Why Are People Upset About UPS and FedEx Delays? Plan Better.
3 min read
Christmas has come and gone but there are many out there that still have not received their gifts. This is due to a large delay in shipping from UPS and FedEx due to an overwhelming rush of orders that bogged down the ability to deliver on time. The past few days the news has reported on this issue, reporters have interviewed people in the street about their experiences in an attempt to form a dark cloud over these companies. The news is going as far as painting the retailers and shippers as out of touch with the buyers and are trying to make them at fault for not being able to deliver packages by Christmas day.
I don’t see it that way at all. Like most things in this country now I put most of the blame on the buyers for being lazy and last-minute. There would be no unexpected rush of online orders if people didn’t wait until the last-minute with an expectation that delivery will be there on time. It’s not like Christmas sneaks up on us every year, 12/25 is the date, go ahead and create an appointment in on of your smart devices and put a several week alarm on that appointment to remind you to order gifts for next year.
The news outlets are not putting this back on the buying public and asking Joe Consumer on the street, “Why did you wait until the last-minute? How can you be angry at your procrastination? Did you really expect delivery of a high-end product to be delivered by Christmas when you ordered it three days before?” Real news agencies would ask the questions on both sides instead of leaning against the big bad corporate entities.
The retailers are not blameless either, they are trying to win your business and to do that they promised before Christmas delivery. However, how can a retailer make those claims about a service they don’t control like UPS, FedEx or the USPS? How can the store feel confident deliveries are on time when the store is not doing the delivery? Realistic or not the retailers painted that picture, probably assuming the orders that late would be very low, this was not the case this year.
Much like most things in this technological society if people slow down and plan a bit than this would not be an issue. There are no rules saying that Christmas gifts have to be purchased in the month of December. If you know you are going to get someone an item and it’s on sale in July, buy it then and tuck it away. It would be far easier to get real deals by shopping all year (Christmas sales are proven to be not that good), you will be guaranteed that you will have all your gifts ready to go on 12/25, and it would be easier on your bank accounts to spread it out over the year rather than racking up debt you will pay interest on for the months to come.
The influx was self-inflicted laziness and UPS and FedEx were caught off guard how many people were last-minuters. Not that there’s a problem the agencies need to report the news and focus on the cause rather than attempt to create one to build a new twist on the effect. If you waited to the last-minute when you didn’t have to then you can’t complain when it didn’t go your way. Nothing is perfect and in times of high use, like the holidays, always build in a buffer for yourself to execute a backup plan or ensure successful execution.
End of Line.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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