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FedEx Driver Trashes Computer Monitor & Reputation: How Should FedEx Respond?

posted on December 20, 2011


If you’ve not yet seen this YouTube video of the FedEx delivery driver throwing a shopper’s new LCD monitor over a fence, then let’s get you up to speed.

Did your jaw drop? Mine did! You can read the back story here.

The question I have for you is, how should FedEx respond to this reputation damaging incident? I’ve listed a few ideas below, but leave a comment with your thoughts.

  • Fly the poor guy out to FedEx headquarters–on a FedEx plane–to receive a personal apology from the CEO and receive a new LCD TV.
  • An apology from the FedEx worker responsible, perhaps with an offer to come and personally set up the new monitor.
  • Bonus Idea: UPS should jump on this and send the guy a new LCD monitor, together with the message, “When It Absolutely, Positively Has to Get There….In One Piece.” :-P

OK, over to you. What advice do you have for FedEx?

UPDATE: For those questioning, no, it’s not a hoax. Tweets from FedEx…

UPDATE 2: It appears FedEx doesn’t want to spend much effort on apologizing.


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  • Arthur

    Fire Him he proabally already has been. I like the bonus option

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Frank Reed

    How about this for a conspiracy theory. This seems so egregious and over the top that I wonder if it wasn’t done to make FedEx look bad? Of course, you wonder where someone got the van and the suit but details, details.

    Now, if this is real (which is more likely I admit) I would make sure this driver is used as an example. Suspension, fired or whatever with a full explanation to the customer. As for stopping the online viral impact? God luck.

    As for UPS? This is salesman GOLD. Commercial reps should be using this hundreds of times a week to point out FedEx’s delivery “efficiencies” like not having anyone sign for a package and delivery in between lawn sprinkler cycles.

    All in all this is pretty funny and might cause some damage for FedEx but they’ll get past it by saying they are doing everything they can to train current employees etc. Look what Dominos did? They now admit they sucked and are trying to turn it around.

    • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

      I’ll tell ya, Frank, I thought it was a set-up too. I’m still not 100% convinced it’s authentic. I’ve not seen any response from FedEx, so I wonder if they are trying to authenticate the incident.

  • Holden Gatsby

    “An apology from the FedEx worker responsible, perhaps with an offer to come and personally set up the new monitor.”

    Are you kidding me? As a customer, I’d want assurance that FedEx has no tolerance for such blatant disregard for the property that I’m entrusting with them. I’d want the FedEx worker responsible terminated, along with an outline of policies that will ensure this doesn’t happen again (training programs, company-wide emails to employees of disciplinary action, customer satisfaction surveys and complaint lines, etc.).

    If this same guy showed up at my doorstep to apologize and was obviously still employed, I’d wonder how seriously FedEx corporate was taking this. I also wouldn’t want him anywhere near my new monitor (and setting an LCD monitor up is basically just plugging it into the computer and putting it on the stand anyway–trivial).

    By the way, I’ve had several instances where I was home waiting for a package and the FedEx guy didn’t even bother to ring the doorbell or knock and just dropped it on the doorstep (sometimes obviously tossed onto my porch from the sidewalk). I’m glad this one just happened to get caught on camera.

    • http://www.optiem.com/Services/Media/Social%20Media%20Marketing.aspx Grace @ Cleveland Social Media

      Agreed! Companies like Fedex need to take more preventative measures to make sure that their employees aren’t disrespectful of customers and their possessions.

  • Kelly T

    Drawn and quartered, obviously!

  • Aaba

    You get what you pay for?. Fred Smith founder and CEO of FedEx is in the top 200 richest persons in America(not bad for a country of 307 million people). Treats his employees like crap.

    • FLORISVDK

      he doesn’t treat his employees like crap, FedEx is in Belgium multiple times best employer of the year, witch isn’t easy to get

    • Tim

      Have a friend that works there and he has some of the best INS I’ve ever seen offered by an employer!! and he makes money hand over fist this time of year with the tons of OT he gets. I’m thinking your an x employee that was let go for throwing packages or peeing in the coffee

  • Post Master

    We will hire him at the USPS! We are doing away with overnight mail and saturday delivery! Our employees with 25 yrs of service, get 7 wks a year vacation. They soon will get an addition 52 days a year off! Maybe he works for the merged companies of FedEx & UPS. It is called FedUp!
    Actually, if he is not fired, I will never use FedUp again! I wouldn’t want my battery operated toys,abused like that!

  • http://www.imnirvana.com/ Alan Petersen

    Ah the conspiracy theorist are out. There is such thing as bad employees out there. This FedEx guy is one of them. He was so bad and nonchalant about his actions that he should be fired.

    It doesn’t appear from what I’ve read that the customer has reached out to FedEx. I would have called them to come pick up the broken item, watch the video, and not only reimburse me for the expensive shipping and handling fees they charge but they should cough up to pay for the guys monitor along with the apology.

    • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Frank Reed

      @Alan – We conspiracy theorists are always out. We keep everyone on their toes! Thanks for stopping by.

  • http://www.crossingmarketingandit.com Elmer

    Certainly FedEx isn’t the only delivery company with problems. I could catalog several bad service examples I’ve had with UPS over the years.

    I think it has a lot to do with how the local office is run and the leadership there more than the leadership at the very top.

    I like your third suggestion, Andy. Why not show up the competition and try to demonstrate you’re better.

  • Dayvideo

    FedEx will “reach out” to the customer and offer an apology AND will ask (demand?) the customer to remove the video from YouTube. Hopefully, it will have been copied hundreds of times over by then and FedEx will not be able to wash this one away. Truth be told…that employee was incented to make his deliveries as fast as possible by corporate policy.

  • Chris Lorence

    Hey, its how the USPS delivers, why wouldn’t it work for FEDEX? There motto is “When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight” clearly doesn’t promise it will be delivered in good condition. I wonder if in 2012 will usher in new attention to “care & concern, attention to detail” in marketing & advertising slogans?

  • Don Winston

    I think we will find this whole thing is a gag. Having a camera set up is just too convenient, and I’ve never seen or even heard of anyone in FedEx doing anything like this, and there’s no reason the person would do this – it’s not like he was frustrated in his attempt to get through a gate and tossed the box over the fence in frustration or anything.

    I think we’ll ultimately find it’s just the work of an enterprising film student, or something similar. Like the film of Grandma crossing the street, and hitting the bumper of a honking car with her purse, setting off the airbag in the face of the annoying driver. Totally staged, but still funny.

  • Phil

    UPS and FEDEX are equal opportunity offenders…both leave packages on door steps haphazardly. It’s only gotten worse over the years.

  • Slingpoop

    Fire the fool right away and deduct the cost of replacing the item from his final paycheck…who needs employees like this when tons of honest people would love to have his job.

  • Boggart

    Was the monitor damaged?

    • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

      Yeah, I believe so.

  • Kpublbu

    Who’s to say this FedEx “employee” didn’t put in his two-weeks’ notice after getting hired by UPS or another FedEx competitor? Things like this aren’t always what they seem, and it may just be someone’s attempt at getting a viral video because they have an axe to grind with FedEx.

  • Alex

    It’s not just FedEx. Here in Canada the Canadian version of Amazon insists on using UPS for most deliveries, and my brother had packages left on the doorstep (in an area where theft is a problem) and chucked over the fence too. But get used to it, folks – we’re the ones who want all the “bricks and mortar” stores to close and everything to be bought and shipped online. Had this guy gone to his local computer shop he could have taken the monitor home and be assured it would arrive in one piece. If this guy hasn’t been fired then there’s something wrong.

  • Robin

    If you look more carefully you’ll see it’s a samsung monitor. The driver should be aplauded for realising this and treating it as such. It was probably already broken and if it wasn’t it wasn’t far off it. I feel sorry for the customer now because it’ll be 6 months before he manages to get anything out of samsung! Moral of the story is get a proper monitor and steer clear of ANYTHING samsung!

  • Tim

    In a day and age where jobs are hard to find and you got this piece of shit throwing someones surprise gift over the fence!!! That’s bullshit fire the SOB!! Maybe him and my son-in-law could open a company together!! “we be shit workers” LLC

  • vikegal

    “Fly the poor guy out to FedEx headquarters–on a FedEx plane–” Seriously? Hasn’t the poor customer been through enough? Ever see the movie Castaway?

    • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

      LMAO! OK you got me on that one!

  • Cheryl

    FIRE him he most likely has done this before and why should he have this job if he isnt going to give good customer service. Give his job to someone who cares about their job and company/customers. Cant believe people are this rude at Christmas time or anytime for that matter.

  • http://www.homecomputertechz.co.uk Paul Jones

    That is a a terrible thing that guy done and i feel sorry for the owners of the equipment. I feel that fedex should fire the employee to show others an example .

  • Agreeing consumer

    I agree with ‘Concerned consumer’, having such despicable action being made public and just say ‘we dealt with it’ doesn’t recover any faith in the company. We’re ruthless people and unless we know what bad dish was fed to that stupid employee, FedEx still looks bad to me.

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