The Dallas-Fort Worth area remains the center of a considerable delivery delay and sorting backlog for United Parcel Service, according to the company and customers waiting for items.
On the front page of its website, UPS has a link to a statement to customers apologizing for the delays that follow a significant ice storm that hit the Metroplex on Thursday, December 5.:
"We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We are committed to moving shipments to their final destinations as quickly as possible and are making every effort to deliver to all areas as conditions safely permit," reads the statement, in part, posted on Friday, December 13.
In a statement to NBC DFW on Dec. 15, a company spokesperson elaborated on the shipping giant's status.
"We know there are customers who are unhappy, so we certainly want to express an apology. The weather did cause a delay in processing. We have added additional staffing and we have been working around the clock," said Susan Rosenberg, UPS spokesperson.
On Tuesday, Rosenberg said the company "feels good about the progress its workers have made over the weekend to deliver long-delayed packages, but that the company also understands that there is still frustration out there."
Gene Kim, of Coppell, is waiting for three packages to be delivered to his home - Christmas presents for his children and a friend. Two of the packages arrived at the UPS Dallas distribution center on Monday, December 9, according to tracking information the company provided for Kim.
"The frustrating thing is UPS is telling us to look at the tracking number and to keep on tracking it," Kim told NBC DFW on Sunday. "What I know is my packages are stuck in a trailer, they're sitting in Dallas and so there is not, there's not going to be a change to it until they start unloading those trailers."
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Another concern that Kim raised, as have several other customers who contacted NBC DFW, is that he has already received other UPS deliveries that were ordered after the ice storm and appear to have been routed through the exact same distribution center
Kim said that leads him to believe the already-delayed packages are being purposefully put on the back burner to ensure that new shipments do not join them in the backlog.
Rosenberg, the UPS spokesperson, denied that the company is shifting its sorting and delivery process to newer items in an effort to prevent them from also being delayed.
To avoid further delays, UPS began processing packages bound for the Dallas-Fort Worth area "farther upstream," according to Rosenberg.
"Now we're building loads in other parts of the country, organizing and sorting packages headed for places like Carrollton, Arlington and other cities, so that the employees in Dallas and the other cities do not have the added workload," Rosenberg said.
Since the storm hit, UPS has brought employees in from other parts of the country to help clear out the backlog of packages at its Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Denton, Mesquite and DFW International Airport distribution centers, Rosenberg said.
