Holiday Volume Overwhelms UPS, FedEx
MIAMI (CBS4) - Thousands of Christmas presents never found their way under the tree Wednesday, thanks to a system overload at UPS and FedEx.
The shipping companies blamed the delays on increased air package volume ahead of the holiday.
Customers all over the world were impacted, including Mindy Gentile of Davie.
"We found out this morning that it was sort of a global or universal type shipping snafu or whatever it may be, and it started making a little bit more sense," Gentile told CBS 4's Lauren Pastrana.
Gentile was expecting a gift for her four-year old son from his grandparents in Texas to arrive via UPS. It was supposed to be delivered by Christmas Eve.
She's still waiting for it.
"We waited and waited and waited and it never showed up," Gentile said. "So we called and it's been delayed, we don't know exactly where it is. They were just crestfallen to know his son didn't get his package on Christmas."
UPS said a system overload is to blame.
In a statement posted on its website, the shipping giant wrote "UPS understands the importance of your holiday shipments. UPS is experiencing heavy holiday volume and making every effort to get packages to their destination; however, the volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity immediately preceding Christmas so some shipments were delayed."
The delay can also be chalked up to a variety of factors like poor weather this week in parts of the US, a shortened holiday shopping period and, of course, procrastination on the part of consumers.
Gentile said last-minute shopping and shipping is a problem, but UPS should have been prepared.
"They've been doing this, knowing that this would happen," she explained. "They knew it was going to be on this time schedule. I don't know. I'm disappointed."
Gentile is also looking for a package from FedEx which never arrived, despite tracking information that shows it was delivered.
"Hopefully it can be delivered or they can find it for us," Gentile said.
FedEx acknowledged some minor delays, but told CBS News it had handled 275 million shipments between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
UPS did not make any pick-ups or deliveries on Christmas Day.
