Surge In Online Orders Overwhelms UPS Christmas Deliveries 378
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Reuters reports that the high volume of online orders of holiday packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS delaying the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe and sending angry consumers to social media to vent. The company projected 132 million deliveries last week "and obviously we exceeded that," said UPS spokeswoman Natalie Black without disclosing how many packages had been sent. "For now, UPS is really focused on delivering the remaining packages. You might not see trucks, but people are working." Asked why the company underestimated the volume of air packages it would receive, Black noted that previous severe weather in the Dallas area had already created a backlog. Then came "excess holiday volume" during a compressed time frame, since the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas was shorter than usual this year. Amazon.com responded with an email to affected customers offering shipping refunds and $20 gift cards to compensate. Packages shipped via UPS for Amazon.com by Prime customers, who pay $79 a year for two-day shipping, may be eligible for additional refunds. Amazon's stated policy for missed deliveries is to offer a free one-month extension of Prime. Frustrated consumers took to social media, with some complaining that gifts purchased for their children would not arrive in time to make it under the tree by Christmas morning. '"A lot of these employees keep saying 'It's the weather' or 'It's some kind of a backlog,' said Barry Tesh. 'Well then why, all the way up until the 23rd, were they offering next-day delivery? That guaranteed delivery was 80% of my decision to buy the gift."' However, others on social media urged shoppers to be more appreciative of the delivery company's work during the holiday season. 'While others take vacation and time off in December, remember we aren't allowed ever to be off in December. Ever,' said a 20-year veteran UPS driver on the UPS Facebook page. 'So when you see your family and complain that your package is held up, everyone who moves your package is working and doesn't get the Xmas experience you get, Be thankful for that.'"
Understandable, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I can understand that UPS / Fedex failed to predict their full load. It's too bad, but part of life.
What really surprises me is that they didn't have a system in place that (a) detected when they were at risk of having too many order to keep their QoS commitments, and (b) warning prospective customers that they might not get a prospective order delivered by Christmas.
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, they did.
My wife works for a relatively well-known shoe/clothing manufacturer that also does direct sales (website, catalog, etc.) FedEx was warning them several days before Christmas that they predicted a delivery problem due to late orders rising faster than they predicted. Her company has an overflow agreement with UPS, so they started witching some orders to them, but then both companies hit a wall in terms of delivery capacity.
It sounds like this was one of those problems where they both saw it coming, but couldn't do anything about it. There have been more than a few articles about FedEx in particular cutting back its container plane fleet due to fuel costs and the overall drop in package deliveries relative to a few years ago. I can only assume UPS has done the same -- when you cut back capacity in order to remain profitable, it stands to reason that a sudden, unexpected and massive surge of packages in your system is going to cause problems. And because both UPS and FedEx are for-profit, public companies, it's ultimately probably cheeper for them to suffer the ill-will and make-goods required of an event like this than to have a lot of excess capacity sitting aorund unused.
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Part of what you are talking about is mean capacity covering 90% ish of the cases and surge capacity which covers the unusual volume or weather cases. Surge capacity is expensive and hard to prove of value. So the bean counters don't like it. But they could have I think, for a nominal fee, booked more charter flights, contractors etc. on stand by in case of need. This is a management failure, surges happen and storms happen. Where was the fall back plan?
On a side note, a friend of mine is an ER worker. She
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Oh hey guys, look, another armchair quarterback on the internet who is absolutely certain that FedEx and UPS, with their multi-billion dollar operations, missed some obvious, easy, and cheap solution to this problem! Color me shocked.
The reason bean counters don't like paying for "surge capacity" is because "surge capacity" is often left unused, because it is insurance for the rare-to-never case where things completely shit the bed. FedEx and UPS *have* surge capacity built in - what happened this year is that their surge capacity wasn't able to keep up with the actual volume of packages funneling through their systems. Three days before Christmas is a bit too late to begin arranging 'surge capacity' for the holiday season - there's not much volume available for hire at that point, and the planes are frequently not where you want them to be, too, which means they'd have to scramble to fly pilots around to the planes all over the country (or world) where they're parked, fly them to their destination to pick up their cargo, and do this in the space of 12-24 hours in order to get the capacity in place to make a difference for holiday shipments. Then they also need the capacity on the ground in their receiving facilities and delivery trucks to be able to ship everything on time, as well.
When your business is built-on "just in time" delivery, a late surge and weather-based delays can really fuck up your transportation chain no matter how hard you plan. In most cases, it's better to eat some penalties and freebies to angry customers receiving late packages than it is to spend millions or billions scrambling at the last minute to get every last package there on time.
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Which is why UPS should have, oh, went public with the information and told the press that Amazon and others were lying?
UPS telling their customers (which is Amazon, not you) what the deal is makes their customers happy. UPS embarrassing their customers by calling them out to the press doesn't make their customers happy. Which strategy do you think will be better for business?
UPS is going to lose zero business because of these delays. Everybody who actually pays them money knew about them in advance and chose to use them anyway. Anybody other than a retail shipper doesn't care since normal businesses don't ship tons of s
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
So just to use your own point...if emergency rooms (i.e. critically necessary medical services largely funded by the gov't) can't provide capacity necessary for the exception-circumstance...how is it reasonable to expect FedEx or UPS to do even more? Getting a beanie boo before xmas isn't quite as important as pushing saline for a trauma victim with low BP. (though if you read the FB page for FedEx or UPS you might get the impression otherwise)
I think the vendors deserve much of the blame here if the delivery companies were communicating with them. Heck, if Amazon posted that orders are surging this year and deliveries may be delayed for last second orders...so order RIGHT NOW. just like they do with the silly (but effective) timer for when you can last order something to get it by X day.
What I find truly ironic - people are blaming FedEx and UPS for 'failing to plan ahead properly' when *they're* the ones ordering things at the very last second. UPS should include a small, complimentary mirror with each of these delayed packages when they're delivered.
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems unlikely that half of FedEx and UPS board of directors are actively trying to sabotage their company for ideological reasons. The same is not true of federal government - and sadly, this sickness seems to be spreading as well as the rest of American culture.
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What I find truly ironic - people are blaming FedEx and UPS for 'failing to plan ahead properly' when *they're* the ones ordering things at the very last second. UPS should include a small, complimentary mirror with each of these delayed packages when they're delivered.
Well from the stories I've read and anecdotally, not everyone was "very last second". I know of at least two people whose packages were shipped two weeks before Christmas and still have not gotten them yet. There's also stories [upi.com] that the packages have sat in UPS facilities for a week without being moved or delivered.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
That extra capacity carries with it some benefits, as well as a price.
I've some experience in trucking. I know that some companies only have enough trucks to meet commitments. Other companies have a few extra trucks sitting around the yard. I don't mean 30 or 50 percent extra capacity - but maybe 10 or 15 percent.
What good are those trucks? Well - a driver who is coming through the yard with a truck that is due (or overdue) for maintenance can bail out of his truck, and take one of the spares to complete his run. Preventive maintenance, done on schedule, can prevent breakdowns and accidents.
That extra 10% of vehicles can pay for itself in fairly short order, really. And, when you DO have a surge, all you need is to pick up a few temporary people to put those trucks on the road, to meet the surge. I've seen it done. We had a contract come up that required tens of thousands of tons of rebar to be moved, and all those extra trucks were put on a dedicated run to help meet the deadline.
BTW - those extra trucks are usually older, nearly worn out vehicles that have already paid for themselves, many times over. They are still roadworthy, they are paid off, they are still insured, they still pass inspection - why get rid of them? Keep a few around for whatever emergencies might happen. They've already been depreciated, so on the books they are valueless, and cost next to nothing.
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That extra capacity carries with it some benefits, as well as a price.
I've some experience in trucking. I know that some companies only have enough trucks to meet commitments. Other companies have a few extra trucks sitting around the yard. I don't mean 30 or 50 percent extra capacity - but maybe 10 or 15 percent.
What good are those trucks? Well - a driver who is coming through the yard with a truck that is due (or overdue) for maintenance can bail out of his truck, and take one of the spares to complete his run. Preventive maintenance, done on schedule, can prevent breakdowns and accidents.
That extra 10% of vehicles can pay for itself in fairly short order, really. And, when you DO have a surge, all you need is to pick up a few temporary people to put those trucks on the road, to meet the surge. I've seen it done. We had a contract come up that required tens of thousands of tons of rebar to be moved, and all those extra trucks were put on a dedicated run to help meet the deadline.
BTW - those extra trucks are usually older, nearly worn out vehicles that have already paid for themselves, many times over. They are still roadworthy, they are paid off, they are still insured, they still pass inspection - why get rid of them? Keep a few around for whatever emergencies might happen. They've already been depreciated, so on the books they are valueless, and cost next to nothing.
That's great, but FedEx and UPS already do that. What happened here is that they overran their 15 percent. Most companies don't have surge capacity on their surge capacity.
The other tricky thing here is the logistics -- I'm pretty sure UPS had at least almost enough trucks and feet on the ground to do pickups and deliveries -- the problem comes from having more volume than their processing plants can process and more air deliveries than they can charter flights for. The big one is really their processing
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
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"Brown stands for the quality of our service".
Actually, this is all part of Jeff Bezos' master plan. They wanted to place a lot of blame on the couriers today, so that the FAA will have no choice but to approve Amazon's request to fly drones next year.
It's a conspiracy, I tell you! Soylent Brown is slow people!! ;-)
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone would have bothered to read either UPS's or FedEx's website, they would have seen around the 19th of December they had NO guarenteed delivery date deals. Those promises were purely from the retailers at that point. It's a shame though of course the curriers are the ones who catch the flack.
Not to mention if people WOULDN'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST DAMN MINUTE or get out of the house and VISIT A STORE, much of this could have been avoided. I'll admit, I ordered a few small things on the 23rd with the gift wrap and next day option from Amazon more as a test.. and all 4 items arrived by noon on the 24th. (They were shipped from an amazon DC in the same state so that surely helped).
Hell my wife's gift from my brother didn't arrive before Chrismast (and he didn't expect it to).. no big deal. For the people who waited to order *everything* in the last few days before christmas and all of it via online.. well maybe you should have grabbed a few from the store or have done the "Ship to store" or "instore pickup" option instead. Or at the very least do what we've done before and print a picture and wrap that and just tell the person it wasn't going to arrive in time.
Maybe I'm getting more bitter as I age but this 'I wanted it tomorrow and it didn't make it, I don't give a shit about the massive volume of items from other procrastinators like myself or the ice storms and other weather, I WANT MY SHIT IT'S THE CARRIERS FAULT!' mentality is just so damn annoying.
Lastly, it's not always as it appears either. Over the summer I ordered an RC heliocopter for my son and did 1 day delivery so it would arrive in time for our trip to the beach. All indications on Amazon were it was in UPS's hands later that night. It didn't arrive the next day, and I kept checking the tracking info and it still appeared to be stuck in the intial location in the hands of UPS. After 3 days I called Amazon to find out what was going on, and the agent figured out UPS never had the item as THEY didn't have it either. Here the 3rd party seller or whatever that Amazon did the fulfillment and what not for (for prime and all) hadn't sent them any stock or something along those lines (could have been a complete BS store and Amazon just never packed my stuff). Either way, while the tracking info made it look like it was UPS holding up the show, it was in fact the retailer Amazon that had fucked up. It makes me wonder how many other online retailers didn't have the capacity to fill orders fast enough or were out of stock while the website still listed stock so they had to wait for more before they could box and ship, YET the shipping information was already entered into the system creating a tracking number for UPS or FedEx, which made it LOOK like the delay was on the shipping company used.
Narcissistic Society says (Score:5, Insightful)
"'I wanted it tomorrow and it didn't make it, I don't give a shit about the massive volume of items from other procrastinators like myself or the ice storms and other weather, I WANT MY SHIT IT'S THE CARRIERS FAULT!' mentality is just so damn annoying."
Society is increasingly narcissistic. The person to whom this is a reply is correct in the statement quoted above as he explains the instant-gratification mentality he observes.
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I came close to that this year with Amazon but with other Vendors. No missing items, no late deliveries. I think we all expect too much when the holiday season hits and we all expect things to be there by Christmas. The rule says, plan ahead and I think that needs to apply to everybody otherwise just shop locally and handle delivery chores yourself. Dallas did have some weather delays but so did most of the Eastern hubs as well due to the Winter storm. I was flying back from Europe on Monday and had ab
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
At least part of the problem is, not that UPS or other delivery companies promise you, the customer, delivery on time for Christmas. It is Amazon* and other bulk suppliers who are making these promises.
As AC states below, UPS and Fedex were making warnings to those retail suppliers. Amazon, or whoever, didn't pass those warnings on to you, the end user.
Do we expect that Amazon is going to make a public apology to all those children who had to wait until the day after Christmas for their presents? I don't think so. Amazon has your money, and they are going to keep as much of it as they think they can. They'll pass out a few gift certificates, and refund some shipping fees, but they are going to keep as much money as possible.
All of my shipments came in on time.
There IS a shipment which UPS intends to deliver today. Comparing notes, no one in the family seems to have any outstanding orders. Maybe it's a gift from one of the grandparents from several years ago? A gift from the afterlife? Oooohhh - a supernatural gift! More importantly, UPS is going a little extra to deliver whatever the package might be, by calling the house to see if anyone will be available to receive it. We have never before been contacted prior to delivery.
Bottom line here - if you wait until the last minute to place an order, you can expect to be disappointed. Any adult should understand that. Any adult should be ready to explain it to a child. Life is life, and stuff happens. I've had late deliveries in off-peak seasons, after all.
* I am using Amazon here as an example - replace Amazon with your motor sports supplier, or whatever.
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That is perfectly true. I could have pointed that out, because I already knew that. But, it sort of side steps the point I was trying to make. The retailer should be smart enough to understand that stuff happens during the Christmas season. They shouldn't be encouraging these last minute purchases. It should be the retailer's goal to have all Christmas purchases out the door, and aboard trucks on or before the 20th of December. Any purchases made after midnight of the 20th should have a disclaimer att
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I was one of these customers.
I ordered a mSata SSD that via Prime 2-day was scheduled for delivery on xmas eve. I got a notification that day (from Amazon) that UPS was overwhelmed and the package wouldn't be delivered on the "guaranteed" date.
On xmas day I received a (totally unsolicited) $20 gift card credit email from Amazon, that let me know $20 would be waiting in my Amazon account, no code necessary.
On xmas +1 the SSD arrived (and I ordered something else, taking full advantage of the gift card).
Resu
Re:Understandable, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I ordered a toy for my nephew 5 days before Christmas, with Amazon Prime 2-day GUARANTEED shipping. Right on the item page, Amazon GUARANTEED that it would arrive by Christmas. I don't hold UPS responsible. I hold responsible the vendor that made the claim. I spent my Christmas Eve driving to a Toys-R-Us 3 towns over, instead of sipping egg nog and decorating the tree.
Congratulations on teaching a child the true meaning of Christmas.
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First world problems (Score:5, Insightful)
Procrastination is not someone else's problem (Score:2, Interesting)
How about you don't wait until the 22nd or 23rd to order your gift and expect there to be 0 shipping/fulfillment issues? Yes, this is a service that has a "guaranteed" delivery date, but any common sense will tell you it's a best guess. Yes, it may be right 99% of the time, but obviously no one can predict weather, plane/truck issues, wrong inventory counts (Only 1 left in Stock!), etc.
Are these folks idolators? (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to me, they worship physical objects, and not their Creator. Give the U.S.P.S. a break if there's a snowstorm. I can't believe that a holiday these folks allege to be a Religious one can be "ruined" because stuff they want (that has nothing to do with the religious observance) is a day late.
Re:Are these folks idolators? (Score:4, Insightful)
How do you know physical objects are not The Creator? For all you know, the universe could be run by Kindle Fire HDXs, and they only chose now to manifest themselves in reality.
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Would do +1 insightful if I hadn't already posted a comment.
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Heres a hint: Christmas is not a religious celebration for the majority of people who observe it.
Fucking WAAAA. (Score:2, Informative)
'While others take vacation and time off in December, remember we aren't allowed ever to be off in December. Ever,' said a 20-year veteran UPS driver on the UPS Facebook page. 'So when you see your family and complain that your package is held up, everyone who moves your package is working and doesn't get the Xmas experience you get, Be thankful for that.'"
Hey, fuck you, buddy. They told you that shit about not taking time off during the busiest shipping season of the year when you took the job 20 fucking years ago, and probably reminded you every year since, so don't try to play the fucking victim here. Plus, "Dur, I had to work" is a really, really piss-poor excuse for failing to meet your work obligations, now isn't it?
I don't really get to take a lot of time off, period, but you don't see me using that as an excuse to suck at my job.
Side note: My wife ord
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Side note: My wife ordered me a new watch on Dec. 4, shipped via UPS.
The current arrival date is sometime after Jan. 4.
Something tells me this has something to do with the fulfillment and not the shipper. You don't want to/can't wait for a package? Go to the store.
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Side note: My wife ordered me a new watch on Dec. 4, shipped via UPS.
The current arrival date is sometime after Jan. 4.
Something tells me this has something to do with the fulfillment and not the shipper. You don't want to/can't wait for a package? Go to the store.
It was shipped Dec. 6.
Yes, I actually understand how to use a tracking number.
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That's because it was destroyed. A bunch of thieves broke into a UPS factory and destroyed it. The UPS workers fought with their lives to protect your package and others, and 32 workers fell in the battle. How many lives must be lost before you are satisfied? You're still getting your watch, but remember who died to get it to you.
Re:Fucking WAAAA. (Score:4, Informative)
Well then, what are you complaining about? The company has decided that its current level of effort maximizes its expected profits. Sucks for you, but that's usually the outcome for the weaker party to a deal in a capitalist society (or any society, for that matter).
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I would have been blaming the WRONG PARTY
Is it really wrong to blame the company who told you they had your package when they didn't?
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So if you wanted it earlier you should have paid for expedited shipping.
Didn't bother to RTFS, did you? Even those who did pay for expedited shipping got screwed. Says so right there, at the top of this page.
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I don't know how in hell you got that "insightful" moderation. Oh - the title of your post? "Fucking WAAAA" That's how I see you and the million or more Americans crying about your late deliveries.
Over the course of my own driving career, I seldom made a late delivery. But, when I did, there was a good reason for it. Reason number one, "I'm out of hours on my log book." Reason number two, "It's unsafe to drive in this weather."
If some cry baby at the other end cried to damned hard after being given on
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Wow aren't you the entitled little prick? These guys are working their asses off well over a normal work week full of hours to try and fulfill a larger than predicted volume of demand doing physical work and THIS is your attitude? This doesn't sound to me like the guy is sucking at his job but rather being asked to do a good bit more than should be expected. It's a Christmas holiday, a time for people to be together with loved ones, and you're angry at people who gave that up to deliver packages for everyon
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Woah.... Who shit your Cheerios? Chill out man.
You know, that sort of attitude is why our economy is so fucked, and why corporations get away with murder.
A company took people's money in exchange for a promise of service, and subsequently failed to provide the service those people paid for. Why wouldn't we be pissed? Corporate America is sticking it to us again, and people are making fucking excuses for it!
Idiots advocating against their own best interest just sticks in my craw, I guess.
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It's probably not a low level employee's fault personally that this happened. However, why the fuck would a low level employee try to even address the issue by telling others how harsh his work is and to be grateful? If you don't see the problem with that, then you are at a loss for even trying to understand why this would inflame people who weren't with their families and had to work as well.
Best course of action would have been to keep his mouth shut and let the company spin dr. explain what happened.
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When anything bad happens it is never management's fault. They are, however, responsible for everything good that happens.
I just hate delays (Score:2)
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I would go with the flip side of that. They shouldn't be advertising 3-5 business day shipping this close to Christmas. Instead of making empty promises for fast shipping, they should be stressing the fact that the longer you wait to order, the more likely it is to be late.
On the other hand... (Score:2)
I had packages delivered both by UPS and FedEx last week. All were right on time. In fact, one of the FedEx packages was sent 2-day air, and actually arrived at its destination, 1500 miles away, a mere 19 hours after being sent.
Why, indeed (Score:2)
'Well then why, all the way up until the 23rd, were they offering next-day delivery?
Well they why, if it was so important, did you wait all the way up until the 23rd to place your order or ship your package?
In any case, UPS was not guaranteeing on-time delivery well before the 23rd. I sent a package through the local UPS store where they made it clear that they couldn't and wouldn't guarantee delivery by Christmas even though it was shipped in time.
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Because planning is for people with a brain cell or two.
Overworked UPS Drivers and Lowly Paid Temps... (Score:2)
Not surprised at all. To digress a bit, many of the packages delayed were sent well in advance of the Christmas holiday - many reports mention packages sitting for over a week in trailers.
With that out of the way, UPS drivers are expected to make many more delivery stops than they used to. These days, 200+ is common with upwards of 300+ during holidays...
UPS drivers are still well paid, but are worked far harder. More specifically, in regards to the holidays, an ever increasing reliance on seasonal "driver
Thanks Obama! (Score:2)
(sarcasm).
Meh... (Score:5, Informative)
First, The UPS "guaranteed on-schedule delivery" already includes the following:
The guarantee does not apply to UPS shipments that are delayed due to causes beyond UPS's control, including, but not limited to, the following:
[SNIPPED some basic things, strikes, acts of god, government, customs, etc.]
disruptions in air or ground transportation networks, such as weather phenomena; and natural disasters.
The guarantee does not apply to UPS 2nd Day Air A.M., UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS 3 Day Select, and UPS Ground shipments that are picked up or scheduled to be delivered between December 12 and December 25.
http://www.ups.com/media/en/terms_service_us.pdf [ups.com]
Can you read that? Christmas is excluded. The whole Christmas season is excluded. ...and they're still offering compensation.
Good guy UPS.
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USPS has a money-back guarantee for Priority Mail Express (in most markets), but charges more for holiday delivery.
https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail-express.htm [usps.com]
So, like any consumer, you choose the shipper that best meets your needs based on their well documented service offers.
USPS Where are you?? (Score:2)
All this revenue that could be pulled by the one time largest shipper in the US, but for some reason, they keep losing billions a year.
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I'm gathering you haven't heard about the "Murder the Post Office in Slow Motion" law passed in 2006?
Re:USPS Where are you?? (Score:5, Informative)
All this revenue that could be pulled by the one time largest shipper in the US, but for some reason, they keep losing billions a year.
No, they aren't "losing billions a year."
It just looks that way, because the USPS is the only government body that's required (thanks to Congressional legislation) to fund ALL retirements and pensions through the next decade.
If it were allowed to be ran like any other government agency, the Post Office would actually be doing OK.
It had been an issue for the last few weeks (Score:2)
For my own anectdotal evidence (Score:2)
For what its worth, all of my orders came in before Xmas. Some that were actually projected for the vague "December 20-January 3" range ended up being delivered on the 23rd, and the one order that did end up being late was projected for Dec 16 (arriving on the 20th).
So while this issue may be widespread (one anecdote doesn't prove them all wrong), it may be localized to certain regions.
Smallest Violin (Score:2)
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You're foolish or lazy enough to cut ordering gifts that close and have the unmitigated gall to whine when the dice you rolled came up snake-eyes? Eff right off.
I've read reports of people who ordered stuff on Black Friday and are still waiting on UPS to find and deliver their packages.
Where are you folks getting the idea that this fiasco only affected last-minute orders?
Logistic is complicated (Score:3)
Logistic is complicated. That's why for so many years now I have a rule: never order any shipment in three last weeks of December and first two weeks of January.
I had anecdotal experience when a parcel from Amazon ordered first week of January came to me sooner than a parcel I have ordered a week before Xmas.
So for the sake of the inner calm, I have simply stopped ordering on-line during this time.
Shop Early (Score:3)
In the early 20th century there was a movement encouraging people to shop early, so as to be considerate of retail and delivery employees’ health and sanity.
Source article. [theatlantic.com]
UPS and Amazon Are Winning (Score:3, Insightful)
The real war on Christmas.
The day after the birthday of the Savior what do we have as news? UPS couldn't deliver packages full of meaningless crap.
This is so wrong.
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That being said, having your gifts arrive a little late falls in the First World Problems category. Get over it.
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That being said, having the deliveries that you paid for timely delivery of arrive a little late falls in the First World Problems category.
Yea, still true, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't bitch - they paid for a specific service and the corporation failed to hold up their end of the bargain. UPS deserves to get hit hard for this, because they only do one thing, and they somehow failed to do that right.
Capitalism accepts no excuses.
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As others have said above, UPS and Fedex were both stating close to a week before Christmas that they couldn't guarantee shipment times. If you were given such a guarantee even after that point it was because the retailers were lying to you.
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As others have said above, UPS and Fedex were both stating close to a week before Christmas that they couldn't guarantee shipment times. If you were given such a guarantee even after that point it was because the retailers were lying to you.
That's assuming the order I'm complaining about was placed close to a week before Christmas.
It wasn't, unless we're going by the abstract concept of "close to," in that December 4th is closer to Christmas than June 17th.
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In UPS's defense, I will point out that every other package they shipped this year was delivered on time, to the right address.
Still, I've had entirely too many issues with that company in the past to ever voluntarily trust a delivery to them.
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You know I never thought of it like that but you are absolutely right. That's insightful there, thanks. It made me realize something that is insightful as well. You know who will accept an excuse, hardship, extenuating circumstances, and is just generally a more compassionate system? Socialism. Whenever capitalists dig their grave too deep to get back out of and capitalism stops accepting their excuses, they all come running to socialism to bail them out. And every singl
Re:What a load of BS (Score:5, Insightful)
That being said, having your gifts arrive a little late falls in the First World Problems category. Get over it.
True, but so is a corn futures contract. If you sell me one and the corn doesn't show up at the warehouse, I'm not gonna let you off the hook because you had a dry year...and Fedex/UPS should be expected to compensate their customers some way. It won't kill them to knock something off the next shipping bill.
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I had packages delayed by the unusual weather. However, I did not despair or immediately go to social media to "vent". I realize that it sucks to be a delivery guy during Snowmageddon.
The kicker was the guy driving the golf cart.
That one made me feel a little guilty.
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the delay has nothing to do with volume and everything to do with bad weather.
Well, a Fedex I received from my daughter calls BS on that. The tracking log showed that it went aboard a delivery truck on the guarantee date; returned to the shipping center that evening; and went back out the next morning.
BTW, where do you get your data?
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Tracking logs are not always accurate. Especially with FedEx... More than once I've had them mark a package Delivered several days before it actually showed up on my doorstep.
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Tracking logs are not always accurate. Especially with FedEx... More than once I've had them mark a package Delivered several days before it actually showed up on my doorstep.
That must be why I find it... less than comforting... that our government wants to replace USPS with these stooges.
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"The tracking log showed that it went aboard a delivery truck on the guarantee date; returned to the shipping center that evening; and went back out the next morning."
I can't help wondering if that is true. Is it possible that you don't read the tracking log correctly? Or, is it more possible that someone logged it incorrectly?
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That does sound like volume to me. It went on a delivery truck along with a zillion other packages and the guy simply couldn't make it to all of the stops before he was forced to end his day - so it was returned to go out the next day on another delivery truck. Does that not sound like a volume issue?
I too ordered some things late and I had no great expectation they would arrive despite my promised date. To my surprise they did manage to show up and except for one package that's supposed to show up today (a
Re: hey, seems like all my US Postal Service packa (Score:2, Informative)
True story: UPS has handed off a lot of its last-leg delivery to the USPS, especially in rural areas. Those routes were never profitable for UPS so now they only deliver as far as the local post office, which doesn't exactly put a priority on delivering someone else's packages, so they may sit for a while before getting loaded on the USPS trucks for final delivery.
This happened to us 2 years ago - we'd ordered some stuff that would not arrive before we went to visit relatives, so (with their permission) we
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This is why I've started having important or time-sensitive packages delivered to the local UPS or FedEx store. It's not quite as convenient as being delivered right to my door, but I can usually get it a day or two earlier and don't have to worry about it being left in a mud puddle with a muddy welcome mat put over it (I'm looking at you, FedEx).
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+1
sent mine using USPS and everything got in time.
Re:Thankful (Score:5, Insightful)
UPS and FedEx drivers have been working 10-12+ hour days 6-7 days a week since Thanksgiving.
Your Christmas will not be ruined because of a late package unless you value some item or trinket over spending time with your family. First world problems indeed.
True, but not really the point either! (Score:3)
Any attempts to place blame on the employees working 10+ hour days for the carriers and not getting any vacation time is uncalled for. But the problem does lie at the feet of upper management!
As others said, it's not like they should have been taken by surprise that they had a pending problem, if there was a backlog of undelivered packages due to bad weather., just ahead of the holiday rush.
Every online merchant I visited promised "guaranteed delivery before Xmas" if I placed an order by a certain cutoff da
Re:Thankful (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Thankful (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was a driver (~2000) we could only be on the road for 12 hours (13 with lunch) if I remember correctly, so whether we were finished or not, we had to be back at the building within that time frame. Every Christmas I worked as a driver we were taking packages on the way home in our cars, on our own time, to make sure people got their presents.
Re:Thankful (Score:4, Insightful)
Thanks.
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By the time you become a driver you have spent at least 5 years with the company, so if there were any doubts about your integrity, it would normally have surfaced before you then while you were a part time loader or unloader. Each driver had also written down addresses of the 4-5 pkgs we took, so if there were any questions, the company knew right where to go, and we used paper records to get signatures.
Most of the time they were packages for your customers on your normal route that had arrived af
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But if you're told you can order 2 days before and still have it delivered on time, shouldn't you believe them?
no
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Only if you can still count your birthdays on one hand. Most people understand that shipping is prone to unexpected delays year round, and it's almost guaranteed by mid-December.
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Sure you can believe them. Retards are allowed to believe any damned thing they like. Children are allowed to believe any thing their parents encourage them to believe. Fools can believe in Utopia. Progressives can believe that they are evolved. And, you can believe that your Christmas order, placed on December 22nd, will be personally, and lovingly handled by a Christmas elf so that will arrive at the stroke of midnight on Christmas day.
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I was thinking the same. Instantaneous gratification probably played a hand in this. People are getting used thinking everything is a 24/7 operation and there can't ever be a hiccup.
I don't want to work on Thanksgiving or New Year's or any other major holiday and I feel bad for people who have to because there are customers to satisfy. I'm not talking about police or fire department. But does someone really need to go shopping or to see a movie on a holiday?
Re:Members of Amazon Prime can request one free mo (Score:4, Insightful)
The libertarian thing to do, then, is to order many individual packages during December, with careful attention paid to the origin and destination so as to maximize the expected profit.
The invisible hand of the free market will finally serve the consumer!
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they didn't. The RETAILERS did. As of the 19th both FedEx and UPS said there was NO guarentee for a "By the 24th" delivery date, yet the retails kept that promise. The blame is getting passed onto the wrong parties
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When I pick a political candidate to vote for, I know he won't keep all of his campaign promises so I apply common sense to weed out the more farfetched ones.
Likewise, when a company promises something that seems a bit farfetched (like making last minute deliveries just before Christmas), I know there's a good chance they'll fall short. It may not be ideal for the consumer, but it's how the world works.
Surprisingly, USPS delivered all of our Christmas cards by the 23rd in spite of us not getting them out un
Re:oh fucking cry about it. (Score:4, Informative)
UPS stopped making any promises mid-December, as did FedEx. They knew, and were honest and upfront about it. What more can you ask of them? You should be asking why Amazon was still making promises they knew they couldn't stand behind.
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Re:oh fucking cry about it. (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is the vast majority of people sending things aren't interacting with UPS or FedEx other than selecting shipping speed through xyzshopping.com
They were told 'last day to order for xmas eve delivery is 11:59PM on Dec 23rd (or whatever) by the retailer.
Last second shopping? Go to a freaking store people. :)
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The USPS is the only one of the two that does do guarantees. Still they get ragged on no matter what. I wonder what the people that preach "the USPS sucks because they are a bloated government agency" would say if this was the USPS. All my gifts got to where they were supposed to be by the time they were supposed to be there. "But private sector is so much more efficient than the government... bla bla bla". Now that UPS and FedEx are getting into the amount of packages handled by the USPS they are sho
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Unless you count the impact on the entire supply chain going back to China, India, Bangladesh etc.
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Google defines "First World" as "the industrialized capitalist countries of western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand."
So unless you own a really crappy globe, "First World" and "Around the Globe" are not at odds, especially as Asian countries like India and China are pushing their way into First World status.
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Many places don't expect "winter weather" in winter and are ill equipped to handle it when it actually happens.
Pretty much the bottom half of the country...
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