Trading Pet Peeves

I understand that it's a "stats thing," but the fact that other states seem to have no obvious issues (so "0 incidents" when packages are not broken) vs. PA having a large number of incidents (way more than 1) means...There's a big change/rate increase in PA packages vs NOT PA. Still, it's enough to give me pause shipping to PA, even if it is only one out of every 100 beer packages that go through PA.

 

I have by far the most faith in USPS in my area. They ask if its liquid and I say yes (they actually don't ask anymore, just make you click yes or no on screen). They never asked any further questions when I say yes anymore. They used to sometimes ask and I would say maple syrup.

 

There's one lady I always see at my USPS store, and she's gotten use to me. I told a big story about my father, homemade marinades, and the company. It works well around holidays, but also for other times of the year, saying that we're sending them to someone for their vacation or a party they are having or so on and so forth. She's all a smiles now, although at first she seemed oddly standoffish.

 

Even if it’s only 1 of 100 boxes that has issues with liquid sloshing sounds... it’s still enough to make me want to mitigate that risk.

I don’t know anyone who lives in PA who has had problems, and have never encountered a trader who has even brought it up as a potential issue. So to me it’s odd that one would be concerned about shipping to PA, but not about masking liquid sounds. I guess it’s just the nature of the beast, a sloshing package gets inspected and confiscated here and there, it doesn’t registeron everyone’s radar. But a few (likely) isolated incidents happen in PA and some take notice.

 

Do you know of a case where a sloshing box was confiscated? I have never heard of such a case. Only boxes I have ever heard being destroyed by Fedex/UPS were ones where a bottle or can leaked.

 

While I don't know the exact reason how they knew, FedEx refused to send a package because they knew it contained alchohol. Nothing was damaged and it did not even leave the initial drop off. I just noticed after a couple days the package had not moved anywhere. My trade partner picked it back up from FedEx and sent it out with ups.

 

Does seem like a case where they heard something and decide to check.

I never drop boxes at official locations for any of the 3 senders.
Fedex I drop at my local office max
UPS at a local affiliate
USPS at my local Raley's grocery store

I figure workers at these types of places couldn't care less what's in the boxes.

 

When I move back to a more densly populated area, I plan to do this most of the time myself. Right now, where I live, my only option is a mom/pop shop, and official location (for USPS). Since mom/pop shop is the only location for UPS/FedEx in town, I am more careful. It's wierd. She still gives me the harry eyeball when she can hear sloshing, EVEN THOUGH i've shipped "official alcohol requiring a signature" with her. Why give me the haireyball if I am going to do that?

 

Yes

 

Any chance you could elaborate? A "yes" is not very helpful.

 

When the name you beers they have but half of them are not for trade!!!!! Name only the ones that are for trade; if they are not then do not tell me.

Also when you do a trade and then automatically they assume that you are getting them laced up with future trades.

 

Forgot to also those who demand fresh or recent releases.

 

I've been called on the phone by a USPS postmaster after a box wasn't delivered and I submitted a missing package request through their site. A bottle broke and he wouldn't deliver it or ship it back since they now knew it was alcohol. After playing dumb and apologizing for the inconvenience, he apologized for USPS breaking the bottle and allowed my trading partner to come pick up the rest of the box (2 cans, 3 bottles).

On top of that, the only other time I've had a bottle break is with USPS. I'll only ship cans with USPS as a result, bottles through UPS. Obviously everyone's mileage is going to vary between carriers.

 

Would you rather send them old hops instead of fresh?

When trading hops with someone new, I always ask for fresh cans. I've been sent old cans and regretted not asking for dates

 

Well, there was a box, and fedex confiscated it because they heard sloshing, investigated and found alcohol... or so they claimed. I could try to remember dates if you think that sort of detail would be helpful.

 

Dates, box weight and dimension would help me. Also, cans or bottles? Size of cans/bottles would help me visualize your box.

Thanks in advance.

 

The US Postal Inspector is law enforcement. In theory they could arrest you or cite you for a violation. It would be prosecuted in federal court by the U. S. Attorney's office.
That said, the postal inspector doesn't remotely care about beer. They are looking for guns, drugs and explosives. Beer is so far from their radar.

 

Also RE: UPSP, there'll be random times when 2 Day out of Chicago will actually take 3 days but they won't update the tracking to reflect that until late in the day it was scheduled to be delivered. Sucks having to explain to your partner why their box didn't get delivered on Saturday like it was supposed to and will now be Monday. I always give myself an extra day when shipping USPS. That's why I said YMMV among carriers as this could be just a Chicago USPS facility issue.

 

Chicago USPS sucks. If you google USPS issues, you'll see chicago come up a LOT.

I had a package (one of the only times I have sent a rare bottle) go missing for multiple days (i think almost a week?) because it was sent to the wrong facility, then took forever to get to the correct facility, just to be delivered. USPS tracking showed no movement. I had to spend like 90 minutes on the phone to figure out that in their system they still knew where it was.

 

Also from what I have read mail sent via USPS requires a warrant for the postal inspector to open it whereas UPS and FedEx can open whatever they want for whatever reason. I can't imagine that liquid sloshing around in a box is probable cause to search someones mail.