Viral Video Delivering Headaches for FedEx

Because you can never have too many viral videos to shock, humor and amaze, we present as our gift to you this beauty that is making the rounds of not only the Internet, but also network television and news aggregators like Yahoo!:

Will 21 seconds of video devastate one of the world’s most successful business enterprises? No, but how many people will recall that clip when considering their next overnight delivery?

The bigger discussion now, it seems, is the company’s response. FedEx issued a four-part tweet on Tuesday afternoon that read: “We saw the video and quite frankly were shocked. This was careless treatment of a customer package by our courier and will be addressed. We take pride in the quality of service we provide to millions of customers daily. We will not tolerate any irresponsible act that affects the quality of any item we deliver. Such irresponsibility is contrary to the good reputation FedEx is known for worldwide.”

On Wednesday, the company closed the book on the matter with this tweet:

The recent video situation has been resolved to the customer’s satisfaction. We are handling the employee according to our policies.

Followed by:

We have also reminded all of our FedEx team members that every single package is the most important one.

We don’t know what FedEx did to resolve the situation, but we can imagine that the company canned the courier, apologized privately to the customer whose TV was broken (and the company that engaged FedEx to handle the delivery) and replaced the broken set. Any sort of public display of groveling would be unseemly and unnecessary, just as a disproportionate response (having the CEO personally deliver and install the new set) would look tricked-up and gimmicky. And the last thing FedEx should do is make a fuss about having the video taken offline. Just take your licks and move on.

The real fun would be working for UPS or the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service. Imagine the clever campaigns they must be kicking around (think Southwest and its devastating “Bags Fly Free” commercials, like this one and this one).

Then there will be the endless YouTube parodies that no doubt are in production.

Some gifts are priceless.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

— Bill Callen