After-Christmas Sales Starts; UPS Blasted for Christmas Delivery Failure; American Hostage Pleads for U.S. Help; Americans to Congress: You're the Worst
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: LeBron's amazing dunk after dunk after dunk. King James heating up the Lakers Miami style. And this. Queen B, Bieber, "Breaking Bad," the must-see, most talked about, tweeted, Facebooked, Vined, Instagramed, Snapchated entertainment stories that got us talking on 2013. NEWSROOM starts now. Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. Christmas presents open. Wrapping paper discarded. Now it's time to buy more stuff, and retailers are certainly ready. They're offering massive discounts to get you through the door. Savings up to 70 percent in stores like Saks Fifth Avenue. Best Buy is offering a free iPhone 5c with a two-year contract. Amazon has 32 inch TVs for just $180. And Sears is offering 40 percent off appliances over $500 if you pay with your Sears credit card. In the meantime thousands of angry families are still waiting for their gifts to arrive. UPS is in full damage control mode as irate gift givers take to social media blasting the shipper over ruined Christmases. We're covering both stories for you this morning. Margaret Conley is outside Macy's Harold Square in New York, eyeing those deep discounts. And Nick Valencia is eyeing the outrage at UPS. But let's start with you, Margaret. Lots of people in the stores?</s>MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, today is the day for deals and discounts. Now Christmas sales were down about 3 percent compared to last year, but that hasn't stopped a lot of stores from extending their hours and offering more discounts. You mentioned a few of them. Toys 'R' Us, they're open for 14 hours today. Wal-Mart, they're offering sales 25 to 50 percent off, and JCPenney, they're giving out coupons. Macy's right here in Harold Square, they were open at 6:00 a.m. this morning. And here's what the shoppers had to say.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From Australia. And we're here to do a little shopping and feel the tourist attractions. And yes, we're going on a helicopter flight over New York today.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we're from Sweden and we're going back home today. And we had one shirt and it was the wrong size, the wrong figure. Everything was totally wrong. So we had</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go to Saks to do -- you know, biggest store.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hit that store. My son is at Champs and I'm over here getting some things, you know, some last-minute gifts, and we're just having a good time doing it.</s>CONLEY: Now those returns can be costly for retailers, Carol. On average, retailers can get about 2 to 10 percent in returns.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Margaret Conley, thank so much. And while excited shoppers are hitting stores, enraged customers are lashing out at UPS. Many gift givers are treating the shipping firm like the Grinch who stole Christmas going online to vent what they believe is an epic fail. UPS couldn't get all the packages delivered in time for the holiday, blaming the weather and high demand. Don't blame the drivers, though. One driver told "USA Today" he delivered 505 packages on Monday alone. He said, this has been the worst Christmas ever. Some people are pointing fingers at customers. Trade Tricks tweeted, "People should shop and ship earlier. Don't say #upsfail for poor planning. There are 364 days in a year so take responsibility for your actions." CNN's Nick Valencia joins us now and -- I'm sure UPS is hoping lots of customers feel that same way but there's a lot of anger out there, too.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So many enraged. And this is an issue for thousands of people. We've heard from a lot of them on social media and thousands of viewers still looking out your front windows waiting for your UPS driver to arrive with those Christmas gifts that didn't quite make it under the Christmas tree. UPS and FedEx apologizing to scores of angry customers today, but the two companies say it's not all their fault.</s>VALENCIA (voice-over): UPS trucks are back out in full force this morning trying to deliver packages that were supposed to be delivered by Christmas morning.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I waited around for hours and hours for it to show up and it never did.</s>VALENCIA: Thousands of gifts not delivered on time waiting in UPS warehouses to be shipped. UPS says they've already delivered an estimated 132 million packages in the last week alone. Blaming the backlog on an unprecedented surge in online sales and bad weather. UPS released a statement saying, in part, "The volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network, immediately preceding Christmas so some shipments were delayed." But many are still unhappy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're still blaming it on the ice storm which was 2 1/2 weeks ago. It's terribly disappointing because we ordered these things on December 1st.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to the front of the line after waiting for about an hour and they said it hasn't been processed yet.</s>VALENCIA: Disappointed customers stormed online customer support tweeting, got same message. Still waiting for the response from this morning along with my granddaughter's Christmas gift. And, "Busy during December? Who would have thought it, #BunchofClowns."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing today?</s>VALENCIA: UPS isn't the only delivery company experiencing delays. People lined up at this FedEx shipment center in Oregon on Christmas day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They left me a note and I thank God they're open so I can go to my parents and give my mom her gift.</s>VALENCIA: Meanwhile, UPS says they expect the vast majority of packages to be delivered today.</s>VALENCIA: And it's not just UPS and FedEx that are in trouble with their customers, it's those online companies, Carol, that rely heavily on their services. Amazon.com, for instance, they say they're going to be refunding shipping charges, sending out gift cards, $20 gift cards. So who knows what the estimated impact for their company is going to be financially but they're trying to make up for this blunder. A lot of people very upset this morning -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: You know, if they had just sent out some kind of message saying --</s>VALENCIA: Right.</s>COSTELLO: You know, we're backed up. Your gifts may not get there in time, just a warning.</s>VALENCIA: And it's not just gifts, Carol. It's medications for people with diabetes, insulin, important medications that people rely on. So this is a big deal. It goes beyond the superficial Christmas gift.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. And we did reach out to FedEx and UPS this morning. No response yet.</s>VALENCIA: We're waiting to hear back.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, we are. Nick Valencia, thanks so much.</s>VALENCIA: You bet.</s>COSTELLO: A Christmas cruise has taken a turn for the worst. A Polar Expedition ship is trapped in ice near Antarctica. None of the 74 passengers on board has been hurt and three ice breaking ships are now heading their way. Help could be at least a day away, though, but luckily the passengers have plenty of food on board while they wait. It is the day after Christmas and thousands of people are waking up to another day without power, but there is some good news for those in Michigan. The power is slowly being turned back on. Power crews are braving ice and freezing temperatures to get those lights back on and the heat, too. One man says instead of calling to yell at the power company, do something nice for the hard-working crews.</s>RANDY HARLESS, LOST POWER IN STORM: The more you get upset about it, try to argue with somebody at customer service to get the power back on. It's not going to help. Just wait. Let it happen. If you see a crew out here working, you know, treat them nice. Bring them some coffee. You know, see what you can do for them because it's cold out here. They're stuck out here. So be nice to them.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. It's not their fault. Chad Myers is keeping an eye on the cold and icy conditions. He's live in New York this morning. Good morning, Chad.</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Carol, good morning. Not only was it icy and the power is out, but it has just been brutally cold. Look at the last three mornings in Detroit, 23, 12, and 11. We're up towards Burlington. This entire area, right through Toronto, where Hydro Canada just put so many power lines back up I didn't even they can count them all. All the way back up to Burlington where the morning low yesterday was zero. Now it is going to be warming. This is the coldest of the rest of the week. We warm up a little bit. I'm talking three to four degrees. So barely getting anywhere. But when the power lines come back, at least your heat comes back. Silver City up in the UP for the upers, 16 inches of snow in 24 hours. At least they had power there. Some snow coming into New York, into Binghamton, also into Scranton, into Buffalo. No big surprise the snow is going to move into Buffalo. Could see some delays across the northeast. There were some deicing. I think you're going to have to get some of that light snow off the plane's wings anyway. And then on up toward Maine we'll see some snow. The next couple of clippers coming down from the northwest. I do believe there is a potential for a storm to run up the East Coast and really mangle Sunday afternoon and Monday traffic here especially if it gets cold enough. We'll have to see. Every progressive storm is just a couple of degrees colder so what was a rain event two weeks ago will now be a snow event as we see highs only in the 30s, even Chicago 15. But it feels like right now in the windy city it is windy. It feels like zero -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Just makes me shiver. Chad Myers, many thanks. Also this morning, a heartbreaking plea from an American who was taken hostage in Pakistan more than two years ago. In a video released by al Qaeda on Christmas day a former U.S. government contractor, Warren Weinstein, calls on President Obama to negotiate his freedom.</s>WARREN WEINSTEIN, AMERICAN TAKEN HOSTAGE IN PAKISTAN: Now I need my government. It seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten.</s>COSTELLO: CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with more on this story. Good morning.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Worth recalling what happened to this man working in Lahore, Pakistan as a U.S. government contractor. 72-year-old Warren Weinstein was taken captive, kidnapped out of his house when gunmen broke in and overpowered his security team. The head of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, claimed responsibility for that attack. There have been previous videos, photos, signs of life but this latest video shows Weinstein really in pretty poor shape. He is a man who is making a plea for help. Have a listen.</s>WEINSTEIN: I'm now over 72 years of age. I'm not in good health. I have a heart condition. I suffer from acute asthma and the years have taken their toll. I have been cut off from my family. My wife, who's over 70, my two daughters, my two grandchildren, my son-in-law and perhaps new members of the family whom I have never met. Needles to say, I have been suffering deep anxiety every part of every day, not knowing what is happening to my family, not knowing how they are and because I am not with them.</s>STARR: This 13-minute video obviously made under some conditions of duress as he is being held. No response yet from the Obama administration, but he does make that direct plea to the president, Secretary of State John Kerry and the American public for help in getting him out of there. Al Qaeda has been asking for a release of its prisoners in exchange. No reason to believe that the U.S. position has changed, which is it does not negotiate -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon this morning. Thanks so much. Still to come on the NEWSROOM. "Duck Dynasty" and white privilege Jesse Jackson takes aim at the show's star and his controversial comments next.