Dear John Moorehead,
RE: The FedEx station in Seekonk, MA who is the freight hub for Tessier’s Hardware & Homebrew, in Pawtucket RI is opening all packages headed to the home-brew store. They’re returning all packages where they find beer.
We all know you are a volunteer, and we can only imagine how much time this takes away from your personal life. So be bold, do your best, and let the chips fall where they may…
You need to get ahead of this situation. Working behind the scenes is not enough. You need to explain what is happening, what is the plan as of today Saturday, be clear that the plan may change, and that you will send an update on Monday and further updates during the week.
Here are my humble suggestions:
Immediately, let all participants know that this is happening, and tell them what the plan is for now. For example (this is just an example, my only point is that a communication needs to happen now…)
SUGGESTED TEXT
The competition will go ahead. We do realize that many shipped their last bottles. We are really sorry but we do not have a solution for this problem at the moment.
If you already shipped entries via FedEx and you have extra beer, plan to bottle immediately and ship this week via UPS. We cannot guarantee that UPS will work but it has worked so far, but we do not have a better alternative at the moment. We will send an update to all participants on Monday morning.
We are presently working with FedEx to resolve the situation. We judge it is better not to do this negotiation in public. Please do NOT try to shame FedEx in public forums as this may backfire.
Again, we are sorry this has happened, and we will do our best to plan for it next time.
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