HOUSTON – The Amaya family has spent the last few days waiting by the door for UPS to arrive. But after 10 days and two delays, they had just about lost hope.
Each year Jill Amaya tries to do everything right when it comes to holiday shopping. She shops early, gets a head start on wrapping, and then ships all of her family gifts to Houston before they arrive for the holidays.
"I shop before Thanksgiving, so I can ship the packages early, because the last 20 years I have had to ship the packages, and I make sure they get there in plenty of time," said Jill Amaya, a UPS customer.
On Dec. 13, she went to UPS in North Carolina and shipped gifts for their entire family, in hopes that they would be here in Houston before they arrived on the 22nd.
"We had a big disappointment when Jill arrived on Sunday morning with her family, her packages had not arrived yet," said Penny Amaya, Jill's sister in-law.
And when Christmas Eve rolled around, they had pretty much lost hope that the gifts would ever get here.
"It is very disappointing because now my kids have no presents from us to open for Christmas, nothing for stockings," said Amaya.
Instead of the stress-free vacation this was supposed to be, the Amaya family has spent the last few days making phone calls, checking emails and tracking packages hoping the gifts will be here in time for Christmas morning.
"We keep hoping every time the doorbell rings that it is UPS delivering the packages," said Amaya.
After Local 2 saw that their packages had been stuck in the Stafford processing center since the 19th, we also contacted UPS for an explanation. Susan Rosenberg, a UPS spokesperson, said they are working diligently to make sure gifts are delivered on time but with the holiday spike, some packages might be delayed.
And just when the Amaya family had given up all hope that the presents would arrive, there was a knock at the door.
So everything ended up working out, but they did notice several things missing out of the boxes, for which they will now have to make a claim.