FedEx Truck Pushing…An Oven

I don’t celebrate the epic fails of brands.  Most brands, anyway. 

When something goes unexpectedly and very publicly wrong, there’s no joy in it. The employees who inherit the problem usually had little or nothing to do with causing it. For example, the poor folks in the communications dept at FedEx who just want to head home for Christmas: They can’t.

I’ve been watching FedEx’s response carefully, there are lessons in here for us all.  When the first video surfaced, yesterday, FedEx was superquick to reply with a genuine, heartfelt apology.  The company took care of its customer, took to the web with an apology, and took steps internally to investigate and address the matter further.  FedEx exec Matthew Thornton delivered his apology faster than it takes me to lick a stamp.

This isn’t a FedEx problem anymore.  It’s a problem for the entire delivery serices industry, in its most critical time of year.  Today, consumers are flooding the web with hundreds of videos of drivers wrecklessly delivering packages, all caught on tape.  Welcome to the party, UPS (and thanks for the middle finger).  Who’s smiling now? The nearly bankrupt US Postal Service, that’s who.

Ok, I’m smiling too.  Not because of the epic fail but because all the old videos of shitty delivery guys from across the web are resurfacing, and the funniest, most absurd ones are rising to the top.  The social web has essentially curated an online library or network of these videos and photos.  For example, here’s one where a dude in his car notices a huge FedEx truck driving behind him on the highway…pushing an oven!

 For all of us waiting at home for packages to arrive before tomorrow, make sure you hang a sign on your door like this one, just in case you don’t hear the bell or can’t get to the door fast enough:

 


Posted

in

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *