Losing a Christmas package for a few days is no big deal, but there are some legitimate beefs with UPS this month.

Someone already mentioned the mail order RX problem. Another countered by saying it's no big deal, buy it local and file an insurance claim. I'm sorry, but it isn't that easy. Many insurance companies require you buy through their mail order pharmacy or you pay full price. Fine, if its an emergency you go pay full price local...only if you can get in touch with your doctor to get a new Rx sent to a local pharmacy. Good luck with that during Christmas. Then filing a claim? Again good luck. The insurance company will say, "we're sorry, we already paid for the first set of meds shipped, we're not paying for the 2nd set bought locally". The insurance company does not care if the meds are late. I know this because it's happened to me and this wasn't during peak season. Was I able to get the meds? Sure was but at a major unnecessary cost because my package was lost for a couple weeks.

Example #2. Legitimate businesses suffer when packages get lost too. I sell supplies to contractors. A large amount of those supplies are not available locally so we order them. They base their schedules on when those supplies are going to arrive along with the owner of the building that needs to be completed. When a building is supposed to be completed by a certain date so the owner can occupy it and start making money to pay their bills, it's pretty important. When that date isn't met because some materials didn't arrive after being lost for a week+ at UPS in December, the contractor can face fines. That happened to one of my contractor customers earlier this month.

This country is working on a "just in time" inventory model. The only reason they are working on this model is because the shipping companies have promised delivery dates. When the shippers break the promise for any reason, then they cost people money.

Not getting a Christmas present in time is the fault of the buyer because they didn't buy earlier, but at the same time, if they were promised a delivery date which was subsequently broken, don't they have a reason to be mad? UPS and others made those guarantees and then broke them...UPS certainly has a responsibility to honor those commitments. From what I've read, it sounds like they are honoring it to those that did fall outside the guaranteed date by refunding the shipping costs. For late Christmas presents, that's all the "apology" needs to be.