Month: December 2013

by

Christmas Highlights and Low-Lights… ???

Christmas Highlights and Low-Lights… ???Image

 UPS, FedEx draw fire after Christmas delivery problems… Thousands of Americans awoke to find that special something missing from beneath the Christmas tree Wednesday, a day after UPS acknowledged getting swamped by the seasonal cheer and failing to deliver orders in time.

Now, rival FedEx appears to share the blame for the holiday that wasn’t.

“We’re sorry that there could be delays and we’re contacting affected customers who have shipments available for pickup,” Scott Fiedler, a spokesman for FedEx, told the Associated Press Wednesday.

Pressed Christmas afternoon, a supervisor at 1-800-GoFedex, the customer support line, went further in a call with NBC News. He declined to give his last name, citing company policy, but acknowledged “extraordinary” delays at the shipping giant and said his team had been apologizing to customers.

“We give our apologies to customers,” he told NBC News, noting that bad weather had crippled planes and delivery trucks and unforeseen demand swamped what vehicles remained in operation.

That mirrors what UPS first acknowledged on Tuesday, as the complaints piled up and packages failed to arrive.

And less-than-jolly customers of both companies took online to pummel the shipping giants.

“UPS understands the importance of your holiday shipments,” the company said in a Christmas Day statement on its website. “However, the volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network immediately preceding Christmas so some shipments were delayed.”

Amazon.com, one of the country’s biggest package shippers, also cited UPS’s “failure” in an apologetic email to customers on Christmas morning. In addition to reviewing the performance of delivery carriers, Amazon spokesperson Mary Osako confirmed that Amazon is also attempting to placate affected customers by providing gift cards and refunds for shipping charges.

Did you have a package lost?  Did the shipping trouble effect you and your family?

by

Christmas Shopping, Glee or Misery?

christmas-crowdNow is the time of year when we deck the halls, but if you mention Christmas shopping, a lot of you might have to resist the urge to deck something.

Thanks God resistance to decking isn’t futile.

A new poll says, your glee quickly turns to misery for many when talk turns to holiday shopping.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute says, “Forty-six (46%) percent said that they actually anticipate the need for shopping for the holidays with dread versus 41 percent who said they actually look forward to it.” The poll says men dread it the most…

Which Begs the Questions;

“What about shopping to you dread or love the most?”

“Tell us about your latest shopping adventure? (caught in storm, bathroom woes, In long lines, etc.)