Can you remember the panic that led up to the year 2000? The threat of Y2K was real, and many feared catastrophic mass IT outages. Thankfully, January 1, 2000, arrived without much fanfare. July 19, 2024, however, was a different story.

Before last week, you had probably never heard of CrowdStrike. The company describes itself as a "global cybersecurity leader with an advanced cloud-native platform for protecting endpoints, cloud workloads, identities, and data." Now, everyone has heard of the company because a routine update it deployed crashed computer systems worldwide.

Microsoft estimates around 8.5 million devices were affected, resulting in thousands of canceled flights, companies unable to access payroll, news unable to broadcast, and surgeries delayed. UPS and FedEx were among the companies affected, and warned customers that there may be delays due to the CrowdStrike outage.

Today, we'll examine how UPS and FedEx responded to the outage and discover how you can respond when packages aren't delivered as promised.

FedEx, UPS, and Crowdstrike

When work began on July 19, the "blue screen of death" greeted users as they booted up and prepared to start the day. UPS and FedEx were not immune to the effects of the error. Here's how each carrier handled the outage:

FedEx sets a temporary alert on its website

FedEx alerted customers of the issue on its service alerts page, "FedEx has experienced disruptions throughout our networks due to a global IT outage experienced by a third-party software vendor." They assured customers, "Contingency plans have been activated to mitigate impacts, but potential delays are possible for package deliveries with a delivery commitment of July 19, 2024."

UPS shared the news with CBS

In a statement to CBS Money Watch, UPS shared, "A third-party software outage is impacting some UPS computer systems in the U.S. and Europe. At this time, our airline continues to operate effectively and our drivers are on the roads delivering for customers." They told customers, "We are continuing to work to resolve all issues as quickly as possible; there may be some service delays."

The worst possible timing?

The outage occurred two days after Amazon's record-breaking Prime Day event. And Amazon wasn't the only one raking in the sales. According to Adobe Analytics, American consumers spent $14.2 billion online between July 16 and 17.

That's a lot of parcels that need to be shipped.

Were you affected by a late delivery?

Whether your late delivery occurred during the CrowdStrike outage or any other time, parcel audits are necessary for every shipping strategy.

ShipRx's parcel audit software checks over 40 factors on every shipment you send and automatically requests refunds from the carriers for any service failures.

Getting started is quick and easy, with no commitment or credit card required. We only charge a percentage of the refunds you receive— meaning you'll never pay a dime if you do not see reimbursements from UPS and FedEx. Fill out this form and start saving today!