here are the dominos that necessitate a warning letter...Follow along... Customer claims damage and UPS liability (IF they did not, none of the following occurs).....Liability means the center must notify the insurance company to take care of the claim - this is done by reporting the accident....now that there is an accident it must be clarified as avoidable or unavoidable....yes, by UPS standards this could have been avoided. Because there is now liability leading to reporting - there is an accident leading to avoidability....And finally to ensure standards are uniform in the center all avoidable accidents receive a warning letter. Happens all the time....
You forgot to mention the most important domino: Management needs to deliberately choose to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Without that attitude, nothing significant would come of this incident.
It's like when a guy in a bar starts a fight because someone accidently brushed against him. The guy has to enter the bar with a chip on his shoulder in the first place. If he didn't bring the attitude, the situation wouldn't escalate.