The Holiday Shipping Season is Already a Mess

We are used to the crunch at Christmas time and the shipping deadlines but it’s only December 11th. Packages aren’t getting delivered on time, wind up in the wrong state or city or lost altogether. Everything we shipped out last week was late and even overnight shipping this week didn’t arrive on time. Overnight to Florida, shipped Wednesday, has not been delivered and will sit somewhere over the weekend as will 6 other packages that should have been delivered Wednesday or Thursday.

Packages shipped to us the last two weeks have arrived late or not at all.

I think FedEx and UPS hadn’t thought shipping would be this brisk right after Thanksgiving and didn’t hire seasonal employees soon enough. Obviously, training is required and may account for packages sent to Napa going to LA, then So. SF, before arriving in Oakland for delivery in Napa.

Going forward, we will let our customers know that delivery dates cannot be guaranteed.

Any other ITBers having problems?

Randy, I’m not ITB, but my wife ships for her business and too often has packages take very strange circuitous routes to arrive at nearby destinations.

I’m currently fighting FedEx for my Bedrock order. It arrived at the next to last destination at 4 am Friday morning. They still showed a Friday delivery, but I knew that wouldn’t happen. When I called, they said no problem for today since it was only 3 hrs to the final ship center so it would be there later Friday and on the truck today. It did not depart until 7:30 last night and still does not show up at the final destination, so next chance is Tuesday they say. Sigh.

Going forward, I will ask wineries/retailers to hold all shipments until Spring if they plan to ship after Thanksgiving. I have experienced everything you have Randy, from lost packages, to multiple day delays. Also. I routinely have packages held at both a UPS depo and a FedEx-Kinkos for pick up. This week, I had to wait OVER 30 mins in line because of the Holiday crowds shipping packages. Both places have the same number of employees (1) as they normally have during the rest of the year.

I ordered an item over a week ago that went through the UPS to USPS delivery chain. Of course, it got
delivered to the wrong post office, so now I have to wait who knows how long for them to get it back to MY post office so it can actually be delivered to me…

Bruce

Randy - looks like there are lots of problems:

United Parcel Service Inc. is straining to handle a surge in online sales that has resulted in more holiday volume than it had expected, causing a wave of disruptions that could spell trouble for the holiday season.

On-time delivery rates for UPS ground packages based on their normal shipping transit times last week fell to 91%, according to an analysis of millions of packages by software developer ShipMatrix Inc. During the same week last year, the on-time rate was 97%, which is UPS’s usual average during nonpeak months. FedEx Corp. ’s early numbers were also lower than usual at an estimated 95%…

FedEx and GSO haven’t been bad - there’s been a few snafus, but the majority has been fine. Our customer service team has been giving the ‘no service is guaranteed’ disclaimer since T-Day, and that seems to help.

I have heard that UPS is having many more issues - and I’ve personally had two separate packages from Amazon disappear in transit.

My on time shipments from UPS has been 0% for every single wine shipment from after Thanksgiving thru now. Ultramarine “due tomorrow”, but will not make it with a rescheduled delivery of Monday…3 days late.