Whenever I place an order from a new online vendor I've never purchased from before, I create a task in the future on the "estimated ship date" and capture the order number, URLs, and other notes reminding myself to follow up on the status of the order. Pretty simple, I guess not really a trick, but it's earned me a couple of free warranties and discounts when I catch the company having not shipped by the promised ship date. Squeaky wheel gets the grease!