My cat died on Saturday. I had her for 20 years. She was my best friend. When she passed, I wanted so desperately to hold her one last time and grieve over her remains, but I was working with a company called ViaGen to produce a clone of her--a gesture for which I have invested many thousands of dollars, so I had to work quickly to get the samples they needed. Instead of holding my sweet little girl one last time, I had to turn my heart off and put her in a cooler, then drive her 2 hours away to an emergency facility to perform tissue biopsies. I had to sit while they cut my little girl up, which is the hardest thing I've ever done, but I did it knowing that it was for the possibility of getting to raise a twin of her. Driving back home with that biopsy kit in my front seat felt like carrying around a bomb--I didn't even want to touch it, and I knew that time was ticking away on its viability.
When I finally handed that package to a worker at a FedEx facility, I was awash with a sense of relief. She told me that the package was guaranteed to arrive the next day by 11:30. These samples are incredibly sensitive, and only stable for 24-36 hours at the appropriate temperatures. But I put my trust and faith in one of the biggest parcel companies on Earth.
Now, 48 hours later, that package is at a #FedEx sorting facility in Memphis, Tennessee, 650 miles away from its destination. No on at FedEx knows why it's still there, when it will leave, when it will arrive at its destination, or whether it has, until now, been stored at an appropriate temperature to keep the cells viable despite saying "Perishable" and "Time Sensitive" on the box. The samples are most likely no longer usable, and along with the cells in those tubes I sacrificed a last cuddle with my baby for, that I had taken so much care to preserve, pack correctly, and deliver to FedEx, cells that have likely now died, my dreams of having a legacy with my precious cat are also dead.
Throughout last night and this morning, I have called FedEx countless times, talking to a different person every time, and every time, I get the same platitudes. "There was a delay." "We apologize for the inconvenience, but there's a high volume of packages due to the holiday." But this wasn't a present. This wasn't someone's Playstation or espresso machine. This was a box literally containing life and death, and you failed to deliver on the incredible commitment made by myself, the veterinary experts who performed the procedures to collect those samples, and the genetic scientists who were counting on this package to arrive on time to be usable for their business.
I am so incredibly disappointed and heartbroken at your company's lack of commitment and compassion for such a desperately sensitive experience, and you should be utterly ashamed at the immense density of failure FedEx has exhibited here. I am sharing this story publicly on every platform that has the space to contain it and with every executive that has a through line to their customers. I want you to be haunted by and reflective of this story the next time you make a fiscal decision or productivity improvement plan.
This is what's at stake. read more