Transport Issues

From USA Today:

"UPS still staggering under holiday crush"

Holiday spirit turned to rage today as irritated consumers dealt with a third day of broken promises while UPS, the world's largest package delivery company, staggered to recover from a holiday crush that caught the service unprepared and left thousands of people short of gifts under their Christmas trees. UPS sorters worked Christmas afternoon and evening to load planes at UPS' air hub in Louisville. Even so, UPS said, some packages that were promised to arrive before Christmas wouldn't arrive until Friday. "We have our drivers out delivering today. We're making every effort to get all the packages delivered," UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin said Thursday. Godwin said "nearly all" the delayed packages would be delivered Thursday. UPS spokesman Jeff Wafford said some customers who paid for two-day delivery or faster may get refunds of the shipping charges. As irate customers vented their anger on the UPS Facebook page, the company responded to many by apologizing and asking for shipping information to get the packages on the right track. The company, which delivers more than 16 million packages a day to 220 countries, had expected an 8% increase for the peak holiday season. FedEx "experienced no major service disruptions in the week before Christmas, despite heavy volume," but there were "isolated incidents" of undelivered packages, company spokesman Ben Hunt said in an-email Thursday, Online retailers nationwide lured customers to buy holiday gifts just two days before Christmas with promises that their purchases would arrive by Christmas Eve. Retailers have been pushing their delivery deadlines so close to Christmas that it gave consumers a "false sense of security," says retail brand strategy expert Ken Nisch. The snafus will make consumers think twice next holiday season about relying on late deliveries and could boost the popularity of "buy online, ship to store" options that many stores offer, says Nisch, chairman of JGA, a retail design and strategy firm that represents clients including Macy's, Godiva and The North Face. Retailers will have to reconsider next year whether to make delivery promises that they can't control, Nisch said. Meanwhile, retailers scrambled to track their customers' delayed packages. "We are working with FedEx and UPS to understand the situation," Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski said. "So far, it appears only a small number of Macy's deliveries were affected." Amazon, the No. 1 online retailer in the week before Christmas as measured by Experian Marketing Services, said it fulfilled its end of the bargain by packing its shipments and delivering them to the carriers "on time for holiday delivery," spokeswoman Mary Osako said. "We are reviewing the performance of the delivery carriers," Osako said. Amazon refunded shipping charges for the delayed packages and offered customers a $20 gift card for the inconvenience, she said. Customers reported that UPS repeatedly missed the delivery dates shown on the tracking system. About 6 million UPS customers subscribe to a notification system called UPS My Choice.

"If their update says it's going to get delivered on Friday, then it's going to get delivered on Friday," Godwin said.

^ UPS is the main company at fault here. They knew (or should have known) that their system was getting overloaded and should have stopped accepting any new packages. You can try and blame the retail companies, but in the end the shipping company should have refused. I was affected by this - I don't wait until the last minute to get things mailed to me since I have to wait for a package slip to come in my mailbox and then drive 23 minutes to the Post Office to get it. UPS (and FedEx) do deliver to my house, but most things start as UPS or FedEx and then get delivered to the USPS and don't come to my house. We do have a good UPS guy who has done a good job all the years we have lived here. We have had several issues with FedEx. The first time the FedEx guy decided he was going to open my closed (but not locked door - I was in the yard mowing with headphones on) and go into my house. I caught him and threw him out and then called the company. The second time it took several days for a package (not around the holidays) to get to me when the place that send it was only 1 hour away It would have been faster to pick it up in personal from the company rather than have FedEx deliver it.) I hope that the next time UPS, FedEx, USPS or any other delivery company decides to put the customers first and refuse to accept packages when their system is already overloaded. That, to me, shows more professionalism than a company accepting any package and continue to overload their system. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/26/more-delays-as-ups-staggers-holiday-crush/4207755/