The snow and ice has melted, where's my stuff?!

We thought we would post this recent article in the Oregonian up on our blog in the hopes that our dear customers will understand that the recent delays in the delivery of their packages have been beyond our control due to "Arctic Blast 2008!" as the local TV news stations have named the 14 inches of snow and ice and freezing temperatures that befell our fair city of Portland, Oregon these past 11 days. It broke an all time record, y'all! No joke.

"After the Portland snow -- now what?
by The Oregonian
Monday December 29, 2008, 9:41 PM

When will I get packages?
The U.S. Postal Service expects to finish delivering delayed packages today, UPS by the end of the week and FedEx said only as soon as possible. Check on individual packages with UPS at www.ups.com or 1-800-PICK-UPS, and with FedEx at www.fedex.com or 1-800-GO-FEDEX."

And another blogger responded with this comment: "My last few presents were scheduled to be delivered last Monday. The tracking said it was out for delivery on Monday. And then out for delivery on Tuesday. Then the delivery date was changed to Friday. Now it says the delivery date is today.

Of course, the gifts were for family who flew home on Saturday. Now I have to pay to ship it to them. I cannot change the shipping address. And I'm not holding my breath that it will be here today.

I just hope my garbage is picked up on Tuesday. It has been three weeks...."

We can vouch for the fact that we personally witnessed several UPS and USPS trucks stranded on the side of the road in Portland due to the snow. On one day last week, we even received a call from one of our UPS drivers (we love them dearly; We have several of their cell phone numbers programmed in our phone on speed dial) calling us with some "Good News & Bad News". Good news was that they were nearby; Bad news was that we were going to have to meet them at a local convenience store because they could not make it down our street.

In addition, like many of you, our Christmas gifts, purchased online (of course) for friends and family still have not arrived. We are still waiting on a particular Next Day air package that was purchased on the 20th of December to arrive. When we check the tracking information online with UPS all it says is "Exception. Delivery will resume when severe weather subsides." According to our friends at UPS, in the heart of the storms a few days ago, all UPS and Fed EX planes (which carry USPS express packages) were grounded. No planes were taking off or landing period, end of story.

So, while we wholeheartedly empathize with our customers' upset over the delays encountered in receiving their goods, there really, honestly hasn't been a damn thing we can do about it except blame God, and what's the point in that?

Watch a video pictorial from Ireport here.

(there's some really cute doggies in it)

Tiger at the Oregon Zoo: (not looking too happy)



Deserted PDX Intl:





So...um, yeah. Your order might be delayed!