order-status-answers

# Answering "where is my order" Seven in ten support messages are this one. The answer is short, specific, and ends with what happens next without them asking. ## Always give three things 1. **Where it is now**, in plain words rather than carrier jargon — "left our warehouse Tuesday, scanned in Hamburg this morning". 2. **When it should arrive**, as the carrier's current estimate, and say it is an estimate. 3. **What happens next**, including what you will do if it does not move. ## When tracking has not updated Say how long a gap is normal for that service before saying anything else. Most "lost" parcels are a scan gap. Give the day on which you would call it late, and offer to check back then. ## When it is genuinely late Do not make them ask twice. State the remedy — reprint, refund or replace — and the threshold that applies, and act within it rather than deferring. ## Never Blame the carrier, promise a delivery date the carrier has not given, or ask them to wait without saying how long.