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Horror on Nantucket as UPS fails to reserve delivery slots on the ferries

Glitzy Nantucket-dwellers face a summer of severe inconvenience after the island's main courier forgot to reserve slots on its ferry service, which have now sold out.

Locals and visitors planning to spend part of the busy summer season on the well-heeled Massachusetts island face having to do so without delivery from UPS. That came after the delivery giant's blundering bosses ignored the usual advance offer to reserve slots for its trucks on Nantucket's Steam Authority ferries. 

Upmarket shops on the WASP-filled island, which sits 30 miles off the Cape Cod coast, now face shelves devoid of the designer goods usually snapped up by vacationers. 

Nantucket visitors and residents have also been warned they're far less likely to be able to get goods they order online delivered, with UPS serving as the main Amazon courier to the island.

Resident William D Cohan thinks the pushiness of well-connected residents - who include Secretary of State John Kerry, and Google boss Eric Schmidt -  will ultimately solve the issue.

The writer told the Boston Globe:  'In Nantucket, if you make enough noise, they deal with it. The summer folks are going to have to get their twee outfits they ordered from Hermès online.'

But Steam Authority says its ability to lay on extra boats is limited by the number of vessels it runs, as well as staffing levels, meaning there is no obvious or easy fix to the snafu. 

According to the Globe, the blunder appears to be the result of an oversight on the part of UPS. 

Last fall, Steam Authority sent out its usual advance notice to courier firms offering them first refusal on bookings on its vessels traveling to and from the island. 

They did so well-ahead of the release of summer season ferry slots to the general public, which are released in January for travel between May and October.

UPS failed to respond, and also ignored a follow-up from Steam Authority, until someone finally realized what was happening, and sent a panicked response - but by then it was too late.