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RUNNING HEAD: Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

Brandi Burgin
Comm260-A
Chris Morse
20 December 2016
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

Final Paper: Social Media Analysis

Online shopping is one of the biggest ways that the media is used. During the holidays,

strong deals and promotions encouraged more consumers to shop over the holiday weekend.

More than 154 million consumers will shop over Thanksgiving weekend, which went from 151

million in 2015 (National Retail Foundation). National Retail Foundations annual

Thanksgiving weekend survey conducted by Prosper Insights found that 44 percent went online

and 40 percent shopped in-store (National Retail Foundation). Along with shopping online

throughout the year, more than 122 million consumers plan to shop online on Cyber Monday

(National Retail Foundation). Because of the popularity of online shopping, came the crisis

against the United States Postal Service and FedEx in 2013.

In the year of 2013, thousands of Americans woke up to find that hundreds of their online

shopping orders were not delivered to their house. UPS acknowledged getting swamped by the

season cheer and failing to deliver orders in time, left them in a crisis they never expected to get

so out of hand. As the time continued and the more people that found themselves without

Christmas gifts, customers tried to give their raging complaints to FedEx and UPS customer

service line. When customers found that their complaints were going nowhere, they decided to

express their anger and frustrations via social media. Their complaints went national and even hit

the biggest news stations like KTLA. We are sorry that there could be delays and we are

contacting affected customers who have shipments available for pickup, Scott Fiedler, a

spokesman for FedEx, told the Associated Press on Wednesday of 2013 (National Retail
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

Foundation). Pressed Christmas afternoon, a supervisor at FedEx, the customer support line,

went further in a call with NBC News. He declined to give all his personal information but

acknowledged the extraordinary delays at the shipping giant and said his team had been

apologizing to customers (Nation Retail Foundation). As this was released to the press, the

raging customers felt as though the supervisor was not trying to handle this situation or

presenting a solution to them. 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 (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). While acknowledging that there

was a crisis, he put a shift blame on the weather and trying to avoid the actual situation at hand,

that many customers had no presents to give to their families on Christmas day.

Although, the supervisor did release a world-wide apology to all customers, he avoided

giving out any personal information, even his first and last name. This lead to an even bigger

problem because it left customers feeling as though they were not important enough for him to

show his face while apologizing on television. Along with not telling people who he was, it

made customers struggle to know who to contact when a situation like this happens in the future.

FedEx was not the only company that was affected by this crisis, it was UPS as well. UPS

mirrors the problem that FedEx had at the exact same time. On Tuesday, the day before

Christmas eve, complaints piled up and packages failed to arrive from UPS (Dokoupil, Tony.

NBC News). Once many customers started to realize how big of an affect this had on people,

they started to express their thoughts via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. UPS SUCKS,
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

wrote Kip Ingram in a post on the companys Facebook page, just a short scroll from a Happy

Christmas message from the companys delivery crew (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). They

just FAILED. SUCK, SUCK, SUCK! wrote another customer on the Facebook wall after

Ingram (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). As the harsh social media post, one women named Teri

Martin made a very wordy, shaming post on Facebook. Martin wrote Merry Christmas FedEx.

Thanks for taking my money, ruining my sons Christmas and taking days off to avoid dealing

with desperate customers trying to find out how to get their packages! NEVER AGAIN!

(Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). For many of these people, the void of not having any Christmas

presents to open was spent many days and hours of phone-and-Web wrangling with UPS

customer service (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). Although, many people acknowledged that

Christmas is more than just about the presents, but even some of the smaller, more symbolic

gifts of Christmas got lost in transit. Samantha Edussuriya, the director of online content at

Fuse.tv, the music website, took to social media shaming after FedEx failed to deliver her

mothers passport in time for a family trip to Mexico (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). One

women who expressed her sadness about UPS failing to deliver was Katherine McEachen of

Fairfield, Connecticut. She suffers from lupus and was bedridden for much of the months

previous to Christmas. So when she was able to finally get out of the house to cut the Christmas

tree down with her family, she documented the memory and wanted to make it a present for her

father to cherish on Christmas day (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). UPS ruined my Christmas,
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

McEachen told NBC. It is just a mug, but it was supposed to be so special and it is the only

way I can say those words to him (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News).

UPS and FedEx did not realize the severity of this crisis until the posting of social media

started to pour out. Many people voiced their anger and sadness that even though Christmas does

not revolve around the presents, many people spent a lot of money and relied on these two

companies to make this day special for themselves and their families. 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, stated the

company on the day of Christmas (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). Along with UPS and FedEx,

Amazon.com, one of the countrys biggest package shippers, also cited UPSs 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

(Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). One thing that Amazon did that gained them a lot of respect and

credit, is that they offered a solution and a give back to the people that this crisis affected. The

company within itself, took responsibility for the mishap and provided a solution. Whereas,

FedEx and UPS hid behind the social media and relied on shifting the blame on something else

cause many people to be angry. The main problem of this crisis was not the weather, it was that
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

the companies were not prepared for this holiday season even though they knew this time of the

year gave them a lot more business than usual.

The last time a significant number of UPS packages were late for Christmas was 2004,

when an ice storm took over Worldport, the UPS distribution center in Louisville, Kentucky

(Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). Back then, employees ended up manually loading packages for

days, and surprising the customers on Christmas day. This year the company declined to call its

workers in for holiday service (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). Many people were left unclear to

where the UPS network broke down and the company declined to specify the size of the problem

which left the situation to become even bigger. At the same time as this crisis, there was the

continued growth of online shopping, which not only facilitates last-minute gifting but often

rewards it with deeper discounts (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). Online spending jumped 9

percent, to $37.8 billion, between November 1st and December 15th, according to the online

research firm comScore, and retailers expect overall holiday sales to be up nearly 4 percent,

exceeding $600 million (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). During this crisis, UPS anticipated

delivering 132 million bundles in the week before Christmas, according to Bloomberg

Businessweek, and to meet that wave of holiday cheer, Abell organized 55,000-part time

workers, 23 extra planes and what amounts to a second fleet of delivery trucks (Dokoupil, Tony.

NBC News). Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, FedEx handled 275 million shipments,

Fiedler, the UPS spokesman, told the AP. Out of those packages that were not delivered in time

for the holidays, he said, would be very few (Dokoupil, Tony. NBC News). With all these
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

expectations that the two companies were estimating, the customers felt as though this could

have been prevented and were not taken care of.

After many of the social media posts came pouring in, all posts were written in pure

disappointment. As more media posts went viral, it amped up the crisis in general. Many people

tried to reach out to both, FedEx and UPS, to try to solve their problems but when these two

companies both tried to avoid the situation, it caused a bigger uproar. The hashtag #UPSSUCKS

started to trend on Twitter and Facebook which allowed people to search that hashtag and

connect with people going through the same issues. As more and more complaints came pouring

in, UPS and FedEx really did not know how to handle it. While many of the employees tried to

just ignore the entire situation, FedEx spokesperson decided to address the situation. Mercent

CEO Eric Best, went on to say It is easy to blame UPS, but it is the retailers that are pushing

these next-day shipping offers in the final hours of the shopping season, (Stevens, Lauren. NG,

Serena. Banjo, Shelly. Wall Street Journal). However, with the statements that the spokes

people have said have only made the customers even more mad. Many of the customers sent out

complaints about the customer service they had when they tried to reach out to UPS and FedEx.

Both of these companies made significant amount of excuses to the customers and told them that

they were at fault for this mishap. The complaints to the customer service were shown to only

make things worse for the companies. Customers complained that they did not get any help from

the service and whenever they would call, they would get sent to another line or the phone would

continue to put them on hold until they decided to hang up. Both, FedEx and UPS spoke out
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

about this saying that the only reason they had a hard time about this was because so many

people were calling that they did not have enough staff to take every call (NBC News Online. 21

December 2015). When customers were getting put on hold, many decided to express their local

news companies which ultimately led to many news companies releasing a detailed report of the

angry customers and all the missing packages.

From 2013 to 2015, FedEx and UPS had very rough years. In 2013, they underestimated

Americans growing fervor of online shopping (NBC News Online. 21 December 2015). Throw

in bad weather, deliveries get backed up and customers become aggressive and upset. UPS and

FedEx spent heavily last year to ensure better performance, but it still had its major hiccups in

2015 (NBC News Online. 21 December 2015). Toys R Us, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel, J.C.

Penny and Kohls were among the retailers who missed delivery to at least one part of the

country, according to industry tracking firm StellaService (NBC News Online. 21 December

2015). They lost a lot of customers from this incident but not due to the packages not arriving

but because of how these two companies went about handling it. To prevent similar mishaps,

UPS and FedEx have been working with major retailers to hone their forecasts and have

scheduled their extra holiday workers to better meet the shipping spikes right after Thanksgiving

and the weekend before Christmas (NBC News Online. 21 December 2015). As they decided to

come together, some third-party tracking services have signaled a few issues with 2015

deliveries but UPS spokesman Mike Mangeot said that more than 96 percent of packages are

being delivered on time in December and that UPS expects packages to arrive by Christmas

(NBC News Online. 21 December 2015). In many cases customers are receiving the packages
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

earlier than promised as we are advancing deliveries to make sure the network remains ready for

any spikes as last-minute Christmas shipping approaches, says Mangeot (NBC News Online.

21 December 2015). The reason Mangeot decided to come out with this release of making a

promise to have packages delivered in advance to shipping date is to allow customers to know

that they are their first priority.

Although, many of the people have questioned why it took the companies so long to get

the packages delivered, the weather played a huge role in this crisis. At first glance, Kentucky

does not seem like the epicenter of holiday shipping. After all, Louisville is a city of 600,000

people and is known for the Kentucky Derby, the city does have relatively good weather and a

geography that is perfect for shopping (NBC News Online. 21 December 2015). FedEx has a

similar operation in Memphis, Tennessee (NBC News Online. 21 December 2015). Gary Kelley,

manager of the UPS next day shipping division at Worldport, decided to talk about the location

to eliminate the factor of this being the problem. It is just an ideal location for us. We are

within two hours (flying time) of 75 percent of the population and within four hours of 95

percent. (NBC News Online. 21 December 2015). Along with the distance, when you are

rushing packages overnight, that proximity to the countrys largest cities matters (NBC News

Online. 21 December 2015). The poor performance will make consumers think twice next

holiday season about deliver promises and could boost the popularity of buying online, ship to

store options that many stores offer, says retail brand strategy expert Ken Nisch, chairman of
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

JGA, a firm that represents clients including Macys, Godiva and The North Face (USA Today.

Leger, Leinwand Donna, ODonnell, Jayne. 27 December 2013).

As this crisis broke out, only one online shipping store thrived at this time of the year.

Amazon, the No. 1 online retailer in the week before Christmas, as measured by Experian

Marketing Services, fulfilled its end of the bargain by packing its shipments and delivering them

to carriers on time for holiday delivery, Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako said (USA

Today. Leger, Leinwand. ODonnell, Jayne). While Amazon was thriving and delivering all of

their packages on time or before the shipping date, it caused a lot of the FedEx and UPS

customers to become even more upset. They felt as though, if Amazon was able to deliver to

their customers then all shipping companies should be able to as well. Customers that went viral

to complain expressed that they believed the two companies blaming the weather for this issue

was a cop out rather than being able to take responsibility. At first, FedEx was trying to reach

out to the customers to fix the issues and compromise with them. When they saw the anger that

was broadcasted by the customers, they decided to hide from the situation. Even though, FedEx

released a statement to NBC, the spokesperson chose to hide their identity and name. As irritated

customers vented their anger on the UPS Facebook page, the company responded to many by

apologizing and asking for shipping information to get the packages on the right track (USA

Today. Leger, Leinwand. ODonnell, Jayne. 27 December 2013). UPS drivers did not deliver on

Christmas day, but sorters worked Christmas afternoon and evening to load planes at UPS air

hub in Louisville. Even so, UPS said, some packages that were promised to arrive before
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

Christmas still would not arrive until Friday (USA Today. Leger, Leinwand. ODonnell, Jayne.

27 December 2013). Were making every effort to get all the packages delivered, UPS

spokeswoman Natalie Godwin said (USA Today. Leger, Leinwand. ODonnell, Jayne. 27

December 2013).

UPS and FedEx both ignored the ethical issues in regards to the crisis. Ethics in regard to

the organization is when an organization takes responsibility for the crisis or in charge of crisis

management. The main goal is how the employees and the crisis communicator can be protected

within this crisis. However, at the beginning of this crisis, FedEx decided to ignore the entire

thing at hand and avoid taking responsibility. They let the ethical side of their company go to

waste and prove to their employees that they are willing to hide their face in an ethical issue

instead of taking responsibility and trying to gain the trust of their customers back. FedEx and

UPS denied the ethics of the victim as well. Both of the companies should have realized that they

are ignored all people affected by this crisis leaving many families empty handed on Christmas

morning. In regards to how they companies handled the situation was completely unethical.

There are steps on how companies can address a crisis but keep all values available to the public.

Ethics on how the crisis is handled is based on how long the company should be managing the

victims after the crisis is handled and how long after are you responsible for. The most important

question when handling a crisis that has victims ethics at stake is understanding what the right

decision is. The first right decision that these organizations should have made was taking

responsibility right when the crisis started to occur. By hiding their faces and taking the day off
Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

rather than doing everything they can to help, they immediately lost the trust in the victims

which is one of the biggest things a crisis communicator should try to avoid. By taking

responsibility and allowing the customers to feel a sense of importance to the organization, it

would have eased the situation a little more. Instead, FedEx decided to go on a news station that

was broadcasted all over the world with a hidden image of a face, a hidden name and a different

voice apologizing to all the customers and explaining what happened with all of their packages.

Because of their lack of empathy towards customers ethical views, they lost a lot of customers

while ruining many Christmases and being shamed on all social media sites.

As many children woke up to no gifts left under their trees and many angry customers

voiced their hate for UPS and FedEx, FedEx and UPS brought this upon themselves. They could

have easily predicted the crisis that could happen during the holidays and have a plan for when

this did happen knowing the growing desire of online shopping. Instead, both companies decided

to ignore the situation entirely and take a day off for all employees making valued customers

even more upset. Both crisis communicators for these companies did not apply any of the

methods or theories we have learned throughout the course of the semester, only making the

impact of this crisis last years after it actually occurred. While respecting victims privacy,

understanding when ethical issues come into play and taking responsibility for the crisis instead

of shifting blame would have decreased the uncertainty that past victims, current victims and

future victims could potentially feel.


Crisis Within UPS and FedEx Final Paper

Citations

Press, Associated. (2015 December 21) Inside the Madness as UPS Rushes to Deliver Holiday

Gifts in Time. Retrieved from: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/inside-

madness-ups-rushes-deliver-holiday-gifts-time-n483796

Dokoupil, Tony. (2013 December 25) UPS, FedEx Draw Fire After Christmas Delivery

Problems. Retrieved from: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/25/22047875-ups-

fedex-draw-fire-after-christmas-delivery-problems

Stevens, Laura. (2014 December 24) UPS, FedEx Got Back On Time This Holiday. Retrieved

from: http://www.wsj.com/articles/ups-fedex-got-back-on-time-this-holiday-1419886180

Leger Leinwand, Donna., ODonnell, Jayne. (2013 December 27) UPS Still Staggering Under

Holiday Crush. Retrieved from:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/26/more-delays-as-ups-

staggers-holiday-crush/4207755/

Peterson, Hayley (2015 December 11) Holiday Disaster Looms at UPS, FedEx Overloaded After

Online Shopping Soars. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/ups-fedex-

shipping-delays-threaten-retail-christmas-2015-12

Stevens, Laura., Ng, Serena., Banjo, Shelly (2013 December 26) Behind UPSs Christmas Eve

Snafu. Retrieved from:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303345104579282432991595484

Retail Foundation, National (20 November 2015) Holiday Headquarters. Retrieved from:

https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-data/holiday-headquarters

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