any rate, there is obviously a hidden means for 'tagging,' just as hyper-linking enables pointing to a web address, that in this instance remains invisible and adds hidden characters that are copied when using the double-click selection method, but circumvented by precise, margin-to-margin select-all and then pasted, finally, into the tracking site's search window.

An investigation of this anomaly seems to reveal that it is not the code used by the tracking engines at FedEx and UPS, et al, that is behind the issue, but that a technology exists and has apparently been deployed on a broad industry scale whose purpose is to deter the end user from directly checking the status of orders by any method other than that of logging into the seller's own web site and falling back on the native tracking system offered there, in the hope that same will 'bring money' and be willing to part with some of it.

IMO we are better off avoiding log-ins wherever possible.

It's all about the money.

. . . This is chicanery, and possibly fraud.
 
Old 02-15-2018, 01:49 PM   #7
ondoho
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not sure if it helps here, but some forms use javascript to disable copy-pasting stuff, to ensure the user actually types it out.
this probably wouldn't make much sense here, i'm just mentioning that this is possible.
 
Old 02-15-2018, 03:55 PM   #8
mike3644
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As an aside to all the foregoing, i feel compelled to say that despite the above findings this problem remains unsolved.

To ondoho: Thanks; no, it doesn't apply in this instance but i see where u'r coming from.

. . . Typical to BIG INSURANCE web sites, personal bank account logins and other instances where there is a focus on security.
 
  


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