UPS Calls In 2,600 Extra Workers After Holiday Delivery Delays
Andrea Lucia
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - Jeff Cormier was looking forward to his grandmother’s reaction. “It’s not the gift. It’s the ‘ah’ moment,” he said.
Two weeks ago he ordered an iPhone case with his one year old daughter’s picture on it. “This was the big, huge, wonderful, sentimental gift that she was to receive,” he said.
Except she didn’t. Thursday, she flew back to Ohio without it.
“That sentimental moment, that wow factor, that’s gone and that can’t be replicated,” he said.
Cormier says he paid for expedited shipping.
But, despite a guarantee he’d have his package by Christmas, by Thursday evening, he said UPS still hadn’t delivered it.
On Twitter, #UPSfail and #FedEx fail are trending, as customer complained the packages arrived late or not at all.
In response to one customer, UPS wrote, “We are working extended hours to resolve service delays.”
UPS says it brought in more than 2600 workers and has 900 managers driving trucks.
It has blamed its backlog on a winter storm that hit North Texas three weeks ago and on a “very high” volume of packages.
Analysts point to a10% increase in online shopping and a shorter holiday season.
This Thanksgiving fell on November 28th, compared to the 22nd last year, prompting holiday sales, shopping, and shipping to start six days later.
“A lot of merchants were pushing their products at the last minute on the Internet saying order today and we guarantee deliver before Christmas,” said SMU professor Bernard Weinstein.
In the push to sell, he says, retailers made promises they simply couldn’t keep.
“Because the retailers just assumed that the shipping companies had adequate capacity. It turned out they didn’t they were just overwhelmed,” said Weinstein.
(©2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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