BrownCafe

Thousands of Americans awoke this morning to a somewhat diminished Christmas, thanks to an epic fail by package handler UPS, which announced yesterday that – oops! — some packages slated for December 24 delivery would not be arriving until after the holiday.  Sorry ‘bout that.

While the delivery of gifts may not be the essence of Christmas, it is the essence of the package delivery business – especially a business like UPS that has relentlessly touted its expertise in logistics – see this 2010 ad (entitled “we [heart] logistics”) in which the classic “That’s Amore” has been rewritten, “That’s Logistics.”

Yet, UPS failed logistics – miserably — offering up the measly explanation, “demand was higher than forecast.”  Isn’t getting this right on arguably the most important deadline of the year pretty much the essence of logistics?

A high volume of holiday packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS, the company said on Wednesday, delaying the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe and sending angry consumers to social media to vent.

Amazon.com responded with an email to affected customers offering shipping refunds and $20 gift cards to compensate.

A convergence of factors, including higher volume than expected and recent patches of bad weather, caused the delays, UPS spokeswoman Natalie Black said.

United Parcel Service Inc. said on Tuesday it won’t be able to deliver some packages in time for Christmas because last-minute air shipments proved greater than its network could handle this week.

“The volume of air packages in the UPS system did exceed capacity as demand was much greater than our forecast. It is a small percentage of shipments that are delayed and will not be delivered today,” said spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg in a statement.

Since the ice storm that hit DFW two weeks ago, the United Parcel Service has been struggling with considerable delay to deliver packages to customers.

On Thursday, the company announced hundreds of new managers arrived in Dallas to keep progress moving forward.

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service says it has sent 300 managers to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to address considerable delivery delays following an ice storm that two weeks ago paralyzed the area.